Alice had taught her how to dance with Maud a few times. It never seemed like it would be so important until the moment Aurie felt Draka’s calloused hand lift hers as he swept her away from Pierre, until the warmth of his other, so slight in its pressure through the thickness of the side of her bodice, warmed the curve of her waist.
His grin was subtle, his golden hazel eyes, gripping the rings of green that held them, piercing deep into her gaze, as if he were searching beyond what he could see. As if he were searching beyond the milky paints they had brushed on her cheeks to make them seem rounder, beyond the darkening of her long lashes, beyond the rouge on her lips. She wondered with each moment, with each step to the drumming music that plummeted her heart into a thunderous storm she felt in those fingers grasping his, what those piercing eyes and pursed brow were seeing. She wondered if he wanted what he saw. She wondered if she was enough to tear his heart away from the one he had mourned longer than her daughter had lived, whom he now knew was alive.
Regardless of what or whom it was that he had loved, she knew that his love was worth far more than any she understood or experienced. How could she? Here she was, having cast off her mourning colors, with all the blessings of those around her, of the man she had loved for so long, and she knew it was mere minutes in comparison to how long Draka had held onto his love for her. He had forsaken so many in those years. Women who threw themselves at his feet. Queens. He could have any woman he wanted and he turned them all away. But here he was, sweeping her across the floor of his Great Hall, looking deep into her eyes, unable to say a word but his expressions filled with details she was now studying, yearning to understand.
Does he want me as much as I want him?
His hand on her waist moved to help lift the elbow of the one she holding petticoat from tugging under her feet. She had forgotten to breathe.
His eyes never moved from hers. Nearly unblinking. Until the pursing brows softened and his lips parted along with the fading of the piercing intensity in those golden orbs staring so deeply into her soul. He had found what he was looking for or he had found that there wasn’t anything there. She couldn’t tell which.
She tried not to tremble so much as they followed the rhythm of the music. She forced a grin, hoping, praying inwardly that he would return it as warmly as she offered it. She wanted more than a grin, she wanted to latch onto him and never let go, but a grin was manageable. Less sinful. By barely a hair.
Draka’s throat bounced with a hard swallow and his gaze drifted to her lips. Aurie’s feet were no longer moving. Her heart was noise in her head, drumming and overwhelming all the senses that weren’t being filled by him. The skin of his fingers and palm cupping her hand, the warmth of his grip on her crooked elbow, the odd expression on his face, the way his lips had partially parted to match how hers had, the smell of his sweat and the rosewood scent wafting from his hair that filled her nose, the taste of his breath that gently tickled her nose and lips; all else had been overwhelmed by him and him alone.
He released her elbow and took a step back, carrying her hand with him until he bowed nearly doubled over, touching her finger tips with little more than the rush of the air being drawn into those lips she wanted to leap for. She had never seen such a bow before.
When he straightened, she swooned with heat and a sheepish, knowing, and slight grin. He hadn’t let go of her hand.
Once again, their eyes met and his pierced into hers from a face she couldn’t quite understand. It was a shield against her, she knew, meant to be stoic and uninviting. Or perhaps it was meant to only appear that way so others didn’t assume more than a simple dance meant to bring Enya and Pierre finally together.
Draka pressed something smooth and hard into her hand, small enough to fit into her palm, the hint of a grin forming. His thumb bent her fingers around it and he let go.
She blinked after him as he turned away from her. It was only then that she realized he had led them to the side of the dancers—that there were others still in the Hall with them—as she felt herself breathe again.
She wanted to maybe talk to him, ask him, spend some time with him. He turned from her and waded through the dancers toward the platform. Thankfully, he took his seat with a smug grin and lifted a stein to take a drink while he observed the dancing guests.
Aurie pursed her brow as she took in her surroundings as if she had just awakened from a long sleep in a foreign place. She thumbed what he had placed in her hand. It was smooth as glass with wrinkles and creases in jagged lines across its thin width.
She held up her palm to look at it and everything swayed around her.
Her mouth gaped, but no air entered it.
Her head swam and her heart leapt through her chest.
Her knees nearly crumbled from beneath her.
He had placed a smooth, dark arrow-shaped black stone in her hand that reflected her awed face, her own glossy pale eyes, back at her as clear as a mirror.
She cradled it in both hands to her chest, beaming as she steadied herself. Her eyes rose beyond the dancers to his chair, where he raised his stein to her before taking another drink.
She nodded as she tucked it away as if it were her most precious of secrets. But it wasn’t a secret, she realized in that same moment, by the way Maud had narrowed her eyes at her beneath a crinkled brow from the guiding hands of a fresh-faced Cleric. She felt the tingling in her bones of the Holy Spirit within her, softly soothing her guilt. Not with words thundering through her, but a reassuring hand on her shoulder, warming her.
“You look like you just saw Jesus himself,” Enya eyed her suspiciously from a nearby table.
Aurie bit the side of her lip before she turned to her. The reassurance was fading back into guilt by the time she met the woman’s gaze.
“You didn’t kiss him,” Enya grinned. “Proud of you.”
“I have to admit,” Aurie sat in a chair at the table near hers with a bashful grin. She still had her hand over the bulge of the stone in her dress. She wasn’t sure she could ever take her hand away from it. “It was hard to do. I still need to pray for forgiveness for thinking about it, don’t I?”
Enya nodded, a twinkle in her eyes, “Yep.”
Aurie couldn’t help but smile so widely that she was certain her eyes were nearly as hooded as Enya’s. “How long until He gets tired of forgiving me for the same sin?”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Seven times seventy times,” Enya chuckled. “Or never. You just keep doing your best. I have good news, though.”
“Your dance went well with Pierre?”
“Oh, yeah,” Enya pointed with a lean to Pierre trying to carry a stein overflowing with frothy liquid that looked to be a bit too heavy for him while holding a tipping wine glass clumsily in the other, coming their way. “Don’t mean to rub it in, but I intend to get myself a good kiss before the night is through. But that’s not the good news I have.”
“Oh?”
Maud had excused herself from the Cleric, her eyes darting between him and Aurie with that narrow-eyed look. More guilt, only not the same as before. This one was bracing for impact.
“The King gave his official stamp on the dissolution. Cardinal Thomas arrives with Queen Isabella day after tomorrow. If she comes with as many as we hope, he’ll decree it as official by the Church and the King will do what needs to be done to know if God agrees.”
Aurie’s neck stretched though her chin lowered toward that stone she had her hand pressed against. The smile stayed wide and hopeful.
Enya raised her brows at her. “I suggest you spend all the time you can between now and then learning everything you can about how to defend yourself with Nina because the moment that it is official, we’re going to be in for it.”
Aurie’s smile faded. Her eyes widened. “Can we prevent that?”
“No, not really,” Enya shrugged. “But, all is as God Wills it to be.”
“I was told by Gerard once that Draka turned every woman away, never had another when he thought his wife was dead all these years,” Aurie frowned. “If God Wills it to be like this, then…”
“One,” Enya shook, “Don’t question why God does anything. Two, does it matter? We’re taking the Abbey and plugging that hole. And you, Paladin Regent, are going to be here with a force to protect you, the King, and your daughter while we do it. And if God didn’t intend for this to happen this way, then why would you be the first woman, according to everyone who has known that man, to have gotten him willing to look a father in the face and write, plain and clear, ‘Divorce me from that bitch’?”
Aurie laughed, “He didn’t write that.”
“It was what he meant,” Enya winked. Then, “What did he give you? You haven’t been able to let go of it.”
Aurie looked down at her hand pressed against the bulge above her heart in her bodice and shook her head. “You wouldn’t understand, but it means a lot. More than anything he could ever have given me otherwise.”
“He loves you,” Enya drew Aurie’s gaze. “The question, I’m curious if I’ll ever find the answer to, is whether you were brought here for him or he for you. Either way, there’s no doubt in my mind that God put you two together as a thorn in her side.”
“I’ll be more than that when I get the chance,” Aurie’s hand went to the pearl and diamonds draping across her chest from the necklace, covering the scar on her neck. She blinked it away, “I’m going to bed. Enjoy your time with Pierre. And I want to know how you manhandle that kiss out of him.”
“I don’t kiss and tell,” Enya stuck her tongue out. “At least, I don’t think I will.”
Aurie giggled at that as she made her way along the side of the dance floor toward the door. Maud was the one who stopped her with a haughty glance up and down.
“What happened?” Maud looked her over.
“What do you mean?” Aurie smiled but her brows were pressed together.
“I saw you two,” Maud narrowed, stepping in her path. She was paces from the door. A few more steps and she would be on her way to her bed where she could stare at that stone until dawn. “What is going on? What haven’t you told me?”
“Nothing, really,” Aurie tried to sound dismissive. She started to go around her.
Maud shifted into her way again.
Aurie laughed, “What has gotten into you?”
“What did he give you?” She was glaring. Suspicious.
Aurie blinked at her. “None of your business. It’s between me and Draka. When it becomes your business, then it will be your business. Until then…” She started, but Maud stopped her.
“Draka is my business.”
“Is he?” Aurie blinked again.
“And so are you. What are you two up to?” Maud looked her over. Head down to her petticoats. And her mouth formed a wide ‘O’ and she covered it with a hand as her eyes bulged into round saucers. “YOU!”
Aurie stiffened. She couldn’t tell if it was accusatory, happy, or furious. She cleared her throat and took a step back.
“What did he give you? Show me.” Maud held out her hand. Her eyes darted to her outstretched palm, “Let me see it.”
Aurie tightened her lip. “Now, I’m still your mother and you will not…”
“Let me see it,” Maud tapped a finger in her palm. “He gave you a stone, didn’t he?”
Aurie never meant for her lips to curl, nor the sudden burst of joy that made her beam nearly to tears right before her daughter’s eyes. She dug out the black stone and Maud gasped.
“I know that you’re probably mad at—”
Maud blinked at it. “And Pa?”
“I will always love Balor,” Aurie narrowed her eyes at her. “For the rest of my life, I will never not love your father. But that doesn’t mean I can’t love Draka, too. Just like you loving Draka doesn’t take away your love for your father.”
Maud nodded, poking the stone with a single finger. Then she looked up with eyes filling with water that were brightened by the reflections of the many candles and braziers lighting the Hall. Her voice was somewhere between a whine and a laugh, “It’s a really nice rock.”
“Yeah, it is,” Aurie put a hand on Maud’s cheek to wipe away the tears before they began to fall, but they never spilt from her lashes. Instead, they both laughed until their foreheads touched. “Will you be alright if I start accepting rocks from Draka?”
“Oh, I’m putting a stop to it as soon as I can,” Maud said between guffaws. “It’s an awful thing to turn into a tradition.”
“It really is!” Aurie was crying with her laughter, their foreheads still pressed together. “Come on, help me find a good spot for it.”
