Adrian Silvercrest's Arc

Chapter 23 of 23

The midwife had a sister two lanes over with a spare room and a good stove. That was where they went. Adrian carried Elara down the lane himself. Aldric followed with both children and paid the sister in coin. The room had one bed, one chair, and a window that looked at a wall. Elara did not ask for more. She slept most of the first day. When she woke, she asked for Eric. He climbed onto the bed and pressed his face to her neck. She kept one hand on Hope's back in the cradle beside her. Then she looked at Adrian. "What if she's like me," Elara said. "Just a girl. No light. No magic. And one day she's the only quiet one in the house." "Then she'll be the one I follow into the garden," Adrian said. Elara closed her eyes. She did not answer. But her hand did not leave Hope. On the second morning she tried to get up and boil water for the porridge. Her knees gave. Aldric caught her under the arms. "Sit," he said. "I've boiled water eleven mornings in a row. I know how." "Eric needs feeding." "Eric is chewing a crust and watching a fly. He is fine." She laughed once, thin, and sat. Adrian cut apples. Aldric stirred the pot. Elara held Hope against her chest and fed Eric spoonfuls from her own bowl. She did the mother work from the chair. The men did the rest around her. No one said the word lonely. They only stayed in the room. On the third morning she woke sweating. Her breath came fast and shallow. She sat up gripping the blanket and could not let go of it. "I can't," she said. "I can't do it again. I can't be alone in that house one more day." Adrian dropped the kindling. He knelt at the bed. Aldric came from the doorway with Hope on his arm. "You won't be," Adrian said. "Not one hour. Not one errand. I turn down the court before I leave you again." "You say that now." "I'll say it in front of Dan. I'll say it in front of the village. Test me." Aldric set Hope in her lap. He put his hand on Elara's shoulder and kept it there. "I heard you the first time you told me," Aldric said. "I heard you and I kept working. That was mine. I'm sorry." Elara wept. Adrian held her feet through the blanket because he could not reach her hands. Eric patted her arm the way he had seen the men do it. Her breath slowed. She looked down at Hope, then at Eric, then at the two men who had not left the room. She took the ring from the blanket and slid it onto her finger. "One more day here," she said. "Then we try home."