Page 50 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

Archer leaned back against the wooden beams, crossing his arms. “You think of yourself as untouchable, and I admire that.”

I scoffed, “why? Did you think I would fall onto my knees, begging for a taste of the majestic Kingstone heir?”

“You think I’m majestic?” Archer looked amused.

“I just needed a word to describe your ego.”

“Sure. And no, I didn’t peg you to fold for anyone giving you a piece of their soul in the form of poetry. Now,” Archer pushed off the beam and tossed me a helmet he grabbed from a hook on the wall. “Tell me if you’ve ever sat on a horse before, Fallen Star?”

At the nickname, a laugh slipped past my lips, and I let it go, shaking my head at his question. Archer stepped with one foot on a stool that stood beside the animal and swung his other foot easily over the other side, gripping the bridle. When he was all seated, his attention turned back to me, and he held out a hand to where the stool stood.

I shook my head. “No.”

“There is somewhere we can experiment with the ability of your sight.”

I shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with the thought of getting on the back of this monstrous horse. The animal was huge, and I had always had such great respect for horses that it developed into a fear.

My mother held horses behind our manor, and I had sneaked in at a naïve young age. I wanted to feed them the apples that had fallen off the tree in our backyard. What I didn’t know was that one of the horses was once wild and was as scared ofhumans as I was of them since then. He had tried to kick me as I went too close, and I fell back, breaking my wrist.

“What if I’m scared of horses?”

Archer nodded towards the bucket filled with apples and carrots. “Give her one. You’ll see she won’t bite you.”

“But what if she does? Can’t we just walk, please?”

“No. Now, grab a carrot,” he commanded, but didn’t raise his voice.

Just say no and walk away, Dorothee.

But no, I wouldn’t do that. I wasn’t a coward, and since I was already growing so much in this place, I could overcome my fear of horses just as easily.Easy. Yeah, this was going to be easy. Or maybe he was joking and wanted me to get bitten by his horse.

I pulled out the longest carrot I could find to make sure I had enough space between my hand and the teeth.

“What’s her name?” I asked, waiting until he gave me an answer before I made my next move.

“Ebony.”

I frowned at him, expecting anything but that dull of a name. “How creative to name yourblackhorse after a shade ofblack.”

“My sister tried to convince me to name her Black Beauty. Would you have liked that name more?”

“Suddenly, Ebony sounds like such a lovely name,” I murmured, and he chuckled lowly.

Stepping closer, her eyes moved to the carrot, and I held it out towards her, ensuring there was plenty of space between us.

“Hi Ebony, I’m Dorothee, and I promise you I’m actually really nice and would never hurt you, so I’d really appreciate it if you could return that promise, since I rather like my hand,” I begged, almost cringing as she took the carrot. I felt like the girl in my family’s stables again, but instead of letting her anger out on me, Ebony licked the vegetable before taking it fully and eating it in peace.

“I told you. Now hurry up, or we’ll be late.” Archer held out his hand once more. This time, I accepted his invitation, stepping onto the stool, and he helped me to sit behind him.

I was grateful that it had grown so cold outside that I’d decided to wear trousers instead of my skirt to my uniform today.

“You can leave your bag in the stables. No one will come here today but me,” Archer said, and with shaky hands, I pushed my bag off my shoulder, throwing it down next to the stool.

He reached for a helmet dangling off a hook and handed it to me. “Set the helmet on, and then we’ll leave.”

“Why do I have to wear a helmet, but you don’t?”

“Because I’m not trembling like a poor lamb knowing it’s to be butchered by the end of the day.”

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