Page 73 of Ties of Dust

“Flora?”

She looked at the prince. “I thought…I thought I saw someone. Back where that man with the horse was before.”

“Who?”

“I can’t be sure, it was only a brief glimpse, and he’s gone now. But it looked like…” She glanced up to make sure the other guards couldn’t hear. “It looked like Sir Keavling.”

Cassius stiffened, his eyes flying to the fountain in question, to search fruitlessly for the nobleman.

“Come on,” he said, his tone dark. “We’re leaving.”

He placed a hand on the small of her back, ushering her toward the guard who still watched their horses. Flora didn’t miss the way the other guards looked from theprince’s hand to each other, but she didn’t pull away. She didn’t want to get separated again.

Her stomach was in knots as they rode back to the castle. Had it been Sir Keavling, or had her suspicion of the man caused her mind to put his face on some unimportant stranger with a similar build? If he had been present, it felt sinister.

When they reached the castle, she was relieved to see Cassius make for his suite, and didn’t protest when he ushered her inside.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sinking into a chair as soon as they were alone. “I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get separated from the group.”

Cassius made a noise of protest in his throat. “You have no need to apologize.”

“I feel that I do,” she contradicted. “There was something off about that man. I noticed him at the fountain earlier, and I think the way he blocked me was intentional. If he’d been seeking to harm you, I made you vulnerable by forcing you to come back to—”

“Stop!” The passion in Cassius’s voice drew her up short. “Stop, Flora, I hate it when you talk like that, like you have no thought for your own safety, only mine.”

“Cassius…I’m a guard. Putting your safety before mine is my entire role.”

He wasn’t listening, striding up the length of his receiving room and back. “I don’t like it,” he said. “Any of it. Do you really think it was Sir Keavling you saw?”

“Yes.” Flora folded her hands on her lap, trying to stop her leg from jiggling with her nervous energy. “I can’t prove it, but I think it was. I feel uneasy, Cassius. The incident with that man and his horse, it felt like…” She hesitated. “Well, like someone was testing our tether.”

“Curse the man, why is he always there, always watching?” Cassius muttered.

He was still striding up and down the room, almost as agitated as he’d been when they’d entered the hedge. Abruptly, he turned, dropping to one knee in front of where Flora sat.

“I’m sorry that happened, Flora.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does,” he contradicted. “When I realized we’d been separated, and I saw that man grab your arm to keep you trapped…I can hardly explain the anger I felt.”

He’d reached for her with the words, and his hand now sat on top of hers where it rested on her knee. The contact was making it hard for Flora to keep her thoughts in order.

“I can.”

Flora’s hand shook a little under the prince’s, but her voice was steady. It was time to say what had been circling her thoughts since the last time he’d showed such a disproportionate level of distress, during their encounter in the hedge spiral. It wouldn’t be easy to get the words out, but it needed to be done.

“What do you mean?” Cassius demanded.

Flora drew in a slow breath before answering. “I mean that I think there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for the strength of emotion you might be feeling.” Her eyes flicked to his hand on her knee, then back to his face. “For any emotion you might be feeling where I’m concerned.”

Cassius’s eyes searched hers, the silence so tense she could taste it.

“And what explanation is that?” His voice was deep, the words spoken slowly and clearly.

“The tether,” Flora blurted out. “It’s the tether foolingyou into thinking that you have stronger emotions than you do.”

“What?” Cassius said it as though she’d lost her mind.

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