Page 166 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“It’s for you, you fool! You are going to race back to the Manor right now and tell him what you just told me!”
“But, his father—”
“Doesn’t have to know that you told him you were lying! Who’s he going to tell? The Duke will be gone soon, anyway. I don’t know if that means you can be together or not, but you cannot,cannot,leave that poor boy thinking you don’t love him!”
Adeline flinched.
“Because you do, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said. “I do.”No matter how foolish or impossible, I love Dimitri Von Mortimer. I fear I always will.
“Then what are you waiting for?” He threw her coat over her shoulders, eyes blazing. “And take a scarf, too. It’s cold outside.”
Adeline grinned, stepping forward to hug him.
“Go!” he hissed. “Hurry!”
Adeline kissed him on the cheek instead, and ran outside into the blistering, biting cold, the kind that punched against your chest. A thick frost clung to the grass, to every fencepost and withered leaf. She wrapped up tightly against it.
And then she began to run.
Dimitri supervised the loading of the trunks himself, with little else to do. His eyes kept drifting to the lane that led down to Adeline’s house, as if still expecting her to show up, to try and stop him.
But of course she didn’t. She didn’t even know.
It’s better this way.
Another, stronger voice inside him tried to speak, to remind him that life without Adeline had never, ever been better, but he strangled it into silence.
If he listened, he’d never be able to leave.
And for Adeline’s own sake, for Minty’s, he had to.
The old housekeeper came out to see him off, despite his instructions that the household not be dragged out to see him off in this cold. The woman had come anyway. Hughes, too. And Thomas.
His father, despite all his words about propriety, was nowhere to be seen.
“For the record, I still feel like this is a terrible idea,” said Thomas.
“Shut up, Thomas.”
“Boys!” Minty said warningly. “This is no time for such rudeness.” She squared up to Dimitri, brushing down the lapels of his coat, picking off imaginary dust. “I’ve packed enough food for three good meals,” she told him. “There’s some sweet wine, too, but don’t drink it all at once. Your letters of introduction are at the top of the blue trunk, as well as some whiskey for the headmaster.”
“Thank you, Minty.”
“Be polite to your schoolteachers. Play nicely with the other boys—”
“Don’t get in a fight you can’t win,” offered Thomas.
“Thomas, I will have you scrubbing the ballroom, I swear!”
“Not bad advice, though,” Hughes agreed.
“Not you, too!” Mrs Minton threw up her hands in despair. She turned back to Dimitri, steely eyes gleaming. “Be nice to your classmates. Make friends.Enjoy yourself.”
“I’ll try, Minty,” he said, and genuinely meant it, even if the idea of socialising constantly with other people—andlivingwith them—filled him with horror.
“And… if you feel like it, please do write to us,” she added. “Let us know how you’re getting on.”
