Page 64 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“You can barely walk straight and you shoot likethat?” Dimitri exclaimed, not sure if he was impressed or alarmed.
Adeline smiled, reloading the pistol with deft, careful fingers, and aimed it at the second target, further away. It landed perhaps a few centimetres from the middle.
Thomas whistled approvingly. He handed a pistol to Dimitri, still staring at the target. “Care for turn, My Lord?”
“She’s going to win.”
“You always win at chess,” said Adeline smugly, swapping the pistol for a revolver, “and yet I always play with you.”
“That’s fair,” he said, checking the pistol was loaded. He aimed it at the first target, but barely grazed it.
Thomas appeared at his elbow. “Should I be keeping score?”
“Oh, shut up.”
Adeline was more than agoodshot. She was exceptional. They had to invent ways to make it harder for her, making targets swing from the trees or setting them back even further.
“What should we try next?” Thomas asked. “Blindfolding her? Causing a distraction? Apple on your head?”
“How about an apple onyourhead?” said Dimitri, not really irritated.
“I’m not shooting an apple off anyone’s head,” Adeline announced, eyes fixed on a target some forty feet ahead. “But maybe we could try some acorns in the trees?”
“I think I’d much rather try some lunch.”
Thomas laughed, and then shuffled backwards, as if ashamed of his actions. “I’ll have something arranged for you.”
“Thank you,” said Dimitri, and turned his attention back to Adeline, to the fierce golden glow in her eyes. “Your focus is exceptional.”
“Did you say something?”
“Very funny.”
They broke for lunch, relaxed for a bit in the library, and went out again in the afternoon. The nights were drawing in sharply now, the green dissolving into red and amber. Adeline hugged her arms, stamping out the cold. They stared up at the dying rays of light, the growing moon.
“It’ll be the full moon again before long,” Dimitri remarked.
“I know.”
“I—”
“I’m not going to my family’s house,” she said sharply. “Mrs Minton was most insistent. I’ll stay in the servants’ quarters, but I won’t be sent away.”
He swallowed, reeling back the tremor of fear. “All right.”
“I’ll be with you as soon as it’s over.”
“You don’t need to—”
“I do,” she finished. “And I will be.”
He bowed his head, unable to convey how much he wanted her there, afterwards. But not during. If she saw him, if he frightened her… it was unbearable. His breath hitched, stomach twisting.
Adeline seemed to sense something. She took his hand—the left—and linked her fingers into his as well as she was able, leaning her head against his shoulder. She said nothing, but he felt, just for one moment, that fear was unwarranted, an emotion that belonged elsewhere.
Then the kitchen door opened and Mrs Minton yelled at them to come in. Adeline yanked her hand from his, almost as if she was ashamed, and the feeling of safety crumbled into darkness, giving free reign to dread.
The days twisted together, going by faster and faster, and before long, the full moon was upon them. Adeline seemed to sense his distress, and planned a day of activities, as if certain she could beat back his anxiety if she crammed in enough things to do. Reading, walking, shooting, a tour of galleries. She made him explain every portrait to her, every scrap of history. They went down to the stables together and helped tend to the horses. She even had the cooks prepare extra fancy meals, and she ate all of them with him.
