Page 79 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“Thisis the library?”
“Yes.”
“It’s sosmall.”
Adeline looked up incredulously. “The village isn’t big…”
Dimitri scratched the back of his neck. “It just seems mad that we have this huge library back at the manor that no one is really using…”
“I know, Dimitri, it is, but what are you going to do? Open it to the public?”
“My father would have a fit…” he said. “Which, in itself, is probably reason enough to do it.”
“Ha!” Adeline chuckled, but her laughter soon shimmied away. “What’s he like, your father? You never speak about him.”
“I hardly know him. I haven’t seen him in almost five years.”
“But before then, you must have… you must have spoken with him?”
“I was more my mother’s son than his, I suspect. He never seemed very fond of me.”
A slight lie. There had been time, when he was very little, that he remembered his father doting on him. It was long before the curse, long before anything. He’d praised his cleverness, boasted of him to his friends, and then, one day, he stopped. Dimitri could think of nothing that he’d done to warrant the sudden coldness, and he was too young to ask the question, to have it explained to him. But he remembered his father used to smile at him, and one day, he didn’t.
“Right.” Adeline stilled, as if sensing she’d touched a sore subject. “And… your mother?”
“What of her?”
“What was she like?” she asked. “You never really speak of her, either.”
A coldness that had nothing to do with the air shivered through him. At times, he wanted to talk about her more than anything… but every moment with his mother, every memory was stained by the last one, her screaming, rasping words echoing down the corridor.
He’s a—
No. He could not go there again.
“Dimitri?” A warm, soft hand touched his arm. Adeline, tugging him back to the present. “It’s all right if you don’t want to talk about her. I’m just curious. I like talking about mine, and I’d like to know where you got your loveliness from.”
Ordinarily, he would have clung to that sweet word from her.Lovely.Adeline thought he was lovely. But he couldn’t quite think of that warmth right now, lost to the cold wave of old dread.
“I want to talk about her,” he whispered. “With you. I want to tell you everything, but—”
A squeaking of wheels turned around the corner, and stopped shortly. “Adie!” came a cheerful voice.
Dimitri turned. Standing in the dim light of the lamps was a woman about Adeline’s age, perhaps a little older, pushing a pram with a large, rosy-cheeked baby. Both mother and child had soft brown curls and dimples, a warmth to them that shone despite the shabbiness of the old pram and their worn clothes.
“Marie,” said Adeline, with a summoned smile. Dimitri was starting to tell the difference.
“You should have told me you were coming out tonight! I’d have had Peter watch this one and we could have come together.”
Adeline came forward to stroke the baby’s cheek. “Little late for you to be up, isn’t it young sir?”
Marie groaned. “Tell me about it. But he will not go down tonight. Thought perhaps a walk would settle him.”
“Teething again?”
“Most likely.” She looked up, noticing Dimitri for the first time. “Oh, forgive me! I didn’t see you had company.”
“Ah, yes, this is…” Adeline faltered, waiting for him to fill in. They’d never agreed to deny who he was, but they hadn’t prepared for any introductions.
