Page 136 of Halfling
Sorcha felt Orek come alongside her, and his arm slipped around to draw her into his side.
“Did you not enjoy the game?”
“Hmm?”
“You are upset.”
“Oh.” Sorcha rubbed at her face. “No, I…it was fun. I haven’t done that in…” She sighed, heart clenching again with guilt.
She couldn’t stop thinking of Calum and Keeley’s surprise that she’d even want to play with them. And she couldn’t stop the nagging at her mind of losing a whole afternoon.
It was why, she supposed, she didn’t make time to play with her siblings. There just never seemed to be enough time.
Orek’s hand rubbed up and down her back, finding that tender spot at her shoulder. She groaned when he gently pressed, relieving the tension there.
“You work too hard, my mate.”
“I just spent the afternoon playing,” she reminded him.
“So did many others. Should they not take time to play and find joy? Why is it only you who cannot?”
“Orek…”
“They need you, my heart.You. Not for horse training or cleaning or feeding the livestock. My mate,” and he kissed her cheek to soften the blow, “they did all that without you. They managed. What they need isyou.”
Sorcha swallowed back her tears, something fragile and unseen inside her shivering with recognition.
“They rely on me.”
“Yes, they do. You have an important place here. Sorcha, you are their heart. Just as you are mine.”
He pulled her into his arms, resting his chin on her head. She breathed in his scent, soothed as emotions tumbled one after the other inside her.
“I want you to be happy, my mate. To find joy. You can’t do that when you’re running yourself ragged.”
Sorcha drew in a wobbly breath but pushed her tears back down. They needed to get inside for dinner.
“I know,” she said. And she did know—but there was always something to be done, and if she could do it, fix it, make it better, she just…did.That was how it’d always been. That was her role in the family. If she didn’t have that…
A niggle of worry wormed its way into her heart, even as she put her arms around Orek’s wide chest and held him.
His words were so sweet, his care everything she could ever want. But she understood what he said, could feel that spark of resentment in him, and it was what she’d been dreading.
I don’t want you to wake up one day and realize I’m not worth it.
31
Orek found a place in the shadow of the stables to watch Sorcha’s display. The air was chilly, his breath a misty puff around him, and the ground hadn’t yet unthawed from the overnight frost.
Aoife had wanted to squeeze in one more prospective patron before the roads became too impassable and the paddocks too icy. The first snow had come just a few days before, a few patches still clinging to the shadiest corners of the yard. The harvests had been brought in, and it seemed the Brádaigh family was easing into a familiar pattern for winter—the house was full to brimming most of the day, with the kitchen the hive of activity as foods were cured, pickled, and canned.
So Orek didn’t mind the excuse to get outside, away from the noise and hubbub—but he did mind his mate, wrapped in her knits and wools, trekking out into the cold so early this morning to prepare the horses for show.
A small group of humans had arrived, greeted and ushered to the front corral by Aoife. He couldn’t quite catch every word from his place tucked away in the shadows, but from the tone, Aoife was charming them as they awaited Sorcha.
When he’d first come to see his mate show off the horses and her skills for the last group of prospective patrons, Aoife had gently suggested he hang back near the stables.“Just for now,”she’d said with a conciliatory pat on his arm,“by next year, everyone will know of my daughter’s handsome green man.”The beast inside him had been unmoved, disliking that strange males wouldn’t know that Sorcha washis.
But then Sorcha had ridden out on the horse to show and he’d been mollified.
