Page 10 of Claws and Contrivances
Time seemed to slow into a golden, drifting haze. Tension sank out of her muscles as she sat there, allowing the minutes to pass unobserved. All that mattered was the movement of her hand, stroking those incredible scales as the little dragon’s gaze held hers in pure communion.
How long had it been since Rose had felt so genuinely relaxed? Thirteen months? Or even longer?
At one point, Serena opened the door below and passed through into the main section of the house, humming an aria to herself, but Rose didn’t call down to attract her cousin’s attention, and even the little dragon didn’t seem bothered. It could have been another twenty minutes or even longer before the dragon finally shifted its position, folding its wings at its sides and nestling closer into Rose’s chest with a trust that melted something deep inside her.
“Who could ever think that dragons weren’t really magical?” Rose murmured down to it. “You are the single most astonishing—”
“What did you say about dragons?”
Rose jerked with surprise at the sound of that male voice speaking sharply above her. The little dragon startled even harder. As it leapt off her lap, scrabbling for balance, it revealed its underside for the first time since she’d met it, and Rose caught sight of what looked like raw wounds encircling the tops of both of its small back legs.
“What on earth—?”
“Let me see that dragon.” Footsteps thundered towards them as Mr Aubrey descended the stairs with unexpected speed. As his trousered legs came into view, no longer obscured by books or papers, Rose discovered that they were surprisingly long – and even more surprisingly well-shaped.
But this was no time for aesthetic appreciation. She jumped up, and the dragon lunged to shelter behind her. It cheeped in unmistakable alarm as she held out both hands to slow the scholar’s progress. “I really don’t think—”
“Ah, there you are, Rose!” her cousin Georgie called cheerfully from the landing just below. For once, Georgie was dressed in one of the bland and unexciting gowns that she only ever consented to wear for company. “I’ve been sent to collect you. We have a visitor waiting for us in the front parlour, and you’ll never believe who it is. Serena will be in ecstasies. The Ghoul of Penryddn House has come to call!”
Chapter 6
Rose’s stomach sank as if heavy weights had been attached to it, but Georgie continued with good cheer. “It’s a pity you went to all that trouble to visit his house earlier. If we’d only known, you could have saved yourself the walk and the disguise, not to mention all that bother with Beth and the dragon! Now that you’ve managed to get the beast back, though, we can easily hand it over to—”
“No!” Rose’s voice rang out in appalled unison with Mr Aubrey’s.
At the top of the first flight of steps, five feet above her, the scholar looked abruptly poised for battle, the distinctive angles of his face as sharp as cut glass. Rose had no notion of why he had reacted with such fervour, but as she recalled the pattern of raw, hidden wounds she had glimpsed upon the dragon’s hind legs, every muscle in her own body clenched in resistance.
The way those wounds had circled its upper legs – so regular and exact – nothing like the random scrapes and wounds that she would have expected it to collect in the wild ...
She’d thought it wary of humans only because of the time it had spent lost and alone. What if there was more to its reactions?
What if, rather than being sadly lost, it had escaped?
Rose shook her head, trying to force her whirling thoughts into coherence. “I’ll explain everything later, Georgie, I promise, but we cannot mention this dragon to Sir Gareth or to anyone else. I mean it! Not a word. I don’t want a single soul to find out about it from now on!”
“Huh.” Georgie shrugged. “Well, at least we won’t have to worry about Papa overhearing the matter, then. I had thought up a cunning plan to distract him while you talked things over with Sir Gareth, but—”
“Absolutely not!” Mr Aubrey descended the stairs in a fluid, loping rush, two steps at a time. He dropped to sit on the stair beside Rose’s feet, craning around her skirts with shocking impropriety, yet clear disinterest, to peer at the little dragon who sheltered behind her. Rose clung to the wooden stair rail to keep her balance as she twisted round to keep a wary eye on both strange creatures as they stared at one another with open curiosity.
“Be careful!” she said. “It—”
“She,” Mr Aubrey murmured without breaking the dragon’s gaze. “If you note the angle of the jawline and the curve of the shoulder” – his long, tapering fingers sketched the outlines in the air an inch away from the dragon’s skin – “you’ll see this is a female Dracus domesticus, and no more than a year at the very oldest. But there aren’t any golden swirls on this face, thank goodness.”
“... What?” Blinking, Rose turned to look down at Georgie, who shrugged.
“Don’t ask me,” said her cousin. “You’d better hurry, though. Beth said we’re all expected to join in this visit. Even Papa’s been dragged down from his study for it. That must be why he released you so quickly, sir.” She nodded politely up at Mr Aubrey, but immediately turned back to Rose. “Apparently, the Ghoul asked about you in particular.”
“Oh, Lord!” If he told the others about her ill-fated visit ...
“It’ll be delicious!” Georgie said happily. “I’m wagering that Serena will ask him outright whether he has any bodies buried underneath Penryddn House. Beth thinks she’ll launch into song instead, to impress him with her romantic soul, but—”
“Let’s hurry.” There had to be some way to direct the conversation away from their calamitous first meeting, but only if she was there to manage everything. Rose took a deep, bolstering breath. “The dragon can stay safely in my room while I’m gone.” Unlike her youngest cousin, she wouldn’t be careless enough to leave any avenues for it to escape.
Mr Aubrey let out a piteous sound of protest when she bent to nudge the wild creature up the stairs. “But I’ve barely even begun—”
“You’ll have to study her later,” Rose said, adding swiftly, “if she doesn’t mind, that is.”
Oddly enough, the dragon didn’t seem to. She curved her long, warm neck around Rose’s arm to peer back at Mr Aubrey, and she dug her long claws into the wooden stair to prevent herself from being moved.
