Page 129 of House of Crimson Hearts
“Hi,” she says grinning, clearly aware that I’m rather flustered. I press my fingers to my cheeks, the heat spilling into my hand.
I fan myself trying to calm down, but I’m unable.
“Do you need to sit?” Eleanor asks.
“No, it’s just. You… I, umm…”
She laughs, “What on earth has come over you? Shall I get you a tonic?”
“No, for goodness’ sake, Eleanor, it’s you.”
“Me?” she says, her face falling.
“Oh gods, I’m making a mess of this. It’s just that you look rather fetching and I wasn’t expecting it, and I was rather taken aback by how… by how… well, how beautiful you look. That’s all.”
She beams. And I swear on the witch-gods, the universe comes to an abrupt stop. My vision narrows to only include her gloriously blue eyes, the pale crystal water and dark pupils. I lose myself in her gaze, the way her smile radiates warmth.
“I wore it for you,” she says.
“You did?” I gasp, more heat flooding me.
“I did.” She smiles. “It felt like an important day.”
I’m not sure what she means by that, but I’m delighted she dressed the way she did, I can’t pull my eyes away from her. In fact, I’m drawn to her ample cleavage and would rather like to see what she looks like without the dress on, but that’s probably not appropriate.
We have kissed, on more than one occasion actually, but that’s as far as it’s gone. Though, she has educated me on the ways of her love-making and how it’s different, and I’m quite thrilled at the idea, but we’ve yet to have an opportunity to try anything more than a surreptitious kiss.
She hurries around the counter, putting jars of herbs and ointment away, then she grabs her coat and the shop keys and locks the door behind us.
We walk to our favourite spot, taking us out of the city and far away from anyone who would know us, to the safety of the river and the fields and the knowledge that we’re at least three miles from anyone who could cause us a problem.
When we arrive, my mouth falls open. Someone has constructed a stone pavilion-like building.
“How… what?” I say, completely incoherent for the second time today.
“I had a friend build it for us.”
“A friend? But, Eleanor, what if…”
She shakes her head. “He’s like us.”
“I see. And that means we can trust him? I don’t much trust anyone other than you, truth be told. I’d prefer no one knew about us.”
“He doesn’t know about us, only that I asked him to build this for me for someone I care about.” She tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“Well, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I say, checking around us before I place a kiss on her lips, pull her to me and wrap my arms around her.
The pavilion has several marble pillars around which three-quarters of it is walled off. It will keep us protected from sight from anyone behind or approaching. The only way we’d be seen is from across the river, but in all the months we’ve been coming here, we’ve never seen another soul on the opposite bank. And that’s when I realise why she did it. What this building is for.
I glance down as we enter to see swathes of fabrics and pillows lining the ground making it soft. And a small stove burner in a corner that she’s already attending to.
My air catches in my throat. She wants to… we’re going to have…?
I can’t bring myself to consider it. I’ve so desperately wanted to make love to her and yet, I am absolutely terrified.
“Here,” she says and pulls me down onto the bedding. We eat our picnic, and gaze over the river watching the swans float lazily with the current. We chat about magic and her witch-gods and how she uses blood and its power to pour into her spells.
Thankfully, we avoid discussing our families. Save for the odd complication of trying to visit each other, we try not to discuss the politics our families engage in. We hear enough of that at the dinner tables every evening.
