Page 47 of A Winter Courtship
“Oh…oh, Lutoth. My dear Lutoth. I’m so sorry. You deserve better than that.”
He nodded. His heart cracked at the thought that maybe Ulrich wasn’t the one for him. He’d pinned so many of his hopes and dreams on the man. But maybe Ulrich wasn’t who Lutoth thought he was.
“You deserve a home. You deserve everything your heart yearns for, but you must find someone worthy of you,” she said. “Someone kind and caring. Someone who will not be ashamed to call you theirs. You deserve someone who will proclaim their love for you across the skies.”
He swallowed. “Thank you.”
Still, his heart clung to Ulrich, unable to let go even if he knew it might be for the best.
“And I will visit you in your home when you meet someone who loves you properly,” his mother said.
Lutoth stared out at the horizon, at the trees and mountains in the distance. “But I’m not sure I am capable of having a home. Because although I am half-oread, I am also half-sylph. And I hear the wind call me by name, and I want to lose myself in it. I want to run for days and nights without stopping, going where the breeze takes me.”
“And you can’t do that if you have a home with someone?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve tried to ignore the call of the wind, but the tension just builds and builds inside me. My body starts to ache. I don’t know how long I can resist it.”
“Why do you have to?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you have lived in the valley for a year, haven’t you?” She leaned forward, staring past her dangling legs, down to the sea of snow-covered trees below. “That is a long time for a sylph to stay still. Have you been ignoring the wind the whole year?”
“How do you know I’ve been in the valley for a year?”
She smiled, eyes twinkling. “I heard it on the wind, my love. I always know where you are.”
He smiled. “I haven’t denied it the whole year. Just the last month.”
“And before that?” his mother asked.
“I would run for a few days and return.”
“Maybe that’s what you need to do. Rather than deny yourself, maybe you just need to let loose for a little while and then return to your home. Perhaps you need to embrace being both sylph and oread.”
He nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”
They sat side by side. Lutoth felt more at peace with his own nature than he had in a long time. If only his heart felt the same peace.
ChapterThirty-One
Ulrich sat at his father’s table, staring at his plate. A candle flickered on the centre of the table, providing the only light in the cramped room. Cobwebs crowded the cabin’s crevices and corners. Dust balls lingered on the floor.
He’d offered to clean years ago. But his father had snapped, “I can look after myself, boy.”
Ulrich had never offered again.
Ulrich reached into his pocket, touching the metal of the items he’d forged. The whole day, he’d waited for Lutoth to appear, hoping more than expecting. But eventually, he’d had to leave his cabin and go to his father’s for Solstice Eve dinner.
He’d considered not going. He wasn’t in the mood to eat with his father after yesterday. But his brother would be there, and Ulrich hadn’t seen him in a long time.
So far, his father hadn’t mentioned what had happened in the smithy yesterday.
“I hope tonight’s meal meets your standards,” his father said to his brother, mouth twisted in a grimace. “It’s nothing fancy like you city folks no doubt expect.” His father gestured to the fat sausages, bowl of lentils, smoked fish, and bread. “It’s simple, honest Ores food from the village store.”
“I always enjoy Mila’s and Rhorton’s cooking.” Elias smiled and took a sip of his wine. “Give them my compliments next time you see them.”
Ulrich didn’t know how Elias did it. How he smiled and allowed the insults to roll off him whilst pushing back at his father with ease and grace.
