Page 30 of A Fearless Heart
“Morning, my lady,” the maid said, entering the bedroom with a busy air. She walked to the curtains and pulled them open. “Brought you a tray of toast and tea, but you’ll want to dress and go downstairs straightaway.”
“I will?”
“One of the dogs is ill. Don’t know if it’s Romulus or Remus. But evidently quite serious.”
“Oh, no.” While Cady was still afraid to get too near the creatures, they’d been favorites of her father’s and she had fond memories of playing with them when she was younger. If she could help in any way, she had to. “Yes, take out the green wool gown with the white trim and I’ll dress as soon as I finish my toast.”
Twenty minutes later, Cady stood in front of the dog kennel north of the house. Romulus was within, looking out from behind the fence with an expectant, longing expression. Remus was nowhere to be seen.
“Hello?” Cady called out. “Has someone taken Remus?”
The thought occurred to her that perhaps she was already too late, and Remus was…no. Cady shrank from that thought.
“Romulus,” she asked softly, raising a hand toward the wolfhound but not getting near enough to touch. “Where’s your brother?”
Romulus made a low, whuffing sound, looking behind Cady. She spun on her heel and saw Gabe approaching with Remus on a leash.
“Where did you take Remus? Is he all right?”
“He is.” Gabe gave her a half smile. “I thought you might avoid me today, so I had to come up with a reason to entice you outside.”
Cady’s mouth fell open for a moment. “You…lied? About Remus being sick, just to get me down here?”
“Exactly. I guessed that you’d not let Remus pad off this mortal coil without seeing him. And I do have something very important to say to you.”
“He’s really fine?” Cady asked worriedly. She realized with a start that Remus had moved closer to her and managed to put his head in prime position to have his ears rubbed. She obliged, and after a moment, it seemed that she’d done this every day, rather than a months-long gap when she didn’t even see the dogs.
She asked, “What was so important to tell me that you had to lie about the dog’s health to do it?”
“Well, considering what you explained last night, I had a thought,” he said. “You’re scared of a lot of things. Too many things. And most of them aren’t worth being sacred of.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“I’m not justsayingit. That’s my thought. I bet I can teach you not to be afraid of at least some of those things.”
Cady narrowed her eyes. “What are you suggesting? You’re offering to be my tutor in bravery?”
“If you like to put it that way.”
“How would that work? And why would you even want to do that sort of thing? I hired you as a gardener, not a…whatever you’d be.”
“Think of it as natural philosophy, except instead of studying plants as a botanist, you’d be experimenting with your psyche. Testing what scares you to see how you can overcome it.”
“But why do you even care?”
He paused, then said, “There was a lot of fear when I was a soldier. I felt plenty, and saw even more. It’s not a pretty thing, to be so scared that you can’t even move.”
“I’m aware of that,” Cady said bitterly.
“But it’s one thing to be scared in a war. That’s supposed to scare you. What you’re sacred of, my lady, isn’t normal. You shouldn’t have to live like this.”
Cady considered his words for a long time, and finally said, “You’re a very odd gardener.”
“Well, I wasn’t always a gardener. Just as you weren’t always a recluse. Will you let me try?”
“Perhaps, Mr Court. However, no matter what, I must insist that you never trick me like that again. No lies about dogs dying or anything else just to shock me into speaking to you. And you still need to work in the gardens. That’s far more important.”
He gave her an odd look, but then said, “Yes, my lady. Speaking of, you were going to tell me how to repot seedlings so they’ll live after they’re transplanted.”
