“Do, please, instruct me.” Cyrus settled back, posed to listen. Vitus had to smile.
“Let me talk through some options, and then if you can wait a few minutes, I can bring out a few specific examples. I gather you don’t have more than the ordinary understanding of different stones.”
“I have some idea what I like, but no, you may consider me entirely untutored in anything that doesn’t have a strong association with ritual, especially the more elemental forms. Do please assume you should explain from the basics?”
This might, in fact, be a delight. Vitus nodded. “In that case, let me begin with colour as one aspect.” He settled into his lecture amiably, half his mind running through his current stock and what he might bring out by way of demonstration. Vitus only had the one small ruby right now, but he was seeing the gem merchants tomorrow. He could at least explore their stock. And he had a number of garnets and spinels in his storage cases.
17
DECEMBER 20TH AT BRYN GLAS
“Will you stay? I don’t want to be alone.” Thessaly’s voice was steady until the last word, then it cracked and she turned away, toward the fireplace in the library. The house was decked out for the solstice, though they, of course, weren’t entertaining guests. Or not besides Vitus and possibly Cousin Owain. But it was the solstice eve. Cousin Owain was busy at the Council Keep, and would be all night.
Vitus had taken a step back, rocking on his heels, visibly surprised. “Stay?” It was only a tiny consolation that he sounded as uneven as she felt. “I hadn’t planned on it, but I could. You’d like me to.”
She swallowed. “I mean, not just in the guest bedroom. If you’d like that?”
“That’s sudden.” He rubbed his face, then immediately said, “It’s not that I don’t want. It’s just we hadn’t been talking about it, hadn’t been doing, erm, more than we had? That’s a leap.”
“I don’t want anyone else deciding for me.” Thessaly turned back to him. Mother had made it clear the day before that Father was looking to sell her virginity, and she was having none of that, for several reasons. Now she pulled her wrapper closer to her. It was a reasonably festive design, a medium greenembroidered along the edges with holly and mistletoe, the red and white dancing among the darker green of evergreen boughs. “And I don’t want to be alone.”
Vitus took a step closer to her. “The first one’s a good reason. The second one’s a— that’s not the best choice for doing something like this.” She flushed, shivering, and he took another step, a hand cupping her shoulder. “I’m not angry, but it’s the sort of thing we should talk about.”
“All right.” She turned to face him. Thessaly could be brave, even if it felt like she’d lost the knack of it the last six months. Childeric had torn it away and ground all the roots of her courage into dust. She watched his expression, and before he could say anything else, she went on, the words tumbling out in a heap. “I don’t want to be alone, I want to be with you, I want to be like we were at All Hallows. Us in the dark and the quiet and all of it good. Only, maybe, with some new kinds of good.”
His mouth opened and closed twice before he managed to reply. “It may not be delightful. Something that new to your body. Did duelling feel good the first time?”
That made her grin, the sort of savage grin that her mother had trained out of her— well, as it happened, not long after her first duelling lessons. “Actually, it did. But I’m old enough to know that the first of something doesn’t limit the last of it. Or the later. Will you?”
There was a long pause, his face still. But there was a burning in his eyes, to match the fire in the fireplace, and she knew what his answer would be when he worked around to saying it. “I’ve not told you a tenth of the dreams I’ve had about being with you.” Then he let out a puff of breath and stopped.
Thessaly touched his cheek. “I am sensible. I’ve got a potion. I can take it now.” Aunt Metaia had taught her the charm against pregnancy, but she’d not practised it for a good while, and she wasn’t entirely sure she trusted it. And while she couldask Collins or Emeline, that was not a conversation to have on no notice. The potion would do nicely.
It also seemed to answer some of his concerns. Vitus rubbed his face. “Look, if I’m going to stay, I should let Mama know at home and gather up a few things. Especially since I was planning on going to the Council rites tomorrow. I know you can’t, not with a lot of fuss.”
“But you can. And then you can tell me what the news is.” Her mouth twitched a little more. “And the gossip.”
“All right, I’ll— I’ll be back in a few minutes. Twenty, thirty? Where should I come find you?”
“The bedroom. Begin as we mean to go on, yes? There’s food waiting in the sitting room, but I find I’m not hungry for it right now. And Collins and Emeline and the staff, they have their own celebration tonight.” She wished them well, but that wasn’t for her. There were lines of class and expectation that couldn’t be crossed.
Vitus took a step back. “I’m going to ask you again, several times, what you want. So you might think about that some more.” It came out a little harsh. Not that she blamed him. This was sudden. But then he leaned in to kiss her, rather tenderly. When he pulled back, he was gathering up his cloak and headed out the door. Thessaly watched out the window to see him cross the garden, even more pleased she’d added him to the wards.
It was more like forty minutes before he came back, long enough that she was restless. She’d made her way upstairs and checked the fire in both the bedroom and the sitting room. She’d peered at the food, she’d changed the lighting at least three times. And, because she knew when to admit what she was up to, she’d summoned Collins while her housekeeper was still expecting it. She’d let Collins know Vitus would likely be staying. It would do no one any good to be surprised in the morning.
Collins set about laying out clean towels and producing a man’s dressing gown from a cabinet cunningly set into the wall that Thessaly had never taken much notice of, other than it had not held papers. Then Collins put out various small items in the bath. All without any comment at all. At least there was also no disapproval, but honestly, Thessaly wondered what Collins and Emeline, in specific, thought of the situation. They arranged Thessaly would ring in the morning when she was ready.
When Vitus reappeared, Thessaly had been sitting on the bed, her legs hanging off the side, thinking. He knocked, first at the sitting room, then at the bedroom, and she held out her hand. “You came back.”
It sounded ridiculous, and she blushed. Vitus came over, taking her hand, then bringing it to his lips to kiss the palm as he bent over. “I wouldn’t leave you like that. May I leave my things— erm...” He glanced around.
“The bench there, or if you’d like to hang things up, Collins told me apparently that cabinet is for the purpose? Things I had not known about my aunt.” She then held up the potion. “And let me take this.”
“Ah, well, if you’re taking after her, I suppose that might be a little easier on the household.” Vitus glanced around, taking the bottle from her hand and setting it aside as soon as she’d drunk it. “May I?”
“Please.” Now, Thessaly was suddenly shy. “I— I want to do this. If you’re willing. I mean, I should have said something sooner. Only there wasn’t a really good time. We were both busy.”
Vitus considered, then sat next to her on the end of the bed. His feet touched the floor for a moment before he worked on removing his shoes, then his jacket. “We have been. I’m still busy, but everyone else is busy for solstice. And besides, I can’tpossibly fit any additional lightning talismans into January at this point.”
