“Nonsense. I shall write to your brother that we have hundreds of maids and serving ladies all over the estate, all the time. Your maid, Mrs. Vennela, for example. And Stoffel, my aide. Why, chaperones are practically underfoot.”
He pointedly ignored the fact that this very conversation would be looked at askance if they were in the capital, and the long hours they spent by themselves in his study or her lab would have raised eyebrows among the court—but if they ever met Maya, he was sure those people would realize she could never be interested in someone like him. The very idea was laughable.
Especially now that he was a cripple.
Pushing aside the anger and self-pity that this thought normally brought on, he put on a smile that he didn’t quite feel.
“So, are you up for a test of your invention tomorrow morning? I thought we could take a walk around the estate.”
“Of course,” Maya said, smiling.
“I shall leave you to your lunch,” Luka said, with a final squeeze of her hand. “And I shall see you at the breakfast table, tomorrow.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The next day dawned bright and sunny, like the way Maya felt, after her talk with Luka.
She couldn’t believe he had dispelled all her guilt with just a few words last night.Andhe’d offered to extend her stay. She’d been afraid he’d allowed her to stay only out of politeness, because once an invitation had been extended to her, even under false pretenses, he’d had no choice but to let her stay.
She’dwantedto stay here at Kamenev, to goad Luka out of his black moods that she was beginning to realize were more frequent than he let on, to perfect the prosthetic she’d made for him, to see him walk around the estate with it, to fence with him again like they used to, to laugh with him and talk with him till the small hours of the morning, just like they used to at the Academy, when it had been the three of them against the world…
With a start, Maya shook herself out her imagining. She crossed the room to the wash basin in the corner and splashed the cool water on her face. Vennala would be coming soon to help her with her toilette and her clothes, she couldn’t be seen mooning about like some starry-eyed little girl.
Because the truth was that they weren’t at the Academy anymore, and none of them were as they used to be. Volkov was still stuck on the frontlines, and Luka and she were…well, what were they?
Friends.
Where one of them was going to convince the other into a marriage of convenience for the good of a sister he hated.
Maya groaned, bending over the wash basin as she looked at herself in the mirror. A flash of red caught her eye as she took a deep breath, the red gem at her throat flashing fire in the early morning sunlight as it streamed in through the window.
Her fingers drifted to the necklace at her throat, the only tangible evidence of their one night together. She could have dismissed it as a dream brought on by lack of sleep, and anxiety, something that they had both been feeling in the days before he’d been deployed—if not for the gem around her throat.
Did Luka ever think about that night? Did he still remember?
She’d written to him, after he’d been deployed, but her letters had gone undelivered, the Stonehearts moved around so much. And she couldn’t have asked to use one of her father’s teleportation spells to send a letter—they were used only for military dispatches and relaying orders from the War Council. And so the silence between them had grown, and the next she’d heard, Luka had been sent back from the front with the rest of his injured men.
When they’d met again, they’d fallen back into their old relationship, almost as if that night had never happened, and Maya had taken her cue from Luka.
With a sigh, Maya met her reflection’s eyes in the mirror. Time to face the day.
“Put the past behind you, where it belongs,” she told herself sternly.
~
She met Luka at the breakfast table, dressed in her usual outfit of a modified riding ensemble—a smart jacket above a pair of fitted trousers.
She’d gone with a deep blue, almost teal, that Vennala had picked out for her, telling her it brought out the glow in her dusky skin. She’d almost scolded her maid for that last comment, because this was just Luka, and all that had happened was that they had had their first real conversation since she’d arrived at Kamenev. It didn’tmeananything.
And, well, when she saw herself in her riding habit, Maya had to admit to herself that she did look good. Which wasn’t why she’d agreed with Vennala’s choice of outfit, of course. Or her ideas for Maya’s hair, which was bound in a soft braid this morning, with little curls falling around her face. Her tight braids gave her headaches, sometimes, and this riding habit inspired dress was just…better.
It allowed her to ride astride, like she was used to, and it allowed her greater freedom of movement in the lab, which was sorely needed around all the liquids and boiling water and bubbling reagents she kept around.
She tried not to notice the way Luka’s face brightened when she walked into the dining room for breakfast.
For his part, Luka was dressed in walking clothes, and looked bright and alert. They had a quick meal, talking about light topics. His eyes, when they met hers over the rim of his coffee cup, were clear.
“Ready?” he asked her with a smile.
