She smiled and lifted her wineglass to him. “I appreciate the thought regardless,” she said.
In fact, he had all the makings of a friend.
* * *
...None of which,of course, made her feel any better as she lay in an unfamiliar bed that night, listening to the walls of the old inn creak and groan around her. Even the finest conversation couldn’t make her forget her darker truths forever. A single evening of shared laughter and companionship could not change the future.
And the future for a girl without any prospects or protectors…for a girl without a single coin in her reticule but with a dragon who needed feeding…
Common sense might keep Elinor from weeping or swooning in the daytime, when there were urgent tasks to be done. Pride could always hold her chin high whenever witnesses were present. But in the middle of the night, Elinor found herself weeping with silent desperation into her pillow. Even Sir Jessamyn’s increasingly anxious cheeping couldn’t make her stop. When his pointed snout finally nosed past her hair into her bare cheek, all she could do was roll over and bury her face in the comfort of his warm scales.
“Oh, Sir Jessamyn,” she whispered, “I’m so sorry. I wish I was wealthy enough to look after you properly. I wish I was wealthy and clever and powerful and…” An image of the fashionable Mrs. De Lacey, as she’d seen the lady sketched in so many newspapers across the years, popped into her head, and she choked on a sob. “Oh, Iwish…”
Mrs. De Lacey wouldn’t have to settle for mere friendship if she met an attractive, intelligent gentleman. How many famous and titled gentlemen had been numbered among her public admirers by now? Mrs. De Lacey certainly wouldn’t have to walk away with quiet dignity into the jaws of poverty and terror while such a man was snapped up byPenelope,of all people! Mrs. De Lacey...
“Oh,rubbish.” Elinor pulled back from Sir Jessamyn and wiped her tears away with one hard swipe. Breathing hard, she forced down the final sob that wanted to escape her throat.
Who was she trying to fool? Even if shehadbeen as wealthy as Mrs. De Lacey herself, Benedict Hawkins still wouldn’t look twice at a crow like her when a true beauty like her cousin was available.
Penelope and her friends had been right all along. Elinorwasdark and drab and insignificant. The only reason she hadn’t realized her inadequacy before was because her sisters and their sweet, impractical parents had been far too unworldly to care for that sort of thing. She’d been so naïvely happy, safe and confident in the shelter of her family’s love, that it had never even occurred to her to fear that other people would see her in a different light.
Now that shewasleft on her own in the outer world, though, well outside the safe walls of their vicarage, no one would ever again look at Elinor and see anything of interest.
It was only too easy to see that unpalatable truth in the utter darkness of the room…and to whisper her secrets into the safety of Sir Jessamyn’s warm scales, where no one else could ever hear them. “I justwisheveryone could see me differently. If only I was as handsome and as stylish as Mrs. De Lacey...” Her words trailed off as Sir Jessamyn nudged her gently up to face him.
The little dragon leaned in close, until his snout pressed against her nose with surprising firmness. There was something odd about the intensity of his gaze in the darkness. She could feel it burning into her, even though she couldn’t see his eyes.
Until…
“Sir Jessamyn?” Elinor whispered through her tears. “Are you...glowing?”
Sir Jessamyn opened his mouth wide. Shocking heat flared across her face. Light blinded her.
Elinor’s final thought before she lost consciousness was:
I must tell Mr. Aubrey. Dragonscanbreathe flame after all!
Chapter 5
The first thing Elinor noticed the next morning when she woke was the warmth of bright sunshine against her eyelids—too-bright sunshine.
She never slept late! She certainly couldn’t afford to sleep late today of all days, not if she wanted to leave the inn in time to avoid—
“I tell you, that girl is my niece, and Iwillsee her account for her crime!” bellowed an all-too-familiar voice outside her door.
Too late! Elinor met Sir Jessamyn’s golden gaze. He was sitting perched at the far end of the bed, shivering, with his long tail wrapped tightly around his body.
Elinor jumped out of bed, her pulse beating against her throat like a pair of wings fighting to get free. She ran to the window—
No. It was a three-storey drop onto the hard stone innyard. She would never survive that jump. Neither could Sir Jessamyn, with his poor, clipped wings.
“Sir John, really.” That was Mr. Hawkins’s voice, somehow managing to sound placating even when pitched at an unnaturally loud volume. “I’m sure there must have been some mistake. There’s certainly no need to go charging into a lady’s chamber before she’s even dressed, is there? If you just wait downstairs and have a pint of ale to calm yourself before she wakes…”
He was trying to give her a warning—and an escape route.
Elinor bit her lip, torn between humiliation and gratitude.Ifit worked—if he could persuade Sir John out of the way—she could slip down the back stairs quickly with Sir Jessamyn. It would give her a slight head-start, anyway.
But to where? She hadn’t the money for a trip to London or Bristol, to register with any employment agency. She hadn’t even funds enough for a single meal.
