“How dare you,” Adrian seethed, striding right out to where they stood.
Rather, whereoneof them stood, for the other was sat on the ground, holding his leg. Meanwhile, the one standing had the offending stones still in his hand, a hole in the snow beside him where he had dug them out.
“If there is a single crack in any of those windows, you will pay dearly for it,” Adrian snarled, reaching to grab the first boy by the back of his woolen jacket.
The boy ducked out of the way and held up one of the stones. “Don’t touch me, or I’ll throw one of these at you! And don’t touch Isaac, neither!”
“Do you think it wise to threaten me?” Adrian asked, and watched as a tremor of fear passed across the boy’s face. The child was merely acting brave.
“We wasn’t doing anything bad!” the boy insisted, his hand shaking around the stone. “We was throwing stones to scare the ghosts away! We was doing you a favor!”
The boy on the ground nodded. “We were, sir. We thought that… if we could get rid of the curse here, then… the storm would stop. That’s what Hetty said at the orphanage. She says that’s why the storm came. She said it’d stay cold because of the ghosts here, and the storm would only end if the ghosts were gone, and we… didn’t want to be cold no more. But I went and slipped and hurt my leg.”
Adrian moved to grab the other boy again, when Valerie cut in front of him. Her hands fell upon Adrian’s chest, her face wincing as the thud exacerbated her wrist, while her beautiful green eyes looked at him in earnest.
“They are children, Your Grace,” she implored. “They believe whatever they hear. AndIbelieve that they believe they could put an end to the storm by hurling stones.”
Her touch made Adrian stop, her voice soothing the angry beast in his mind, turning its roar into a purr. “They could have broken a window.”
“And what is a window compared to the plight of two children who are out here in the cold? Two children who have clearly walked through this awful weather because they thought they could relieve this castle of its curse?” Valerie replied with a small smile. “Children who, it seems, have come from an orphanage?”
Adrian felt a little foolish, seeing it from her perspective. Indeed, if the boys were there to beg something from him or cause trouble, they would not have traipsed through thick snow and biting winds for miles to reach the castle; they would havewaited for the snow to melt and the storm to abate first. And if they had simply meant to cause trouble, they would have done it closer to where they hailed from.
“Hetty told us; I swear it,” the standing boy repeated, shaking. Although, it was not certain if he was trembling from the cold or out of terror.
Grumbling in the back of his throat, Adrian stooped toward the injured child—Isaac, apparently—and grabbed him out of the snow. The boy tried to protest, tried to insist it was because of this girl named Hetty, but Adrian ignored him and threw the child over one shoulder.
“I am just bringing them inside,” Adrian said, catching sight of Valerie’s anxious frown. “Or would you prefer me to leave them out in the storm?”
He moved past her and took hold of the other boy, throwinghimover his right shoulder. That done, he trusted in the breadth of his left shoulder and Isaac’s stillness, and curved his arm around Valerie, ushering her back toward the castle before she could catch a chill.
After all, though he had not paid nearly enough attention before, she was standing out there in nothing but her nightdress.
CHAPTER NINE
“Now, this may sting a little,” Valerie warned with a reassuring smile, as she brought a damp cloth to the shallow scrape on Isaac’s knee.
The boy nodded and clenched his teeth, being rather brave indeed. “I don’t mind, Miss.”
“He’s had worse than that, Miss,” his compatriot in stone-throwing, David, agreed. “Skins his knees all the time at the orphanage. This is nothing.”
They were all situated in the kitchens, where the cook—Mrs. Leggat—was heating water, Kate was arranging cakes on a tray, Esther was gathering more supplies than anyone could possibly need, and Adrian was pacing as if he would rather be anywhere else. He looked out of place in the kitchens, among its rustic charm, and he seemed to know it.
“I should ride to the healer,” he said loudly, casting a dubious glance at Valerie and her damp cloth.
“There is no need,” Valerie insisted, as she gently pressed the fabric to the wound. “You heard the boys; it is nothing. Indeed, I am very content that young Isaac here will not have to have the leg amputated, though cook has several very sharp knives should the requirement arise.”
She hoped she had struck the right note with the boys and their sense of humor. Cecil would have roared with laughter at such a jape, but perhaps these boys were not quite as invested in grisly things as he was.
A moment later, Isaac grinned. “Remind me not to try any boiled ham that I’m offered here.”
“You think you’d be offered boiled ham?” David teased, nudging his friend in the shoulder. “You’ll be lucky to get a scrap of bread. We’re not guests here, you goose, we’re criminals on trial.”
“You arenotcriminals,” Valerie insisted with a quiet chuckle, though she made sure to shoot a look at Adrian to make sure he said nothing to the contrary.
Isaac winced at the cloth wiping gently against his injury as he, too, glanced over to the duke. “We really didn’t mean no harm, Your Majesty.”
“YourGrace,” Adrian corrected in a low mutter. “And you did not meananyharm. If you “didn’t mean no harm” that means youdidmean harm. It is a double negative. Goodness, have you been taught nothing?”
