Library

Seleste, Then

SELESTE

T ink .

With a start, Seleste looked up from her notes toward the window. Goddess , the moon was already high in the night sky, its pink glow the only light in her room aside from the golden orb of magic she'd conjured hours ago when the sun began to set.

Tink…tink .

"What in Hades?" She rose from her hunched position on the bed, her back smarting at the first movement in too long. Striding to the window, she pulled the yellow curtains further open. Peering out into the night, she saw nothing of note at first. Then— tink —a tiny pebble hit the glass right in front of her face. She threw open the window and bent out. " Cal ," she whispered before she had even leaned far enough to see his face.

He gave her a bemused grin, looking up at her from the lush, grassy lawn. "How did you know it was me down here?" He shook his head. "Never mind, just come down. I have to know what you've deciphered with the code!" The note of excitement in his tone was unmistakable.

"It's the middle of the night!"

"Who cares?" That grin of his was becoming more and more regular, and it made her knees weak. "Come down!"

With little regard for what the others in the house might make of it if she were caught, Seleste dashed from the window, slipping her feet into her shoes and the decoded letter into her pocket. With a heady bounce in her step, she made her way out of her room and down the hall, grateful she hadn't yet changed into her nightclothes. It would have been a great inconvenience to her excitement, had she been forced to halt and change clothes. She might have even second-guessed the whim that had a hold on her. And she did not want to second-guess this.

Tip-toeing through the house, Whitehall suddenly felt impossibly large, as if she'd never make it to the back gardens. It had grown in the way time and space do when what you want sits firmly on the other side of it. At last, Seleste reached the back door and turned the key, opening it to find Cal sitting on the step, drumming his fingers impatiently. As if, perhaps, time had drawn out like dripping honey for him, too, as he'd waited for her to come down.

The moment he saw her, he stood, brushing dirt from his pants. "Well?" The moonlight shining in his eyes magnified the enthusiasm glowing there. "You solved it, didn't you?"

Her heart gave a little tumble at his confidence in her, despite knowing relatively nothing about her. "I did," she beamed. "Save for one line that I was working on when you arrived at my window." Her elation at present was two-fold, and she feared her cheeks would begin to hurt for how wide she was smiling.

"One line… " he mused, his eyes playfully narrowed. "Is the letter a missive?"

"Close," she teased, "but not quite."

"A personal letter?" Cal was nearly giddy and Seleste couldn't help but giggle.

"A love letter," she confirmed and he looked like a child in a confection shop.

"And you can translate it? From the old language?"

Seleste preened. "I already have."

"Save for the one line?"

"Save for the one line."

"Did you bring it down? Tell me you have it with you."

Seleste laughed again. "I do."

Cal reached out and grabbed her wrist, tugging her along. "I know the perfect place to read it."

The pair moved through the gardens and onto a trodden path in the grass that Seleste knew led to the bay. She was far too high in the clouds to long consider how their excursion might look, or that she should pull her hand from his grasp. Cal gave no indication that either thought crossed his mind in the slightest.

By the time they arrived at the beach, Seleste was laughing like a child, memories flashing in her mind of rushing through the cirque toward a kissing booth with Sorscha. The same butterflies and thrill were certainly swirling through her.

Sand kicked up behind them as they made their way near the water's edge, the dark, gentle waves of Noir Bay lapping against the shore. Abruptly, Cal stopped and sat hard in the sand, pulling Seleste down next to him as she laughed.

"One would think this letter was for you, milord, for how mad you're acting," she teased.

"It might as well be, for how excited I am to hear what it says after all that work on the cypher." He waved impatiently at her, anticipation pouring off of him. "What does it say?"

Cheeks beginning to ache pleasantly, Seleste took out the letter and unfolded it. "Are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"You're certain?"

" Seleste ," he growled, and she chuckled, trying to hide the wave of heat that went through her when he'd said her name, forgoing any attempt at propriety.

"All right, all right." She cleared her throat delicately and began to read.

Mi Amor,

Every breath without you is torture. The only reprieve for my heart is the battlefield, but the moment I leave it, I am reminded that you are no longer there in our tent when I return to camp to wash the blood away. I hear your voice in my dreams. I smell your sweet perfume when I wake.

Have I told you how much I adore you? How pleased I am to have you as my wife? All I wish for in this life is to grow old and grey with you, with our family surrounding us. When I return from this place, the war over, I think?————————————————————————-

Soon, I will be with you again, mi amor, and nothing will separate us.

All my love,

Igor

"Goddess," Cal breathed when she was done. "Do you think he made it back to her?"

Seleste sniffled. "I don't know. I certainly hope so." She pointed to the line that was cut off. "I haven't yet figured out this line. In the old language, it seems he wants to begin their family when he returns, but he's mentioned a place that doesn't seem familiar to me. That is where I was stumbling when you arrived."

Cal held out his hand. "May I?"

Seleste nodded and handed him the tattered, ancient letter. She watched as he chewed on his bottom lip, squinting at her jumbled, crossed-out guesses in the moonlight. When he looked up, he seemed conflicted, his brow drawn low.

"Do you…believe in other realms?" he asked her cautiously.

Seleste almost laughed but was uncertain where such a precarious conversation would lead. Ultimately, she decided to be truthful. "I do. "

Cal's face brightened. "Most do not." He sounded impressed. "I mostly stick to anatomical study, but I once dabbled in occult theory concerning other realms."

A pause as he gauged her reaction. Despite wanting to widen her eyes, Seleste held her features placid to ensure he would continue. "Go on," she urged gently.

Cal moved his hands with more animation than she'd ever seen from him. "It was interesting, to say the least. Of course, not much is known about other realms, or even if they're definitively real, but…" He bit his bottom lip.

"Whatsoever you say will stay between us, I assure you. This is a safe place."

If she could read him better, she would have thought the look in his eyes was a pained relief. As if, perhaps, he'd never had someone offer him complete safety and freedom to speak his mind. Was that why he was usually so sombre?

Gods, he was subduing himself…

He cleared his throat and sat up straighter, pointing to her scribbles. "This that you have here, scratched out, is one of the places I saw in my studies of the realms. I remember it because my grandfather had a horse with the same name when I was a boy. Alban. It is said to be the capital of a land called Orford."

"In another realm?" Seleste was beginning to feel as if she'd had one too many glasses of wine.

Cal nodded with a little shrug. "Could it be possible?"

Seleste shook her head, amazed. "I don't know how this letter could have come to be here in our realm, but I am willing to entertain even the most mad of theories." Something sparked in his eyes at her words and Seleste's stomach flipped. "I was wrong about you," she murmured without thinking.

Cal huffed a laugh. "Is that so?"

"I must admit that I thought you a bit spoiled and rude, at first."

He chuckled, the sound descending into a deep sigh. "I keep to myself mostly. I don't fit into this world of the beau monde ." The last words were said with sufficient mocking. "I—" He looked down at his hands, where he was picking at his thumbnails. "I want to be a surgeon. And my family doesn't understand it. Medicine is not a place for a lord. I'm supposed to spend my days at gentlemen's clubs and gaming rooms, not lecture halls and surgical theatres."

"Aristocracy can be a cage."

He looked at her curiously. "A cage for those within, a tyrant for those without."

Seleste swallowed, something between them pulling taut.

"Forgive my saying so," he said softly, his eyes searching, "but you are not what I expected either." She watched his throat bob as he swallowed. "I find you exceedingly interesting."

She smiled coyly, one dark eyebrow raised. "For a maid?"

He started. "No?—"

"For a woman, then?" she teased further.

"As a person ." The seriousness of his tone and the intensity of his gaze pushed her teasing away. "Where did you learn of existentialism "—she grinned at his exaggeration of the word—"and cyphers?"

Seleste folded her hands in her lap, missing the tinkling sound her bracelets made when she was home and not in a maid's uniform without them. She heard Winnie whisper caution , but threw her voice to the wind, letting it get lost in the sea. What were Summer nights with a handsome boy for if not vulnerability and deep conversations beneath Madam Moon and her sparkling fellows?

Life is meant to be lived , Sorscha's voice whispered on the lazy waves.

"My parents died when I was just a girl. I was taken in by the kindest soul I've ever known, and she taught me anything I wished to know." Seleste smiled fondly. "She was incredibly intelligent and cultured, to boot."

Cal looked at her for a long moment before saying, "Why here, then?"

She knew what he meant was: why are you a maid, then? And that was not so easily answered.

She shrugged. "Intelligence does not equate to a full stomach for a woman, let alone one of colour." The truth in a far broader scope.

His cheeks flushed in the moonlight and he looked down, sifting sand through his fingers. "I'm sorry. That was foolish of me. My father persistently mocks me for being too idealistic."

A little pang shot through Seleste's heart. "A better realm has to begin somewhere."

Cal's gaze met hers again, his blue eyes sharp, full of something she couldn't quite decipher. "I agree." That gaze dropped to her lips briefly before he cleared his throat and stood, brushing sand from his lap. "I shall escort you back to your room, Lady Seleste."

She laughed at his usage of a title she did not bear, and he helped her up.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.