A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [58]
“Lily is a good woman. I’ve been hers for a long time.” He paused for a moment, wondering how much to say to her so soon. He couldn’t make promises this early, not to a woman he’d seen only once before and who now was convinced he was the father of her child. “She’s quite old. She’s told me to watch for a new master, someone who would want to be with me for the rest of their life.”
Sally’s breath caught. “How’s your search going?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said honestly, and she ducked her head, blushing and excited while at the same time afraid. Too soon, he thought. It was too soon to think of such things. It had been nineteen years since he’d seen this woman and he knew nothing about her other than what he could feel inside of her now and what he’d been told in the inn. He didn’t want to leap in, unthinking, as so many of his fellows would, and end up in another bond that would give him everything he needed except for that deep soul tie. He loved Lily, would always love Lily, but she hadn’t given that to him. He didn’t blame her for this and she had his loyalty. He was her reward, she’d told him once, her reward for the hard life she’d had to live.
More, Mace didn’t want to fall in love right away and then find out that Lily didn’t approve of whom he’d found. He didn’t want to have Lily tell him that Sally couldn’t be with him after he’d already given his heart to her. For now, he tried not to think about it and instead focused on the issue of the boys and how they were going to get them back.
“Lily cares for orphans in the Valley,” he explained. “Jayden is the youngest one left. She hasn’t taken any new children for a long time. She’s in her eighties now, and she’s been doing this for thirty years.” His voice turned sardonic. “There have been a lot of children, but most have moved out. There’s just Jayden now, and a few older girls who are about to leave and get married.”
“So Jayden was alone growing up?” Sally asked.
Mace half waded and half crunched across a spring that had a thin layer of ice covering six inches of water. Sally pulled her feet up to avoid being splashed, while Ruffles jumped to the other side. “It didn’t seem that way. He was always following me around.”
“He must have loved you.”
Mace stopped, regarding her out of one eye in surprise. If Jayden loved him, it was buried under a morass of boy emotions that he’d never bothered to pay attention to before. “Why would he love me? Battle sylphs don’t like men.”
Sally smiled sadly and stroked his neck. “What does how someone else feels in return have to do with the heart?”
Mace snorted. “If he’s supposed to love me, why did he run away?”
Sally’s emotions turned very sad. “Maybe because he’s like my Travish and wanted more?” she suggested. “How else was he supposed to get your attention?”
Mace just snorted again and continued on.
They traveled only a few more miles into the woods before Mace stopped, finding a clear piece of land, the ground soft with dried pine needles and clear of snow thanks to old overhanging trees. These left a wide area underneath that was tall enough to stand in and be protected from the wind. Reaching it, Mace knelt down, and Sally giggled as she dismounted. Happy, Ruffles ran around them both and then sat to scratch her ear.
Mace shifted into human form, Sally watching wonderingly as he did. There were still a few women in the Valley who were unnerved by the sylph ability to change shape; it was nice to see a woman immediately so unafraid.
It was cold out, so Mace gathered wood for a fire, setting it ablaze with a flick of power. Sally looked at that in delight, and she went to sit across from him, hands held out toward the flame.
“Do you think we’ll find our son and your friend?” she asked, staring at the crackling blaze. Her confidence seemed less now, even though they were doing something. She wasn’t a woman used to being allowed to do anything, Mace thought. Not since that night.
“Of course,” he told her. The only other option was to see her sad, and he