Page 4 of Elemental Truth (Mysterious Fields #3)

4

OCTOBER 15TH AT brYN GLAS

T he next afternoon, Vitus came through the portal at Bryn Glas to find Thessaly waiting for him. She was still wearing the brightest clothes she could find, aggressively refusing to be in mourning for Childeric Fortier when at home. These suited her better than the last set. They were a vibrant medium blue with a robe over, open down the front with draping sleeves, of a blue-green silk embroidered with twists of waves.

It was noticeably cooler here, up in the north of Wales, than it had been in Trellech, down in the south. It was a sign of the fading of the autumn and the coming of the winter. Vitus knew that Snowdonia - looming to the east - often got a fair bit of snow. That name for it, from the Old English, meant ‘snow hill’ of course. Vitus had looked it up. Though he knew Thessaly preferred its Welsh name of Eryri. Either way, sunset was marching on, even though it was only quarter to five.

He held out his hands, and again, somehow, Thessaly flung herself into his arms. Vitus hugged her tightly, swinging her around once so he didn’t topple over, before setting her down on her feet. “Glad to see me, then?”

It wasn’t exactly that he thought she wasn’t, but the reassurance mattered unreasonably to him right now. Thessaly beamed at him. “I have been pining all day. And hoping yesterday went well. It did, didn’t it? You’d have told me if it didn’t?”

Vitus grinned. “It went very well. I’d have sent a note, but I was at Niobe’s until midnight, had an early client call, and it went from there. I want to tell you all about it. How are you doing?” She took his hand, tugging him along into the protections of the full wards. Her companion and bodyguard, Emeline, waited just inside the fence. As she had the past few times Vitus had visited, Emeline disappeared back across the lawn as soon as Thessaly closed the gate.

Instead of answering or following Emeline, Thessaly stopped. “Would you come out to the grove with me? I wanted to take the chance before it gets too cold. Or dark. We can go in and have tea after?”

“Of course.” Vitus wasn’t entirely sure what he was agreeing to. He’d seen only a limited part of the estate so far. “Inside the warding?”

“Oh, yes. Especially so. A different part of the warding, but I don’t need to tell Emeline. This way.” She tugged his hand, leading him off to the right of the house, through a different gate in the fence, and then down a long meadow. She had picked up her skirts with her free hand, obviously sure of her footing. “This is where I practise duelling, when the weather permits.” Thessaly added it. “I’m thinking about what it would take to build a proper salle. But the ground slopes and there’s the problem of someone to duel with and all the construction, and the wards. The barn’s not big enough, really, it’s long and narrow. We’d have to tear it down and rebuild.”

Vitus was glad that she had ideas for the place of some kind. “You can think about it over the winter?” He wasn’t sure what went into building a salle. Architecture was not his gift, other than knowing what was needed in his own workspaces, but he was fairly sure no one was going to start a major building project this far north so late in the calendar year. Magic could only do so much. At the end of this meadow, Thessaly kept going into a grove of trees. He could see a small orchard, what were probably apple trees, then the foliage got more dense. Thessaly went straight down the path in the middle, only stopping at a ring of trees.

She reached with her free hand to touch one of the tall trunks beside her, then nodded. “Here. I left a blanket down here. I was reading until you came.” There was, in fact, a picnic blanket spread out in the centre. “This is why the house stays in the family. It’s not a Fatae grove now, but it needs people paying a little attention to it. Just a little. And letting the Council know if there’s a problem, promptly enough.”

“Which wasn’t a problem for your aunt, or did she live here before that?” Vitus wasn’t at all sure of the timeline.

“She moved here the same year she challenged.” Thessaly let go of his hand long enough to lower herself to the blanket and pat it. “Come sit, please? Tell me how it went. I want to hear all of it.”

Vitus snorted. “I’m fairly sure you don’t want to hear all the technical details, at least without enough light to see some of the sketches and diagrams that make them make sense.” He settled into telling her about it, with enough specifics to make her happy. When he got to the end, the conversations after supper, he told her about Florent Montague. Thessaly did a thing with her mouth that he was fairly sure meant she wasn’t saying about six things.

He was never sure how far to press her and he didn’t want to be clumsy about it. She’d had more than enough of that already. At the same time, he wanted to know what she was thinking. “Kiss for your thoughts?” It seemed more pleasant than a coin of whatever size.

That made her laugh and turn her toward him. “That’s a fair trade.” He didn’t linger as much over the kiss as he might have in other circumstances. It was getting darker, especially under the trees, and if they were going to have a bit more of a romp together, like they had a fortnight ago, he was hoping for less in the way of clothing. That would be tedious outside even without the cold. He was not fond of grit in sensitive places.

“Sunday, when I’d rather have been with you, that was the announcement of Sigbert as the Fortier heir. It wasn’t a large gathering, not by their standards, thirty people with the immediate family. I saw Florent and Aline Montague both, but not to talk to. Aline was mostly staying near Laudine.” Thessaly pursed her lips. “They talked to me - Laudine and Dagobert - right at the end. After Henut Landry.”

Thessaly got part way into the explanation of the conversation with Henut, before Vitus coughed. “Did that strike you as odd, then? What did she say?”

“At the time,” Thessaly said, “I was nervous about our having been obvious. Though when I thought about it after, I don’t think she meant any of the things about you as a threat. Not to us, anyway?”

“I feel like Henut Landry could make a simple ‘good morning’ into a threat any time she wanted to.” Vitus said with some force. “I am grateful to her - the flat continues to be excellent, her easing the way was a gift. But I do not know what she wants.” He hesitated, then added, “I returned a few sheets of paper that had slipped behind Philip’s desk, but they did not seem to be more than ordinary notes on something he was reading.”

“I have no idea either. Except that it pleased her to have someone want to remember Philip. It must be horrid for her, really. None of the Fortiers have been paying her much mind at all. Except maybe Laudine and Dagobert. She was different about them, said she wished them well. Or at least she wished Laudine well and did not wish Dagobert ill now that he’s listening to his wife. As if maybe she did not have the same wish for the rest of them. She specifically told me not to consider Sigbert.”

“And the rest of the family?” Vitus was trying to figure that out. “Laudine wasn’t at the Challenge.”

“Oh!” Thessaly shook her head once, a wisp of hair coming down. Vitus reached out to brush it back, almost instinctively, and she smiled at him. “She’s expecting. It’s very early yet, but no portal travel for her, unless it’s entirely urgent.”

Vitus blinked. “Not the sort of thing they generally tell unmarried and unrelated men. We are meant to sort it out by guesswork, I think, without ever commenting on it.” It came out of his mouth before he could think of anything more sensible. “I hope that goes well, then. I suppose that’s why her parents were more visible?”

“Probably,” Thessaly agreed. “I’m envious of that. Probably? But Laudine seemed to appreciate them being there. It’s the rest of it I don’t know about.”

Vitus thought about what Thessaly had said so far. “Henut warned you away from Sigbert. Did you need warning?” His voice got an odd note in it at the end, wrong somehow.

Thessaly twisted a bit, reaching to touch his cheek. “Are you jealous? Are you worried you should be jealous? I don’t really know how that works.”

Vitus tried to look away, but her hand meant he really couldn’t, not without making it much more of an issue. “Yes? No? I don’t know. I don’t much like feeling whatever this is.”

“I find Sigbert - at least at the moment - definitely an improvement over Childeric. But Childeric was charming until we were betrothed, and I am not remotely inclined to make the same mistake twice. That is an exceedingly poor strategy.” She met his eyes. “Certainly Sigbert is not who I’ve been waiting to see.”

Vitus swallowed a little at that. “Part of me is very sure of that. Part of me might need some additional convincing, at some point. It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that I don’t - this is new to me too, mostly?”

“Also,” Thessaly said, more softly. “Magistra Landry had opinions about people, and I am still trying to sort out what I think about that. Nothing in it adds up tidily, beyond Childeric having been— well. As he was.” Then she nodded more decisively. “Right. In that case, shall we pack up the blanket and go inside, and up to my rooms, and— actually, there’s something I’d like to show you? Talk about a little, not do anything with, not right away?”

“Now I’m intensely curious.” Vitus liked the idea of more time with her, and in more comfortable seating. He pushed himself upright on one hand, then stood, before offering her his hands to help her up. A minute or two later, they had the blanket folded, and he tucked it under one arm. They walked back to the house not talking much. It was dark enough to need to pay attention to where their feet were going, even with a charmlight to help.

Once Thessaly had brought him upstairs, Vitus wasn’t sure what to do with himself. “Sit, please.” She waved him at the sofa. “Or could you pull that table over, in the middle, so I can put a book or two on it? How long can you stay?”

“I have an early consult tomorrow morning.” Vitus said, regretfully. “An hour or so? I can get supper at home. Cook was putting something aside for me. My parents are out.”

“This might be a little distracting. Are you sure?” Thessaly flushed, rather prettily.

Vitus watched her, tilting his head. “Now I’m entirely curious. What sort of distracting?”

She brought over two books, with little to show what was in them on the spine or cover, both larger. “The sort of distracting like two weeks ago. And I don’t think we have time for too much more experimentation.” She sucked in a breath. “Aunt Metaia made it clear to me, when we were talking, not long before she was killed, that she might not have married, but she wasn’t an untouched maiden, either. I wondered if she had anything in her more private library, up here, that might...”

“Naughty books?” Vitus blinked. “Oh.” He took a deep breath to steady himself, not that it helped. “And you found some?”

“Naughty books. Naughty pictures. They have given me some ideas.” Thessaly settled down next to him. He was again suddenly aware of the fact she was not wearing any of the underpinnings beneath her tea gown that were a bit more like armour. He could feel her hip against his, then she leaned forward to open one book. The first pages were more or less innocuous, a man and woman sitting beside each other on a settee, much as he and she were right now.

Vitus said, before he could stop himself, “I have not found I needed a book for ideas. I’ve dreamt of you. Waking and sleeping, though I suppose the one is more a fantasy than a dream.” He’d permitted himself to indulge that fantasy at most once a day. There was far too little time in his life. And also, he found the idea of taking such things too far without her active encouragement to be a trifle uncomfortable.

“Have you, really?” Her hand moved, settling on his thigh, not entirely indelicate, but certainly tending that way. “I like that idea very much. I certainly have thought a fair bit about you. And the books encouraged me to, what’s the word...”

“Explore yourself? Touch yourself?” Vitus could hear his breath catching.

“That.” Thessaly said it precisely, though it was not at all prim. “Perhaps we might look and talk a little more about our respective desires, to give more shape, until we can find a proper time to enjoy them? When we can linger, no rushing.”

“Please.” It came out of him like a groan. The anticipation might well kill him, but it would be such a delightful way to go. As Thessaly slowly turned the pages, it became clear that she was interested in a great deal, much of which he had at least some experience with. She was unsure about anything that might cause discomfort, at least in a sense intended also for pleasure. But she was intrigued by the idea of charms for pleasure and sensation. And Vitus certainly had trained his skills at picking up enchantments cast with the fingers. Thessaly had as well.

The pictures - and the accompanying text - illustrated a range of positions. They seemed more or less agreed on which ones they wanted to try first. They both favoured those that allowed for freely moving hands and mouths and eyes— and those that didn’t. There was also an entire category of positions that seemed likely to require flexibility and strength Vitus was not confident he could provide. Thessaly was more optimistic about that set.

“They do say duelling is good for a number of things. Not, of course, that the men discuss that where I can hear, and the women I’ve duelled don’t either. Not while I’m unmarried, anyway. But there are whispers. I could consider that.” It would take a lot of strength in her thighs, Vitus thought, to ride him that way.

“I would certainly be delighted to try it, in due course. Once we’ve done some simpler things.” He slipped an arm around her waist, then. “And you were saying you wanted to pick up your duelling drills again.”

“I did.” Thessaly leaned her head against him, sounding contented. “Shall we save the other book for another time? I rather like just sitting here with you.”

Vitus liked that very much as well, the weight of her body against his and the warmth of her. And there was the scent of the perfume or soap or whatever it was that scented her hair and skin. He would, in fact, like to stay here for approximately eternity, except that of course he had obligations. He cleared his throat, and asked what she was up to with the rest of the house, letting her talk about how she was moving things around. She didn’t want to put things away, exactly, certainly she didn’t want to repaint or put up new wallpaper. It was more a matter of rearranging books and art and other smaller furnishings.

When she walked him back out to the portal, she kissed him once more, taking her time. “We’ll find time soon. Promise me?”

“Promise.” It was the easiest promise he’d ever made.