Page 51 of The Wind and the Wild (The Keepers of Faerie #1)

Shaking myself, I get into the water while it’s still only a little warm, curling into a ball before gathering the soaps off the wall and washing my hair until the whole room smells of herbs and sweet pea and honeysuckle.

Dipping under the surface, I hold my breath until my lungs are close to bursting before sitting and shoving my hair out of my face.

Una is most certainly going to kill me.

I can’t bring myself to mind. If it were Niall in that library, she’d bonk me over the head with my own milk pail if I tried to hinder her return.

Is that what Aidyn and I are to each other?

It was nothing like the one other kiss I’ve had, with that man I don’t wish to think about.

Truth be told, it was not much of a kiss at all, just a chaste brush of the lips, almost mistakable for nothing.

I touch my fingers to my lips, considering with a long sigh.

If I were a little braver, I might have tried for another this morning.

Apparently, I am not so brave as I sometimes feel.

As far as I know, that little bit of strong wine muddled his thoughts. Perhaps he does not remember he did it and will not do it again.

I sigh.

When the sun is finally peeking over the trees, sending light through the washroom window, I force myself out of the cooling bath, then dunk my hair into a pail of fresh water until it is clean of soap before plastering it back into two short braids while it’s wet and manageable.

It’s already warming, and I find the thinnest dress I have.

Peering out the front door, I ensure no one is wandering up the path, then head to the barn.

Down in the village, I see a particular head of golden hair pause as Una catches sight of me.

I hurry into the barn, head down. If she’s going to come shriek at me, at least she’ll do it away from the eyes of the village.

The village may hear her, but I can’t do much about that other than run back into the woods, which wouldn’t improve the situation.

I’m halfway through filling the milk pail when I feel myself being watched. Glancing sideways, I find Una standing in the doorway, hands on hips, and suddenly wonder if I shouldn’t have come into the barn, where there are plenty of objects to be flung at my head.

“ Before you leave my body in the woods,” I say, “ I’ll have you know I did not stay overnight by choice, and I had a very frightening time.”

The glare remains, as do the angry shoulders.

“ I’m almost entirely certain something nearly ate me,” I tell her conversationally, though the memory has me shivering in the hot morning. “ But in case you need further reason to like Aidyn, I’m also certain he killed it, or close. It was too dark to find my way back, so I slept there.”

Her eyebrow goes up.

“ Don’t worry,” I mutter a little bitterly. “ He didn’t ravish me in my sleep.”

Despite the evident curiosity, I see her eyeball the nearby stack of hay. She can’t lift one of the bales on her own, but I imagine she might very well try.

Finishing the milking, I scoot around on the stool, careful of my ankle. “ It really was an accident.”

Finally, she says, “ What’d I say I would do if you didn’t come back by sundown?”

“ Cry at me?”

“ That is correct.”

“ Does it help that I cried when I was there?”

“ No! ”

I stare at her for a long moment. “ Can you just cry at me now so I expect it?”

She throws her hands into the air. “ Niamh!”

A distant part of me remembers that Aidyn was once by this barn and that he could be eavesdropping and hear my name being spoken. A larger part of me doesn’t care.

“ Does it help that I cried in front of Aidyn?”

She glowers and chews on her lips. “ Was it embarrassing?”

“ A little.”

“ Then yes, a little.”

I don’t mention that I’ll be visiting him again. She doesn’t need to hear it right now, and it’ll do me good to stay here for a few hours.

“ You look terrible,” she tells me, still eyeing that hay bale.

“ I feel terrible. If anyone else asks, I slipped and fell down a hill, all right?”

“ No one will believe that.”

I shrug. “ Whatever alternative they come up with, it still won’t be what happened.”

“ And you’re going back, aren’t you?”

Or I’ll tell her now. “ Yes. I know what’s wrong with him now.”

This has her attention. She squints at me, glances over her shoulder, and then kicks some of the hay beneath her shoes. “ I’m going to get gray hair. You’re going to give me gray hair.”

“ I really am sorry.”

“ Well, don’t be so genuine. I’m trying to be angry! ”

I put my face in my hands so she won’t see me smirk. “ Una, I can’t even believe it was all real.”

Footsteps announce themselves, and I have a moment of panic before Niall slides into view, skidding to a halt on the straw.

He opens his mouth before Una’s hand flies up. “ I already yelled at her! She’s going to say something incredible, I can tell—don’ t interrupt! ”

His mouth clicks shut, but he evens a stare at the back of her head. They most certainly were planning an ambush.

Finally, he says, “ If you ever make me come into Faerie to get you, whatever is in there won’t be nearly as scary as I’ll be.”

“ Don’t ever come into Faerie looking for me.”

“ Don’t ever make me .”

I clamp down on the childish desire to stick my tongue out at him. He scowls but looks more relieved than anything, hugging me before glaring out the barn door as if he’s too angry to speak. It isn’ t convincing.

“ You—” Una points at me. “ I’m going to get my dress, because I was worried about you yesterday and didn’t finish it, and you’re going to tell me everything.”

Niall clears his throat.

“ Tell us everything—are you limping?”

“ I twisted my ankle. I fell.”

Glowering, Niall stomps over and picks up the milk, muttering something I can’t make out while he stalks to the house. Una and I exchange glances before she remembers she’s angry for the same reason. “ Get in the house!”

“ The chickens—”

“ I’ll feed the chickens!” Niall hollers from the other side of the barn.

I manage not to smile. It’s such a vastly different world on this side of the trees. It doesn’t call to me nearly as much, but the people certainly do.

“ Does it help at all that Aidyn threatened to, er . . . remove Blain’s . . . manhood? ”

Una ’s mouth pops open, and then she turns on her heel and trots off to get her sewing. It doesn’t hide her giggling as she hurries down the path. Niall is giving me such an odd look when I round the door of the barn that I know he’s trying to keep a hard expression.

Finally, he says, “ Introduce me to him. I’ll help.”

Rolling my eyes, I limp inside after him, trying to piece together everything that happened the day before so that I can properly tell them the story.

It is not long before I return, pausing once where the trees meet the village clearing to glance at the meadow valley where the dancing will take place. Another storm is gathering heavy in the air. I’m relieved not to find any familiar wagons or horses or pale heads of hair I don’t wish to see.

Closing my eyes, I find the now-familiar woods about the library and the gentle tendril of smoke from the correct chimney.

“ Aidyn!” I call, trotting ungracefully through the walls of books mostly on one foot, the ingredients I need for the piecrust set over my arm in a smaller basket.

There’s extra bread, cheese, honey Una pilfered from her own pantry, and what I took from my own to make him more soup, but it isn’t a heavy burden.

It’s not as if I have more medicines I can unsuccessfully pester him to utilize.

Before I can call out again, a soft breeze swirls down from the upper level. Relief lodges in my chest. He is evidently well enough to be sending a bit of magic my way.

“ Are you cooking?” comes his voice from above. “ I shall come down.”

“ Yes!” I call, feeling strangely shy to return after the events of last night.

Spreading my things out on the kitchen table, I find a pot of something already warm on the stove. Aidyn appears momentarily, walking slowly but with straight, comfortable shoulders. He pauses in the doorway, and we regard each other in the late-afternoon light sent through the dusty window.

His lips quirk.

“ Why so concerned?” he asks, as if I were not forced to take a knife to his skin less than a full day ago. As he says it, his eyes flicker to my neck where the bee stung me, then to my ankle I’m leaning off.

Why so concerned, indeed.

I peer up at him, trying to pretend my thoughts are not swirling on whether or not he meant to kiss me. “ How do you feel?”

He wrinkles his nose, gazes at the ceiling, and says, “ Lazy.”

I tamp down the sudden desire to smack him with one of his own pillows. “ Don’t test me, faerie.”

My fake annoyance only has him pressing his lips together, mouth crinkling at the corners. I suppose if he’s well enough for this amount of amusement, he can’t be suffering. Hopefully he got more sleep.

Watching him pull the loaf of bread from my basket and press it to his nose, I tell him, “ I’m going to make a plum pie.”

“ Mmm,” he says, nose still in the bread as he takes a deep breath.

Una thinks him much more frightening than he is.

“ What did you make on the stove? Were you walking much?”

“ I told you I am perfectly able to cook for myself,” he tells me, unbothered.

While he takes a knife to the bread, I open the pot to find some sort of dish of a variety of mushrooms he must’ve taken from the nearby trees. I decide not to give him grief about walking... yet.

“ What are these?” I ask mildly. “ Have you found something else poisonous to eat?”

Handing me a slice of bread, he deposits a tied-up cloth into my hand. I find a bundle of leftover wood hedgehog mushrooms, perfectly edible.

“ These usually grow in the fall,” I tell him, and he shrugs.

“ Faerie, ” he says. At my even stare, he supplies, “ They were sprouting under the edge of the library. A few dozen paces.”