Page 10 of Velvet Folds (Velvet)

Chapter 10

In which our hero accepts his ignorance

What she wants.

Trapped in my windowless rooms, pacing, unable to sleep, my mind rolls over the words again and again.

What does she want?

It should be the most important thing to me, and all I’ve considered is what I thought she would want.

I am a fool.

“You are going to wear a hole in the stones,” Tybald says from the shadowed arch where Lucia disappeared hours ago.

“Possibly. But they’ve stood for a thousand years, they will withstand my abuse.”

“I do not like to see you agitated like this,” he says. “It makes me nervous.”

“Should I worry that you’ll start carrying a stake with you.”

“No. Should I worry that you’ll risk burning your flesh by trying to go to her?”

“No.” I may want her every moment of the night and dream of her when slumber takes me, but I cannot leave the rest of the people under my care vulnerable.

I could pretend that was why I wanted to keep her here with me. I could pretend that it was not for selfish reasons, but I won’t.

I know better.

“How does one court a human woman?”

Tybald’s laugh is a sharp and sudden thing. “I would not have the first idea.”

“You were married.”

“Yes, but that was an arrangement, made by our parents when we were too young to know how to tell them no. One that we were both happier with when I left to hunt monsters and she was allowed to do as she pleased without me.” He takes a deep breath. “Even if I knew, I do not know how a vampire courts a human woman.”

The way that he says it makes me think there is more.

“What is it?”

“I am glad, at least, that she will tell you ‘no’ when you need to hear it.”

Of course he is.

But he’s right. There is no answer to find for my question.

Not here. Not until nightfall. Because there is only one person who knows, and when I find her tonight, I will ask her.

“I need to speak to Mrs. Pegg.”

Tybald winces. The two of them do not get along. But today, they must.