Fair Maiden by Cheri Schmidt Read Free Book Online Page B

she was a complete fool? Or was
it because things in her day were done that way? She really wished the witch
had not put the idea in her head at all! She could never have him! A dead girl
could never wed a living man! Yet she wanted it. Desperately. And hated herself
for it.
    He stepped toward her again; she drifted back in equal
measure.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “We came so close to finding out who
you are. She knew your name, yet would not tell us. It’s just so infuriating!”
    Staying here and looking at his handsome face was simply too
much, and she continued to drift backward watching his expression change.
    “Don’t go. Stay,” he whispered.
    Shaking her head, she dropped her gaze and did not stop
until after she’d drifted through the wall. She was unable to help the tears
that stood in her eyes and remained unwilling to face him for fear of letting
him see what she was feeling, what she was wishing….
     
    The next morning she noticed him seated on the grass under
the big willow tree situated at the far corner of the garden. Reading. His face
turned up suddenly, he looked directly at her, and smiled. She had no clue how
he’d been able to sense her presence already.
    “Come, darling, sit with me.”
    She found herself moving toward him without first giving
herself permission to do so. It seemed she could not resist him, even against
her better judgment.
    Any willpower she might have had further weakened because he
looked particularly dashing this morning. His hair looked rather mussed as
though he’d been worrying his fingers through it for hours, and his clothes
were partially undone. He wore a white shirt and a gray…what had he called it?
A tie? But the top three buttons of the shirt were open and the tie hung untied
around his neck slanting down either side of his chest. It seemed he’d slept in
his attire from the previous day.
    “I’ve been up all night researching faeries,” he said as she
hovered above him. “Darling, do they exist?”
    Hmm, she thought, apparently he had slept in that, or
rather, spent the wee hours of the night in those rumpled black leggings and
that odd tunic.
    “I-I do not know,” she replied unwilling to meet his gaze.
    He patted the grass next to him, and whilst nibbling her
lip, she lowered to the spot of green there.
    Still keeping her eyes from his, she considered his book,
which he’d closed but kept his thumb in it to hold his place.
    One word sprawled across the cover. Faeries .
    “Have you found anything?”
    With a crackling sound from the spine, Christian tossed the
book back open. “We came so close to solving this mystery. Yet this was the
only lead she’d offered. These little sprites must be dripping with magic. I’m
certain they could help you, if only we could find them.”
    She stared at the illustrations of little people with
butterfly wings sprouting from their backs, and little antenna protruding from
the tops of their tiny heads. “I truly do not expect you to labor so diligently
for me, or spend your gold on me. I can see it is hopeless.”
    “I don’t think it’s hopeless.”
    “How? Or rather, why do you care?”
    He stammered before responding and reached for her hand
again, watching as his fingers drifted through hers. “I care. Isn’t that
enough?”
    She suspected he did not share all he was thinking, mainly
because of the tone of his voice that said as much. And the foolish hopes from
last night slammed into her again. Was he hoping for the same? The idea really
did not help to smother her unattainable fantasies.
    “Princess?”
    She lifted her eyes to his and wished she had not done so,
because she was instantly lost in the rich brown flecks of those warm orbs. Her
gaze slid over his smiling lips and that dimple she so loved before returning
to his eyes.
    “Rest your lovely head here, on my lap.” He shoved the book
to the ground, clearing a spot. Not that it would have mattered, either way she
would not be able to feel