Sorrows of Adoration by Kimberly Chapman Read Free Book Online Page A

I
considered offering sympathies but did not wish to sound trite.
Instead, I avoided the subject and asked, “So you live with your
cousin’s family all of the time, then?”
    “Yes,” he replied.
“Since Kurit has no siblings, I suppose I am next in line to the
throne after him, so I have been raised alongside him.” Jarik spoke
awkwardly, and I assumed it was merely an uncomfortable topic. I
set about speaking of other things as we continued our trek.
    We crested what seemed
to be the last of the rocky hills on our route just as a
magnificent sunset coloured the sky. I stood facing the west,
admiring the spectacle of fiery lights reflecting off the bottom of
the few clouds that drifted lazily overhead. Jarik stood behind me.
After a moment he put his hand gently on my shoulder and bade me
look south.
    There I saw in the
distance the walls and towers of Endren, reflecting the deep reds
and oranges of the sunset. The city was surrounded by green hills
and glowed there like an iridescent jewel. The size of it astounded
me, even from that distance. It was all I could do to whisper,
“It’s beautiful.”
    I stared at it for some
time and then looked to Jarik to see if he was gazing fondly at his
home. Instead, I found that he was staring at me.
    “Jarik, you’re not even
seeing how lovely it is,” I said.
    He turned briefly to
glance at the city and said, “Home always looks beautiful when one
is hungry and cold.”
    “It’s more than that,”
I said, looking at it again. “I’ve never seen a city. Not a large
one with walls and towers. I always pictured them as imposing and
dreary. Endren is lovely, at least in this light.”
    I felt him touch a
stray lock of hair that had been blowing in my face all day. I
looked at him again, and my heart leapt in my chest at the
expression of tenderness in his eyes.
    “My attention seems to
have been stolen by a lovelier sight,” he said, and I felt as
though my knees had become water. He held my hair gently, letting
the wind roll it from his fingers. “Your hair, it’s like spun
copper in this light. I’ve never seen its equal. The women I know,
their hair is dark as night. I’ve admired the colour of yours by
daylight, Aenna, but it is now more enchanting than anything I’ve
ever beheld.”
    I stood very still,
fearing that if I even breathed, I would fall. These were words fit
for a bard’s love song, and this man whom I had tried not to adore
was speaking them to me. As my heart soared, he moved his hand from
my hair to my cheek. He touched me with such tenderness, caressing
my cheek so softly, that I lost the ability to withhold my
emotions. I closed my eyes and pressed my cheek into his hand.
    When I opened my eyes
again, he was gazing at me, and my heart fluttered anew.
“Everything about you is like nothing I’ve ever known,” he
murmured. “Never have I met a lady so strong, so brave, and so very
beautiful.”
    I know not why my mind
chose that moment to blurt out, “I’m not a lady,” but that’s what I
said, feeling a fast guilt for ruining his perfect words with my
bluntness.
    He put a gentle finger
to my lips as though to silence any further self-depreciation. “You
may have been born a peasant, but you are nobler than any lady I’ve
met, Aenna.” His hand moved under my chin and raised it slightly as
he moved to stand quite close to me. Before I knew what was
happening, my eyes had closed, this man was kissing me tenderly,
and the world spun about in my mind.
    An eternity passed—or a
second, I could not honestly say how long it was. But when his lips
left mine, I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me with great
affection. My heart raced such that I thought it might burst from
my chest. I felt a blush rise in my cheeks. Speechless, I could not
resist as he pulled me close to him and kissed me again, sweetly
but harder than before, with a passion that made me dizzy in his
arms.
    He moved the kiss to my
cheek, to my forehead, and then held me