Weather Witch by Shannon Delany Read Free Book Online

warmer than she thought it would be.
    “Rowen,” Catrina warned.
    Jordan turned to look at her friend. “Fetch us drinks, please?”
    “What?” Catrina blinked. “Do I look the part of a servant?” she asked, rolling her hand down before her to draw attention to the finely wrought gown she also wore.
    “N-no,” Jordan stammered, “but neither is there a waiter or butler here.”
    “You are the hostess,” Catrina said. “Perhaps you should go and fetch drinks for Rowen and my self.”
    “I am the guest of honor,” Jordan protested.
    Catrina blinked again. “Fine. I will tote and carry.” With a flick of her wrist she opened her fan and traipsed off toward the fountain, glancing over her shoulder but once.
    “You are far too anxious, Jordan,” Rowen whispered, his eyebrows lowered. He ran a soothing hand over her forearm and she rested her other hand atop his.
    “I’m sorry. You know…”
    He nodded. “I do. And you hide your nerves well from everyone but me. If they only knew that is why you act the way you do. People love you, Jordan. You are more popular than you know.”
    She glanced down at the floor but something about her brightened. “At least, adorning your arm I am well presented and better loved for people’s love of you . You are so much better than me, Rowen.”
    He snorted. “Sixth of the Nine here.”
    “Does that truly matter?”
    He looked startled. “Yes. I think it must. Our society is built around rank and order. Rank is the most important thing we have.”
    She stiffened, hearing something so closely akin to her father’s justification for rejecting Rowen coming from Rowen’s own lips.
    “If certain things weren’t in their place…” he continued.
    “There’d be chaos.”
    He nodded.
    “Spoken like a true military man.”
    A waiter carrying a tray full of hors d’oeuvres paused before them and Rowen took a fistful, popping them into his mouth and barely chewing between bites. “A truly hungry military man.”
    Jordan was far enough into their friendship that such moves no longer stunned her. “Rowen,” she admonished softly as the servant drifted away.
    Rowen blinked at her. “Did I take too many?”
    She smiled. “Actually I half expected you to clear the entire tray. And lick the poor waiter’s hand for crumbs.” She winked at him and he straightened. “You’ve already been to the kitchens to see Cook, haven’t you?”
    He grinned, for a moment looking all of twelve. “You are stunning,” he said, dragging her toward the broad French doors and onto the veranda that stretched along one side of the estate’s back, hemming in the gardens and ending where the property dropped suddenly away.
    They walked all the way to the end of it, Rowen striding like a man on a mission.
    The Below spread out at the Hill’s foot, buildings seemingly alive and creeping with flickering lights through the shadows the deepening evening threw.
    Rowen interlaced his fingers with hers.
    “This is— improper, ” she protested.
    “Improper?” He arched an eyebrow. “You’re afraid of what someone may say about being this close here— now? ”
    “We are—again—unchaperoned…”
    “Exactly.” He leaned in, his eyes closing, and she dodged away from his willing lips, neither of them aware of Catrina standing inside the distant doors and seeing all.
    Rowen caught Jordan’s wrist and drew her close, encircling her waist with his arms.
    A breeze blew up from below, rattling the topiaried tree branches and bending them toward the raised veranda’s floor. Green leaves snapped off and spiraled around the pair’s feet as a storm built in the sky above.
    “Come. Let’s go back inside,” Jordan said.
    Rowen’s eyebrows drew together. “What is wrong?”
    “You said you had a surprise for me…”
    The metallic threads in her dress sparked like lightning traveled their careful stitches, and the wind tugged at her hair, pulling free one of her many curling locks.
    With