What was he doing here? Shouldn’t he be throwing stones at Keelynn’s window instead of mine?
He must’ve seen me because he started waving his arms. I should go back to bed and let him stay outside in the cold. If I was lucky, a hungry shapeshifting pooka would find him and gobble him up.
Another stone hit my window. He bent and picked up a handful of gravel from the path, making it clear he wouldn’t stop until I answered.
I unlocked the latch and lifted the sash. Damp, chilly air smelling of fish twisted my lace curtains. Robert jogged to the trellis attached to the exterior wall, rattling the ivy as he climbed until he reached me, pink-cheeked and winded.
“What are you doing here, Robert? It’s the middle of the night.”
“I needed to speak with you.” He nodded to the dark room. “Can I come in?”
“It’s not appropriate for a man to enter a lady’s private quarters.”
“Don’t be such a prude, Aveen. It’s bloomin’ freezing out here.”
He could call me names all he wanted. He wasn’t coming in.
Cursing under his breath, he adjusted his white-knuckled grip on the sill. “Did you tell Keelynn that you saw me today?”
“Of course I did.” Didn’t he realize that she was so in love with him he was the first thing she spoke of every morning and likely the last thought in her head at night?
“Was she upset? I don’t want her making more of this than it is. I took a stroll with an old friend and lost track of time. That’s all.”
“Is that all it was?” I folded my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes. Did he think I was a fool? “Silly me. I must’ve imagined your hand on your ‘old friend’s’ backside then.”
Wincing, he dragged himself closer, propping his ribcage on the sill with a groan and settling his damp, frozen fingers over mine. “I care for you sister and—”
Had he forgotten that I wasn’t a simpleton? Keelynn deserved someone better than a faithless lout who discarded women the moment another pretty face passed by.
I ripped my hand away, scrubbing it against my thigh. “It’s time for you to go.”
“Aveen, please. I love—”
“If you don’t leave, I will scream.” He had until the count of three before I shoved him off the side of the building. Hearing his bones crunch when he hit the ground would be worth the repercussions.
When Robert tried to grab my hand again, I stepped away. “One.”
“You’re such a—”
“Two.”
“I’m going, dammit.” He removed his hands from the window ledge to clasp the trellis. “No one will ever love you once they meet the miserable woman beneath all those false smiles and feigned manners. You think you know me, but I know you too—”
I slammed the window shut and dusted my hands off on my shift. The nerve of him. Waking me to plead on his behalf.
No one will ever love you.
I didn’t need someone to love me.
I needed someone to marry me.
“Lover’s quarrel?” a lilting voice asked.
A tingling sensation slipped up my shift as I spun toward the bed. On my mattress, with his ankles crossed and hands behind his head, was the man from the shed.
“How did you get in here?” The door was closed, and he sure as hell hadn’t used the window. What if Robert had seen him? Or Keelynn heard us? Or my father? This was my bedroom, my sanctuary. No man except my father had set foot inside this room. And now one was lying on my bloody bed.
“I evanesced,” he said.