“Your sister?”
He nodded. “Cora.”
“She’s not going to be mad if I borrow it, is she?”
Lucus’s expression went uncomfortably dark. “No,” he said, shaking his head somberly. “My sister is… no longer here.”
The statement bred all new questions in Melody’s mind. She decided, wisely, not to ask them.
“You can change in here if you like,” Lucus said, stepping back through the doorway. “Unless you’d prefer to go back to the house.”
“Here’s fine,” smiled Melody.
Lucus nodded and closed the doors behind him. The second he did, she began shimmying straight out of her ball gown.
“Oh, and Lucus?” she called after him.
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
12
Back outside, she felt immeasurably better.
The dress was thin and made from a breathable cloth that, unlike the ball gown, didn’t stick to her skin. Melody felt ten pounds lighter and five degrees cooler. She found Lucus back at work, sanding the spokes of a large carriage wheel.
“Lucus…”
This time he looked up at her. He didn’t stop sanding though.
“I’m looking for something. An object, that might be at the manor house.”
She’d made the decision to tell him while getting dressed. For some reason, despite all her trouble with trying to read him, she felt she could trust the blacksmith.
“It’s an egg,” Melody went on. She held her hands slightly apart. “About this big. Ivory chased with gold. Studded with gemstones.”
Dust flew as he sanded down hard on the wooden spokes. She saw his jaw go tight. His white teeth clenched with the effort.
“Have you seen it?”
She studied him. Usually Melody was pretty good at body language, at knowing when people were hiding something. In this case though, she got nothing. Lucus was practically unreadable.
“A jeweled egg, huh?” he asked, looking down again. His hands were strong and calloused. A man’s hands. They moved with practiced ease over the smooth wooden surface. “Are you looking to steal it?”
“No, of course not.”
“So you just want to admire it?” smirked Lucus.
She returned his smirk with one of her own. An understanding passed wordlessly between them.
“I know the object,” he said, matter-of-factly.
Her face lit up with excitement. “You do?”
“Yes. Although I haven’t seen it in a while.”
Melody knelt beside him, laying her fingers over his wrist. His hand stopped moving.