Truthfully, I’m the one who gets upset. I’m the one who’s never asked Muriel what she saw that day, too afraid of her pointing out where the bodies were and then me seeing them and all that blood in my mind forever more.
Aubrey swallows and nods. “All right, Cassian. I won’t ask her about it.”
We put the horses back in their stalls and bed them in with straw and food for the night. As we emerge from the stables, I glance toward the house.
“Maybe I should tell her alone that we’re getting married.”
Aubrey looks crestfallen. “Does she really hate me that much?”
I turn to her and take her face in my hands. I’ve never had to share any of my past with anyone before, and I’m doing a terrible job. “No, of course not. She just doesn’t cope well with change. The revolution really knocked the wind out of her.”
“But this is something happy. Let me come with you, please? We should do it together.”
Finally, I nod, and take her hand in mine as we walk toward the house.
Muriel is in the kitchen reading in a comfy chair. She smiles at me, but her smile falters when she sees Aubrey at my side. My fiancée’s still wearing her shimmering gown. A lady of Paravel, holding my dusty, common hand.
Muriel lays her paperback aside. “Lady’s Aubrey’s father is going to take his belt to you when he discovers you’re meddling with his daughter. I won’t have you canoodling under this roof, either, so you can cut that out right now.”
I sit in a chair with a grin and pull Aubrey down into one, too. “No canoodling here? Muriel, we haven’t got anywhere else to go.”
“Good.” She looks at Aubrey fiercely. “It’s not that I don’t like you, my lady, but you’re leading my son astray. And he is my son, no matter what his birth certificate says or what anyone thinks. I’m the one who raised him.”
My heart burns with gratitude for the old woman before me. She’s always said she loves me, no matter what, but she’s never been so protective of me as she has since the revolution. I think it scares her, this strange new world, and what it might do to me.
“Muriel, Lady Aubrey and I aren’t canoodling. We’ve already spoken to Aubrey’s father. We’re getting married.”
Muriel makes a dry, gasping noise and clutches her chest. Oh, god. Have I killed her?
“Married! What on earth are you talking about? You can’t marry into that family. It’s bad enough she rides her horse here. What would your…”
She stops herself, but I’m sure she was about to say, What would your father say?
“It doesn’t matter to me one bit what my father would think. My mother, on the other hand, would love Aubrey. They’re both horsewomen. Aubrey’s going to help me run these stables and be Mrs. Bellerose.”
Muriel looks back and forth between us, her swollen, arthritic knuckles white in her lap. “But what if something terrible happens? You never know when there might be a calamity. A revolution. A war. You two are so different, and you’re my only—” She breaks off, fumbling for a tissue and holding it over her mouth and nose.
Aubrey shoots me a pained look and bites her lip. She doesn’t like seeing Muriel upset like this, either.
I lean forward and put my hand on her arm. “I love you, Muriel. You’re the only mother I’ve ever known. You’ll always have a home with me, and I’m not going anywhere.”
She takes several minutes to compose herself, and then sits up, sniffing and dabbing her nose. I can’t imagine the things she must have seen in her lifetime. The bloodshed in Paravel, and the months she spent in the southern provinces with my father must have been terrible.
Muriel takes a long look at my bride-to-be. “You’re a nice girl, Lady Aubrey. I haven’t seen Cassian smile this much since he was a boy, but I can’t help but worry, just the same.”
“Just Aubrey, please. I won’t be lady anything for much longer.”
“And you’re all right with that?” Muriel asks, with a wrinkle of her brow.
Aubrey smiles at her, an expression of peace and happiness on her face. “I’m more than all right with that. I like being just Aubrey. I’ll leave Court up to Daddy and Wraye.”
Finally, Muriel nods. “All right, then. I hope you can both be happy here.”
Aubrey and I head outside into the evening air, hand in hand. The crickets chirp, and we hear a faint whicker from one of the horses. Aubrey takes a deep breath and gazes at the stars in the sky. I can’t tear my gaze from her, the woman who shimmers, as if she’s dressed in stars and moonlight. I can’t believe she’s actually going to be my wife.