Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
I’m grateful that she’s not trying to push for anything more. I get the sense that she’d be happy to set us up together if she thought that there was any interest, and I don’t have it in me to fight her on that. He’s made himself clear, and the best I can do is listen to him and move the hell on with whatever my life is going to look like here.
When I overheard him telling Lucy that he was going to visit his brother and his wife, Riley, something in me perked up – Riley sounds like a pretty modern name to me, and I want to know if she might be able to shed some light on what happened to me to bring me here in the first place.
So, I’ve invited myself along for this walk into the woods, and I’m not about to take no for an answer. Despite the fact that Cade put as much distance between us as he could before I so much as woke up the day before, after we had spent the night together – which he hasn’t bothered to explain to me, not that I probably should expect an explanation.
I can’t imagine that the rules of courtship here make any more sense than they did back where – and when – I came from, and I am not going to twist myself up into knots trying to make sense of it. No, I have to figure out what I am going to do about the fact I am here at all...
"So where exactly does your brother live?" I ask, as we move between the trees. There isn’t much of a path that I can make out, but it doesn’t seem to slow him down.
"In a cabin, in the woods."
"Why doesn’t he live with you and Lucy?" I wonder aloud. I can tell at once that my words have struck a nerve with him.
"Long story."
"I’ve got time-"
"I don’t want to get into it."
His voice leaves little room for argument, and I figure the best I can do right now is drop it. There are things he seems willing to share and things he doesn’t.
And besides, I’ve only just appeared in his life, the two of us barely know one another – I need to respect that a man like him is hardly likely to be willing to open up to me, not with the society he’s been raised in likely warning him to keep his feelings to himself at every turn.
So, as we walk through the woods, I try to make conversation about other things – about his niece, Harriet, about how much he adores her, how much he wishes his mother could have been around to meet her. There’s a low pang in his voice when he speaks about her and it’s clear that the pain of her passing still hangs heavy over his head.
I wish there was something I could do to lift it, but, since the passing of my own parents in my teens, I know that it’s not the kind of thing you can just brush off like that.
Soon enough, we reach the cabin – or, at least, what I think is the cabin. There are two buildings out here in the small clearing in the woods, one that looks like a home, with smoke rising from a small chimney stack, and the other more like a hall or meeting place of some sort.
But before I can ask him what’s going on out here, a woman emerges from the smaller of the two buildings, a baby in her arms and a smile on his face.
"Cade, there you are!” she greets him warmly, and her gaze darts over to me. "Who’s this...?”
"I’m Kim," I introduce myself, glancing at Cade to make sure I haven’t overstepped anything.
"You must be new, Kim," Riley replies. "Haven’t heard anything about you before..."
"I just got here," I admit, and, as she eyes me, I see a flicker of something close to recognition in her face.
"I was just going to organize some stuff in the retreat," she remarks, jerking her head towards the other building. "Cade, your brother’s waiting inside – why don’t you take Harriet for me...?”
Cade seems glad to take the little girl into his arms, and he heads inside as Riley approaches me, steering me towards the large building behind us.
"So, you just got here, huh?" she remarks softly, as she opens the door and steps inside.
"Mhm," I reply, suddenly clamming up a little. How exactly do I tell this woman what happened to me, without sounding like I’ve completely lost the plot?
Hey, by the way, I magicked here across centuries with no explanation and no reason. Do you know anywhere good for dinner?
"You know," she continues, as she starts to arrange a few chairs in the large, airy space, which is lined with windows at either side. "I came here at...short notice, too. Kind of a shock, if I’m being honest. It’s not what I was planning, not by a long shot. But..."