Edith watched him for a moment, reluctant to try again.
He doesnae fancy her.
“Ye need nae worry,” she added quickly. “I would never force the matter.”
Martin offered a small smile. He tilted his head slightly, holding her gaze. “Thank ye, me Lady.”
Neither of them spoke of it again.
Edith gathered her things, tucking the book under her arm alongside her notes.
The afternoon had darkened slightly outside the narrow window above the shelves, and she realized with faint surprise that she had been here for hours without noticing.
“Thank ye, Martin, for today,” she said, dipping her head slightly out of respect. “I look forward to the next lesson.”
With that, she left the healer’s chamber, a small smile tugging at her lips. She had not only gained knowledge in healing, but she had also gained a friend.
The first thing Edith did when she reached her chamber was sink onto the bed.
Violet was nowhere to be found when she returned. Not that Edith was surprised. The poor girl had practically fled the corridor after seeing Martin.
The memory brought another smile to her face.
She stared at the seam in the canopy that had now become her daily companion, her feet still on the stone floor.
“’Tis happenin’,” she whispered into the empty chamber, satisfaction brimming in her chest. “Soon, I will become a healer, and I will be free.”
She turned her head, her eyes catching a folded note on her bedside table. She hesitated for a brief moment before reaching for the note. She had half expected it to be from Aaron, and she was not entirely wrong.
“The Laird requests yer presence in his study before supper,” she read. “Violet.”
Suddenly, her chest no longer felt light.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Less than three weeks, Aaron reminded himself as he tried to keep his attention on the papers in front of him.Then the arrangement will be over.
His chest tightened slightly at the thought, and he told himself that it had nothing to do with Edith.
He almost believed it.
He had expected the lass to argue with him in the fields. He had expected her usual feisty defiance, but what he had not expected was the way she interacted with the servants.
She was truly different from what he had imagined. She was kind and graceful, treating the people with kindness despite her new status.
Just like Scarlett.
He shook his head, dismissing the thought before it had fully settled in his mind.
But the truth was far too obvious to ignore. Edith had lived in Hallow Castle longer than some of his men. She knew the servants and their families. She considered the things that Aaron had never paid mind to and treated his people as though they were her own.
He had watched her in the fields. He had noticed how the maids waved at her and how she had waved back despite being with him, her smile widening in the unguarded way it never consciously did around him.
He sighed.
He had spent the better part of two weeks telling himself that Edith was an inconvenience. But perhaps she was more. Perhaps she was everything he lacked. Everything Hallow Castle needed.
“Ah,” he groaned quietly in the empty study, leaning back until his head rested against the back of his chair.
