“I’m fine,” the woman said curtly as her basket began squeaking again.“Ring me up, please.”
His uncle did so, and Celia pulled a worn pouch of coins from her dress pocket.When his uncle said how much her total was, she pulled a large gold coin out and set it on the counter.
Darian’s eyes nearly dropped out of his head.
What was that?
His uncle did not seem fazed, however.“Thank you, Miss Celia,” he said as he began handing her back other coins.
Darian was burning with curiosity.Where did this woman come from?Why was she paying with a gold coin?And why did she have a dragon?
Why had he never seen her before?
He had been working in the shop for years, although the schoolteacher had been tutoring him until recently.She must have come in while he was at school.
His uncles had asked him to continue his education beyond what most of the young men did, and as far as Darian was concerned, he was entirely too well educated to be a shopkeeper.But perhaps his uncles knew better, and he was not inclined to argue with them.
“I hope you have a pleasant journey home,” Uncle Amos said.
“Surely that’s too much to carry,” Uncle Bram said as Uncle Amos loaded everything back into Miss Celia’s knapsack.“Why don’t we have Darian help her with it?”
“Oh, no, no,” she began protesting.
“I insist,” Uncle Amos said.“He’s quite strong, you know.”
“It’s too much.I’m quite capable of carrying my own supplies.”
But Darian had perked up at the idea of following her home and seeing if there were more dragons.“Of course, I’ll help,” he said far too eagerly.He pulled himself back.No need to scare her off by being too much.“That is a heavy load for you, ma’am.I would be honored to help you carry it home.”
“It’s far too long of a walk for you,” she said.
“I’ll be fine.If it’s a long walk, then it only makes more sense for me to help you,” he said, taking the knapsack and swinging it over his own shoulders before she could continue to protest.“Which way are we heading, ma’am?”
“Toward the Gloaming Mountains,” she said, the words almost distasteful.“But I can do it.”
Darian’s eyes widened.“The Gloaming Mountains?”he asked.“That’s so far.I simply can’t let you walk that far alone with this much to carry.Lead the way, ma’am.”
“You don’t have to call me ma’am,” she said, bristling as she led him out of the store.“I can’t be more than a few years older than you.”
“How old are you?”he asked, the words coming out before he could stop himself.That was not something you should ask a woman—he knew better than that.
She glowered at him.“Twenty-six,” she said after a moment.“Old enough to be a spinster.”
“That’s hardly enough to qualify you,” he said.“I’m twenty-one, if you care to know.”
She scoffed.“Young enough to be my little brother,” she said, taking a step further away from him as she did so.
Darian sighed.She seemed rather prickly, but perhaps by the time they reached the Gloaming Mountains—or wherever she truly lived—he would get her to tell him more about dragons.
After all, that was the reason he was following her.
Chapter three
Celia
Celiasighedinannoyanceas Darian continued rattling on when they reached the southern edge of her meadow.The dragon hatching grounds were on the northern side—and most people stopped here.
“Where is your home?”he asked, looking around.
