Page 29 of Castle of Refuge

And she was quite well spoken, which also reminded him of his sister. If Audrey were a servant, she must have been a titled lady’s personal servant, intelligent enough to mimic her speech.

“That is clever thinking. I will show you the stream if you will allow me.”

Why was he offering to show her? He should not encourage familiarity from the servants—his father had warned him against it more than once. But this girl had a transitory air about her, as if she might leave as suddenly as she had come. She was intriguing, a mystery as to where she had come from and what her life story had been up until Philip had found her lying on the ground, barely conscious. His suspicion that she had not been a servant before she had come here was growing. This could be a way to discover who she was.

He pulled Shadow after him as he started toward the young woman.

Her hair was unfettered and fell down her back in blonde waves. A breeze ruffled it, uncovering the scar on her ear. She grabbed the locks on her left side and pulled them down in front of her ear. Her cheeks turned pink.

“Do you mind if I ask how you got those scars?” They were both thinking about them, so he might as well ask.

“I fell into the fire.” She said the words while pulling on her hair and looking down at the ground. Her voice was so sad and dejected.

“Was it a long time ago?”

“Four years.”

Still she kept her head down. He shouldn’t have asked her. Now her bright smile was gone.

A dark orange mushroom was growing not far ahead of them. Audrey fell back to walk slightly behind Edwin. He pointed atthe toadstool and a bright blue dragonfly that had landed on it, its quivering wings catching the sunlight.

“Oh, that is lovely,” she said quietly and standing still, as if afraid of spooking the dragonfly. “I’ve seen mushrooms like that before, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dragonfly like that one.”

“And certainly never together.”

He was rewarded with a smile as she drew nearer to the brightly colored pair. But the dragonfly flew away before she could get very close. She sighed and they moved on.

They pressed through some trees and bushes and came out at a bend in the stream where wildflowers grew along the bank. A large, flat rock invited a person to sit and think. He inclined his head toward it.

“You can sit, if you wish.”

She stood on her toes to get up on the rock. She was dainty and small-boned, with tiny wrists and narrow shoulders. But perhaps he was just accustomed to seeing his fellow guards and knights, and Mistress Wattlesbrook, who was rather round and plump. He rarely saw the young women servants who worked for him, as they stayed in the kitchen or otherwise out of his sight.

They both stared at the stream. The trees blocked out most of the sun, but a dapple of light here and there made the water shine and shimmer as it trickled over the rocks in the streambed. The sounds were so peaceful, and he stood between her and his horse, who started cropping the grass at his feet, adding a distinct crunching sound as his teeth sheared off the grass one big bite at a time.

Audrey leaned back, propping herself on her hands, and turned her face up to meet some shards of light streaming through the leaves overhead. Truly, her features were perfect . . . ethereal . . . almost fairy-like. Her small nose was perfectly formed, her eyelashes thick and darker than her hair. Her mouth bore a pink hue, with an adorable dent in the middle of the upper lip. Perhaps he was being foolish, but he didn’t think he’d ever seen a lovelier girl.

Edwin looked away, his own face warming at the thoughts he was having about his servant girl. Such was not his way, and thank heaven she could not read his mind.

He stared at the water again, letting it cast a calming spell on him. He was surprised, shocked even, that he could so quickly move from thinking that if Lady Ophelia did not want him, he would never get married, never make a woman happy with his lame body, to thinking how lovely this young woman servant was, being aware of the perfections of her features and her peaceful expression. Did she realize her hair had fallen back and revealed the edge of the scar on her face? But she seemed to have forgotten she wasn’t completely alone, as she kept her eyes closed and took deep breaths and let them out slowly. Was she also trying to calm her thoughts?

He would not stare at her but would listen instead to the way the breeze rustled the leaves, see how the sun shone on the water, the rocks glimmering underneath.

“You have a sister, do you not?”

Edwin turned to see Audrey sitting upright and staring at him.

“Forgive me. I don’t mean to be impertinent. I was justthinking that I heard she helped you and your brothers escape . . . from the Tower.”

“Yes, my sister, Delia. She did help us. And we have been declared innocent by the king of all wrongdoing. We were falsely accused.”

“Oh yes, I know. Forgive me for prying.”

“Nothing to forgive.” Would a servant girl ask such bold questions of her master? Not likely. He found himself staring at her again but forced himself to look away.

“Your sister, Lady Delia, does not live here anymore?”

“She married two months ago and moved away.”