Page 26 of Last Rites

He didn’t say what this was, just waved a hand vaguely at the wall rack and muttered, “Apron and gloves. Not that your hands could get much worse.” He gave a short, barking laugh at his own joke, and I winced before I could stop myself.

Still, I did as I was told. By the time I returned to Cedric’s side, properly outfitted, he was poking at the glowing coals with a set of tongs. Without a word, he extended them to me. Clamped in the iron teeth, a rod of something glowed orange-hot.

I took the tongs, holding them as far from my body as the length would allow, but even with the gloves, I could feel the heat blooming along my arm and searing my face. My eyes stung. My breath came shorter. I tried not to lean away.

Cedric had already turned back to his other work, hammering with purposeful vigor. But after a beat, he glanced sideways and made a noise of disgust.

“No, no—hold it like this.” He strode over, adjusted my grip roughly, and twisted the tongs in my hands. “And turn it. Keep the heat even.”

Then he returned to his work.

I counted my breaths. Focused on the metal. My arms shook, just a little.

A minute passed. Maybe two.

“How long are you gonna hold it in there?” Cedric barked suddenly. “Pull it out, or you’ll ruin the damn thing.”

He reached for my arm, and without thinking—without meaning to—I let go. The tongs fell with a clatter into the coals, taking the metal piece with them.

Cedric cursed loudly enough that a couple of passersby on the street turned their heads. He snatched another pair of tongs, reached into the firepot, and dragged the first pair out.

“Some kind of apprentice you are,” he growled. “They’ve saddled me with a dunce. What can you do?”

I swallowed, throat dry and rough. “I mostly worked with the leather. I… I’m not good with fire.”

I thought he understood; he’d seen my scars. I’d tried to explain…

Cedric’s brows crashed together like storm clouds. “Not good with—? Gods above.” He spat on the ground, and something in me shrank. “You’ll have to get over that. Childish fear. How old are you?”

“Twenty-two.”

“A man, then.” He leveled me with a look that left no room to argue. “And shouldn’t you act like one?”

“Yes, sir.”

My cheeks burned hotter than the forge, and I didn’t know if it was from anger or embarrassment—only that I wished I could disappear behind the rack of horseshoes or curl up beneath the workbench and vanish from his sight.

My hands clenched in the too-big gloves, stiff and useless. I wasn’t just failing—I was failing publicly, and that stung worse than any burn.

“That’s what I thought.” He turned back toward the stack of orders and barked, “I need to get through this list, and for that, I need a smith, not a leatherworker. Understood?”

I bobbed my head because I couldn’t bring myself to speak.

Cedric nodded once more. “Then I’m gonna teach you the way you ought to have been taught.”

The remainder of the day went about as well as those first few minutes.

I returned home after helping close the shop, sooty and sweaty and sniffling with the tears I’d barely held at bay. Stumbling into the cottage, I kicked off my boots before passing into the living room and dropping the battered package of pastries on the low table. We didn’t eat them at lunch—didn’t eat at all—and now my mood was so sour I feared it would taint the taste of them.

I flopped down onto my back on the couch and flung an arm across my eyes. A long, deep sigh wheezed out of me. Tears pressed in, but at least I could breathe now without Cedric’s scowl bearing down. The whole day had been spent avoiding reprimand and largely failing. I had no doubt Cedric would be cursing my name long into the night and again tomorrow when I returned to work.

Words like “disappointment” and “oaf” rattled around in my brain, robbing me of even a modicum of peace.

The scuffle of bare feet announced Kit entering the room.

My brows scrunched down, eyes still shielded from the light and his attention.

“Penny?” he asked. A bit more shuffling preceded the dip of the sofa cushion as he lowered himself near my head.