Page 48

Pru’s eyes automatically narrowed as she looked at Corvus, but she took a deep breath and said. “You may call me Pru.”

“I’ll take that under advisement, Prudence.”

Corvus’ response got a chuckle out of Pru, and she admitted with only a little reluctance, “Maybe there’s hope for you yet. At least we know you have good taste.”

Rather than transport straight back to her home after the party, Pearl requested they walk back as it was an easy thirty minute walk from Hannah’s home to hers.

“I’ve always loved taking walks on summer evenings. I’ll never get tired of how lovely the temperature is this time of year.”

Corvus raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Oh, we’re considering 26 degrees to be balmy are we?”

“I think you mean 78 degrees.”

“I think you’re in the UK and should throw off the chains of an inferior temperature measurement system..”

Pearl laughed. “Maybe now I’ll finally get you to Texas and you can see what hot really feels like.”

Corvus didn’t respond - he just reached out and grabbed her hand. There was still a tentative nature to it as though he was worried she might pull away. Pearl gripped it firmly in an attempt to reassure him and rested her head on his shoulder as they meandered slowly. The streetlights were glowing, and it felt magical in a way that had nothing to do with magical power and all to do with the joy and contentment she felt. But even as that realization reached her, another realization hit that Corvus was fidgeting and nervous and had cleared his throat no less than three times as if he wanted to say something. They were passing a small park, and Pearl pulled Corvus to a bench. “What’s on your mind, darlin’?”

Gripping her hands tightly, Corvus cleared his throat again. Pearl had never seen him so nervous. His gray eyes were piercing and serious when he looked at her, and he took a steadying breath. “I would be honored to accompany you to Texas.”

A laugh bubbled out of Pearl’s throat. “It’s not quite that serious, Corvus. My family is about as informal as they come.”

Corvus shook himself. “No, I know. That’s not really what I wanted to talk to you about.” Another deep breath. “Do you remember when you asked if you could use my focusing gem years ago?”

Pearl could feel her cheeks turning red as raw embarrassment took over her face. She’d thought about it many times over the years. “That would be hard to forget. I think you would have looked less surprised if I’d asked you to strip naked and do a dance on the table.” She paused, and pulled her hands away to cross them over her chest in a protective gesture. “Why didn’t you tell me what it meant? Why didn’t you say something? I felt so stupid when I found out later. Like a country bumpkin who proposed marriage to the lord of the castle and didn’t even realize she had done it.”

Gently taking her hands again, Pearl could tell that Corvus was choosing his words carefully. “Because I didn’t want to embarrass you. It wasn’t your fault you didn’t know. I’m sure there are many, many things I don’t know about the culture in which you grew up, but I know one thing for certain is that if I made a misstep, you would have been kind. And I was trying to be kind in whatever way a stupid 21-year-old boy can be kind.”

It wasn’t a bad answer, and it eased some of the leftover embarrassment currently squeezing her chest. Pearl gave him a soft smile. “I’ll never forget how much you clutched your pearls when I asked. I knew I must have made some kind of faux pas, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it could be. I was a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding a couple of years later, and it all became very clear.”

Corvus tucked a strand of hair behind Pearl’s ear that the wind had set loose. He kept his hand resting gently on her face as though it was grounding him. “And there’s something else, Pearl. I didn’t tell you what it meant to ask to use my stone because in every fiber of my being I wanted to give it to you. And it terrified me to look too closely at what that meant. If I had explained to you what it meant for you to ask for the stone, I would have had to explain to myself what it meant for me to want so desperately to give it to you. I was young and we hadn’t known each other very long, and I made a lot of mistakes with you then. The biggest one being when I walked into your flat and told you every lie I could think of to make you hate me.”

A single tear ran down Pearl’s face, and Corvus raised a gentle hand to brush it away. “I don’t know that I could ever say I’m sorry enough times. I regretted it immediately. But I was too proud and too foolish and too afraid of rejection to try to make it right. I was arrogant and filled with my own importance. And when I realized that it was well and truly over, that I’d ended the best thing that had ever happened to me, and you weren’t coming back, I waited and I hoped and I promised myself that if I ever got a chance with you again, I wouldn’t mess it up. I’m sorry, Pearl. I’m sorry I hurt you. If I could live life over again, I’d have given you my gem right then and never looked back, but as magical as our world is, we can’t undo the mistakes of the past. I can only try to prove that my once fickle, persuadable heart is fixed on you. That it’s yours and will only ever be yours. And if you decide that your trust in me is broken irrevocably, it will have been worth it to get to be in your life one last time. I’ve never stopped loving you. I have loved none but you. You’re my pearl of great price, and I know, I know I can’t buy you. Even if I sold everything I own. But Pearl. If you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to earn you. Trying to be worthy of you. Hoping against hope that you’ll let me treasure you to the end of my days. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever? I’m half agony, half hope.”

Pearl’s tears began in true earnest. Quoting her favorite book to her? Pulling from Captain Wentworth’s letter? How truly and utterly unfair and unfailingly beautiful. Putting her hands on his face, she ran her fingers slowly through his white-blonde hair, touched the dimples on his cheeks, pressed a small kiss to the laugh lines around his eyes and all the time she explored, he waited patiently before he spoke again. “You’ve made it clear to me this year that actions mean more than words when it comes to trust.”

“Corvus, you almost died rather than marry anyone other than me. I think…

“Please,” he interrupted. “Let me finish. I never intended to put you in that position, and I..” he stopped, pulled his focusing ruby over his head, placed it in her hands, and covered her hands with his own.

“Pearl Faye McCoy, I give you this focus as a bond of my fidelity. I will be yours until our time on this earth is at an end. I trust you with my magic as I trust you with my life. If ever I break the bond I make today, may my magic fade and my name be as dust.” As he was speaking, light began to grow brightly from his gem, and as he said the last word, it broke away and sunk into his chest - right over his heart.

They were old words, powerful words. What Pearl hadn’t revealed to Corvus is that when she realized the mistake she had made with him so many years ago by asking for his focus, she had read everything she could about marriage customs in old magic families. She’d always believed a book could solve most any problem, and she knew that these words were rarely used anymore. They were only for the surest of couples - there wasn’t a back door if these words were said. If Corvus ever wanted to be with another woman that wasn’t her, his magic would disappear, and his inheritance would pass to the next person in the family line. It was meant in the past as a way to prevent unfaithfulness leading to bastard children. In the present, it was the greatest declaration of love a magic user could make.

“Corvus, I just freed you from a magical bond, and you immediately give yourself another one?” Pearl opened her hands to look at the ruby within them as Corvus stood.

“I entered this bond of my own free will. I love you, Pearl McCoy, but you have no obligation to me. You…”

Pearl threw her arms around him and was kissing him fiercely before he could say another word. Corvus wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her back with the same fervor before he stopped himself with a groan and tried to talk again. “No, I had more to say. I don’t want…”

There was a laugh on Pearl’s lips as she kissed him again. And she managed to straddle him before he pulled away again panting. “I really think…”

“Corvus Winterbourne. You just pledged your life and magic to me. You don’t have to explain anything else. I love you, so let me kiss you and show you how much.”

Tangling her fingers in his hair, she leaned down to kiss him again, but just before her lips reached his, he whispered softly. “Say it again?” When she looked into his eyes, they were sparkling with joy.

“I love you, Corvus.” The smile that lit up Corvus’ face made him look more handsome than she’d ever seen him. Tentatively, Pearl reached out her magic to the ruby stone in her hand, and it connected to her with such strength, it almost felt like a physical hand had reached out and grabbed her. They transported to her home with a loud crack, fell onto her couch in a tangle of limbs, and were chittered at reproachfully by Mercutio whose nap they’d interrupted, but Corvus paid him no mind - he only had eyes for Pearl.