Day's Patience

by A. W. Exley

  “What indeed?” he murmured as he swept her around the room. “I believe on reflection that you should be treated no differently than any other Elemental that moves into our territory.”

  A warning chill slithered down Lettie’s spine, and she held in the urge to shudder. She scanned the crowd for Grayson. He was her strength when events spiralled beyond her control. She needed him nearby with his reassuring touch.

  “And what does that mean exactly?” she asked of Byron.

  “If you and your brother wish to stay in Whiterock, then you either offer your loyalty to this family, or you stand against us.” His eyes hardened to the colder blue of ice.

  Lettie would never betray her family and her nature. “Does it have to be that way? Can we not peaceably coexist? Samuel Thorne has never moved against you.”

  “There is no other option. We have ignored the old Warder because there is little one decrepit gnome can do, but we cannot have him increasing his numbers. Look around you. You can see how you are outnumbered and outclassed. Offer yourself to me, preferably on your knees, or we will see how long your brother lasts without our protection.”

  Lettie steeled her spine and challenged him with a look. “What happens if I refuse?”

  A cold smile spread over Byron’s face. “Soarers have a long reach. There was once a little bookkeeper from here who thought to stand against us. He thought being in another county would protect them. Terrible tragedy what happened to him and his wife.”

  The steel in Lettie’s spine froze, and it took all her control not to stumble at his words and shatter at his feet. He had to be referring to James and Verity Uxbridge. With monumental effort that made her teeth ache as she ground them together, she managed to frown. “Why would a bookkeeper stand against your family? Accountants are generally as quiet as church mice.”

  “He thought to question our accounting over a particular vessel. We couldn’t have him stirring up the other investors. All it took was a little salamander heat to stick their carriage wheels to a rail and a blast of wind to hold the door shut, then—” he mouthed boom.

  Lettie didn’t need his narrative. It had been raining that afternoon, and each droplet had borne witness to what happened. The water had touched events as it flowed to the ground and then whispered of it to Lettie while she swam in the lake. Her element had shown her the terror on Verity Uxbridge’s face as the train bore down while James frantically tried to open the carriage door. It was Lettie who had cast doubt in Dawn’s mind and set current events into action.

  Her heart wept for her friend, even as she kept smiling and restrained the revulsion at how he held her. She needed time. There was still so much to achieve, but sand was fast running through her hourglass. “I need a few days to convince Grayson. He is less pragmatic than me and rather emotional. I will need to show him the benefits of being aligned to the Ocrams.”

  Byron tilted his head to one side, the bird of prey picking at a mouse in its claws. “I will give you a few days, no more. You either come to me, or you will discover how inventive I can be in making your brother as miserable as possible before I end him.”

  “A few days then, and you will have my answer,” Lettie whispered.

  He released her back to the side of the room and then offered his hand to his betrothed, the deadly looking salamander.

  “Must keep the little woman happy,” he said and winked to his adoring crowd.

  Lettie managed one dance with Grayson, but her pretend brother held her stiffly as though he didn’t know where to put his hands, and he trod on her toes twice. After the second time, he coloured and admitted defeat.

  “I am sorry that I am such a poor dancer. I went to London to study medicine, not the latest steps,” he said and led her to a scarlet chaise before the dance had finished.

  Lettie swallowed her disappointment. “We are both rusty in social situations. Perhaps we should have practiced with each other in the parlour first?”

  He flashed her an apologetic smile. “I still prefer my studies to such frivolous entertainments.”

  The ball lasted all night, until roosters crowed to welcome dawn peeking over the horizon. Revellers drifted away to find their beds and sleep away the day.

  In the entranceway, Byron kissed Lettie’s hand. “I hope you had an enjoyable evening. I look forward to seeing you in a few days.”

  “I had a lovely time, and I shall discuss your proposal with my brother, then give you our answer.” She had a few days to figure out how to advance their mission. Perhaps they could break into Lawson’s office and rifle through his paperwork.

  Grayson waited until they were settled in the carriage and had left the Ocram mansion’s gates behind them before he spoke. “What proposal do you have to discuss with me?”

  “Byron said I will be treated like any other Elemental who moves into the area and must choose. We either offer our loyalty to his family or stand against him and suffer the consequences.” She chewed her lip. No need to tell Grayson that Byron promised to destroy him.

  His eyes narrowed and a tiny frown pulled at his forehead. “You know what sort of people they are. The answer is obvious.”

  Was it obvious? She touched her lips. What if she could bring peace to their families by offering herself as sacrifice to the Soarers? “I do not need reminding, but neither do we want him to know our hand just yet.”

  Grayson made a noise deep in the back of his throat. “What else did you learn? Anything that was worth endangering yourself?”

  “I learned that the salamander intent on giving me a headache is Miss Davina Lawson, who will take over her father’s interest in the shipyard and has care of the Ocram and Lawson finances. She is to be Byron Ocram’s partner in both business and life.”

  His gaze widened. “They are to marry?”

  “Yes. Which explains part of her antagonism toward me, I suspect, although from what Byron said, he often parades other woman before her.” Lettie still couldn’t wrap her head around such an arrangement. Even when she had taken lovers in the past, she committed herself to that person fully for as long as the relationship lasted.

  “You must be used to other women’s jealousy. You were certainly the most beautiful woman there tonight. Although why you would want Ocram is beyond me.” He grinned and the tension between them evaporated a little.

  “I still think there is much to be learned by talking to the ship workers.” She also wanted to return to where Dawn was born and spent her first few years. A niggle in the back of her head said they were overlooking something, but what?

  Back at Samuel’s home, Grayson and Lettie stood in the yard under a silent sky. Neither was yet ready to go inside and seek their beds. Dawn had begun to blush the horizon, and as the sky lightened it washed his sandy hair to burnished gold. His hand curled into a fist as though he wrestled some internal problem.

  “What is the matter?” Lettie stopped to face him, her hand on his arm.

  He kept his eyes on the fading moon above as he ground his jaw. “Why did you kiss him?”

  What an odd thing to worry about. What did one kiss matter? “I rather think he kissed me. But that aside, am I not allowed to kiss an attractive man? I am a fully grown woman, after all.”

  His gaze dropped to her, but his expression was unreadable. “Do not forget why we are here. This family is involved in the death of Dawn’s parents. You are not here looking for a physical diversion.”

  Why did everyone think she only wanted a brief diversion? If she couldn’t have love, did that also mean she could never have simple companionship? “How could I forget? Byron admitted it while we were dancing.”

  Grayson sucked in a breath. “He confessed to their murder?”

  “He told me to scare me. To prove the long reach of his family.” She stared up at the moon and stars that faded under the advance of morning. What web had she become tangled in?

  When he remained silent, she turned back to look at the doctor. “One kiss will not compro
mise our plans, or are you jealous?”

  It was a jibe. How could he be jealous when he didn’t even see her as a woman? But he shot her a dark look and his brow furrowed.

  “Oh, honestly. I cannot have you sulking like a schoolboy who has missed out on a treat.”

  Lettie leaned forward and kissed him. She meant it as a jest, but as soon as her lips touched his, she realised it was far from a chaste moment. In many ways it echoed her kiss with Byron, except there was a hesitant tentativeness about Grayson’s reaction while she pressed forward.

  When she had kissed Byron, she felt the stirring of long dormant desire through her body, but her mind remained aloof. She evaluated his technique and recognised a man used to taking what he wanted and expecting a woman to swoon in response. When she kissed Grayson, her mind spiralled in a dizzying pattern. Logical thought spun away from her, and she was only aware of the warm aroma from his skin and how neatly her body fit to his.

  His arms wrapped around her and held her to him, but with such a gentle hold she could have escaped easily. He made it her choice to stay within his arms, rather than a demand. He returned the kiss with soft swipes of his tongue, never taking more than she offered. His moustache tickled her face and made his kiss even more different than the smooth-faced sylph’s.

  The desire that awoke in Byron’s arms leapt forward with Grayson. Lettie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down to her, even as she rose on her tiptoes to press closer to him. She didn’t want the kiss to end. The yearning unfurled and ignited a ferocious hunger for more.

  Then he pulled back, and she almost exclaimed no. Her lips tingled from the loss of his, but at least he still held her close.

  He rested his forehead against hers and whispered to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. You are my friend, and I am simply concerned for you. I don’t want to see you hurt. Ocram is toying with you.”

  “Of course, we’re just friends.” She dropped her arms to her sides as disappointment plunged through her. She blinked to hold back the tears.

  They were simply friends and nothing more.

  17

  Grayson stalked toward the house and left Lettie alone to watch the sunrise. Only when the house began to stir and the new day started did she slip inside and seek her bed.

  She rose after noon, her mind troubled by both Byron’s revelations and two very different kisses. The path before her should be simple. Byron was the enemy, and Grayson was almost as much a brother as Jasper. Yet a restlessness stirred inside her. A yearning for action took hold and wouldn’t let go. She shouldn’t have been interested in either man, but her body had different ideas.

  She needed a woman’s counsel. It was time to unburden her problems to Marjory and hope the other woman could help her unravel the confusion.

  When Lettie wandered outside, she found Samuel tending his vegetable patch.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked. She cast around the verdant garden, wondering what seekers hid in the bushes, eavesdropping on their conversation. What Samuel needed was a ratting dog that would help stay on top of the tiny enemy.

  He looked up and leaned on the hoe. “Grayson and Marjory are at the cottage. The doctor muttered something about being used to working on only a couple of hours sleep and having rounds to do.”

  She stared at her toes as the hollow inside her grew larger. Grayson had risen to do something productive while she slumbered. She wanted to believe that humans had shorter lives and therefore probably needed less sleep. Lettie loved lounging in bed, although that wasn’t quite the same thing as sleeping. She desperately wanted to be something more but kept failing at her attempts.

  “He said Byron expects you to pick your allegiance.” The old Warder continued tilling between rows of potatoes.

  Things were coming to a confrontation much faster than she anticipated. “He would force my hand, yes. Our time here will be shortened by his demand. I’ll not risk you or Grayson.”

  She watched Samuel use the shaped blade of the hoe to gently lift soil up and over the greenery sprouting from the potatoes. Strange that he did it manually when he could command the earth to rise up on its own. “Why don’t you use your power to do that?”

  He glanced up. “It’s more satisfying to do it manually, and I like getting my hands dirty.”

  Byron wouldn’t get his hands dirty. If he decided to hurt Grayson or Samuel, he would either do it from afar or instruct someone else to perform the task. “Byron admitted he had the Uxbridges killed.”

  Who had given the command that she and Julian should be killed? Glimpses of the answers she sought poked through the veil of time like the green shoots through the earth. Someone had chosen Ava as the instrument of her family’s destruction, and Lettie would know who.

  Samuel grunted. “Then there must have been something suspicious about the investment and its collapse. We just don’t know what.”

  Lettie worked her hair into a loose plait and let it hang over her shoulder. “I need to talk to Marjory. We’ll reconvene this evening.”

  Marjory might not have any answers, but the process of thinking aloud might help settle some of the unrest in both her body and mind. Lettie walked to the cottage, needing the fresh air and exercise to clear away the cobwebs of the previous night. She found the cottage quiet. Widow Elder knitted in her corner and waved hello.

  Marjory was in the kitchen, boiling more garlic water to pour into the earthenware jugs Samuel had found for them. Lettie donned her apron and carried an armload to the sink. “I’ll wash these so they are ready to use. Is Grayson back from his rounds?”

  She ran water into the sink and took hold of the bar of soap in its little metal cage with a handle. By agitating the cage in the water, she soon had a sink of hot soapy water to wash the jugs. She dropped the first pottery jug in and let the soap run inside. With a touch of her element, she made the water scrub away all traces of dust and dirt.

  “Yes, and he said George’s arm is healing well with no sign of infection. He’s studying in his room now. The Sunderland apothecary delivered a large box of new medical books and periodicals, and he was like a child at Christmas unpacking them.”

  Lettie smiled at the thought of the doctor with a new collection of books to dive into. She didn’t realise she had stared at the jug overlong until Marjory nudged her.

  “Are you going to tell me what is bothering you, or are you going to bottle it all up?”

  Lettie let out a sigh and upended the jug to drain the water. “I don’t know where to start.”

  “Try the first thing that pops into your mind.” Marjory picked up a tea towel and waited.

  Lettie placed the clean jug upside down on a draining board and dropped the next one into the sink.

  She touched a hand to her forehead. “I know in here that Byron is our enemy and that I play a dangerous game with him.” She dropped her hand and placed it over her breastbone. “But in here, the things he makes me feel—” She couldn’t continue.

  “He makes you feel alive, when for so long you thought you were dead?” Marjory’s voice was quiet and soft from beside her.

  “Yes.” Lettie’s voice was a whisper. It seemed so foolish. Like a desperate woman, she had her head turned by a few pretty words, and she would betray everything, including family, to hear them again.

  Marjory clucked her tongue as she dried the jug. “It’s a powerful thing to know someone desires you, when to the rest of the world you are invisible and forgotten.”

  Lettie gripped the edge of the sink to anchor herself as the void threatened to swallow her. The soap bubbles seemed to mock her as they popped, each one blipping out of existence with a tiny snigger. “You must think me a gullible fool.”

  “No, for if you are a fool then so am I. I do think you are a brave woman who has battled on her own for too long.”

  Lettie met Marjory’s serene green eyes and understood what the two of them had in common. “It’s why you flirt with Samu
el.”

  Marjory nodded and swallowed. “I’ve known Hector for so long, I often wonder if he says his words by rote and habit, rather than because he means them. My flirting with Samuel is harmless. Don’t fear that I’m going to crawl naked under his blankets. But he reminds me that I was once a rather desirable creature.”

  Lettie’s hand tightened on the slippery jug. An ache washed through her, and tears blurred her vision. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as the enormity of what she had stolen from Marjory sank into her bones. “I’m sorry I couldn’t halt time for you. It’s not fair that you gave me forty years of service and you—” Lettie wasn’t sure how to raise the delicate point.

  “Got old?” Marjory finished for her.

  Lettie returned to staring at the pile of dishes, unable to meet Marjory’s keen eyes. She had consumed her nurse’s life, and for what? She could never repay the care and attention the nurse gave as the years were etched into her face.

  “I will admit it bothered me our first few days here. I thought you were my mirror and that we were both young, beautiful women. Then I caught a glimpse of myself in a shop window in Sunderland, and I didn’t know the old woman who looked back at me.” Marjory pulled the next jug from the water and turned it over to drain.

  “You should have lived a normal life, with a husband and children.” With a wave of her hand, Lettie set the water to wash the next container.

  Marjory smiled. “There is no guarantee from life that a woman will bear children or survive the process. I could have walked that road and still ended up alone. Besides, the earl is a fair man. Once I knew the truth of your family, he made it clear it was my choice to stay or not. At any time over the last forty years I could have decided to move on, and he would have supplied me with glowing references and a large enough sum to start a new life.”