“I hope not,” Theus said defensively.
“Ah, that’s right, you can’t remember,” Coriae said in an exaggerated manner. “I almost hope that you did try something. You were a very reserved lover when we were together,” she sighed.
Theus choked in embarrassment.
“And it sounds like you’re still just as shy,” she laughed lightly.
They fell into silence, and walked along the street, invisibly holding hands.
“Will you stay for dinner?” Coriae asked cautiously, as they turned the corner and her home came into sight.
“I planned on it,” he began to say.
“I’m so glad!” Coriae interrupted him to let him know she was pleased with his answer. She squeezed his hand in a friendly gesture.
“I slept in your home last night, and was going to stay tonight as well; I had no idea you were in the city. Holco will come over after dinner, and we can talk about tomorrow then,” Theus explained the rest of his answer.
“So you’ve got everything all arranged to your satisfaction, don’t you?” Coriae asked with dissatisfaction. “I hope that setting me free isn’t interfering with your other plans to live in my family’s house,” she was put out with him once again.
She released her grip on his hand in anger, demonstrably throwing his hand away. As she did, she became visible, and a nanny pushing a stroller shrieked in surprise at the sudden materialization of the woman in the middle of the sidewalk.
Theus grabbed her hand, and the nanny shrieked again as Coriae disappeared from view. The woman twisted her stroller with alacrity and started streaking away from the unnerving sight, pelting down the sidewalk and swerving around other pedestrians as she fled.
“Do you always have the effect on strangers?” Theus asked drolly, determined to try to rebalance the conversation so that he wasn’t always the one on the defensive.
“You were nicer to me when you loved me,” she tossed her head. “And you were – madly. You were madly in love with me. And nice.”
She started to climb the stairs to the front door as they reached the Warrell home, but Theus grabbed the back of her skirt and gently pulled her back down.
“Let’s go around to the back of the house, out of sight, before we open doors and release our invisibility,” he suggested, as they walked toward the arched entry built for the coaches’ passage to the stable in the back of the home.
“I suppose that makes sense,” Coriae grudgingly agreed.
“And I suppose Klermie was madly in love with you too, once upon a time?” Theus asked. He was curious about her, though he didn’t know if he hoped to hear an honest answer, or if he simply wanted to provoke the girl again.
“That was mean!” she scolded him. She let go of his hand. Seeing that, he released his own invisibility, and they walked silently into the kitchen.
“Bless us all! Look at this miracle!” the cook crowed as he caught sight of Coriae. “Everyone!” he leaned back and shouted out into the hall, “Miss Coriae has come home to us!”
Coriae grinned with real joy as the servants came to see her. The women were so bold as to hug their young mistress, while the men all stood nearby, shaking each other’s hands in celebration.
“I would not be free and safe and here if not for our friend Theus,” Coriae finally spoke to the assembled group. “Please treat him as well as if he were a member of the family for as long as he stays.”
“Shall we prepare a festive dinner to celebrate your arrival?” the cook asked.
“Yes please, by all means, and we’ll take it up on the rooftop,” Coriae replied. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go bathe and refresh myself. Please bring a carafe of wine up to my room, and call me when the meal is ready,” she instructed.
“And thank you again my lord,” she spoke to Theus, before she slipped out of the kitchen and away to her refreshment.
“Would you like some refreshment as well, my lord?” one of the servants turned and asked as she prepared to descend into the cellar, in pursuit of a bottle of wine.
“Yes please. I’ll be in the library,” Theus answered, content to relax and decompress after the unexpected surprise of seeing Coriae, then rescuing her, then spending time with her. He needed to think about all that had happened and been said.
Minutes later he sat in a comfortable chair and sipped on the glass of wine he had been given, and mulled over the events of the day, particularly his conversations with Coriae. He felt as though he were talking to a stranger who knew all about him. At times it was uncomfortable, yet the girl’s personality made it hard to not begin to open up to her. He was at a disadvantage because he didn’t know their past, and at the same time, he suspected he was also at an advantage because he wasn’t weighed down by their mutual past.
He drank his wine, and sat somnolently, close to dozing off, when a loud pounding at the front door abruptly awakened him with a start.
“Gods above, it’s the palace patrol!” a maid sounded alarmed as she looked out the window.
“What are they doing here?” she asked aloud.
“There’s more of them in the back too!” another member of the staff reported.
“They’ve come looking for Coriae!” Theus guessed. “Give me a moment to go up and hide her,” he told the panicked maid, as they met in the hall. “Everything is going to be okay. You go let them in and don’t worry about anything.”
He left the maid and went bounding up the stairs, embracing his invisibility as he went. He heard the door open, and a man’s voice began to speak in a deep, authoritative tone, but Theus left it behind as he walked down the hall where the family bedrooms were.
He didn’t know which room was Coriae’s he realized.
“Coriae?” he called hoarsely at the first door he knocked on. He opened the door without an answer; there was no one inside.
“Coriae?” he called the girl’s name again as he knocked on and opened the next door. The room was empty.
“We’ll go upstairs and conduct our search,” a man’s voice spoke down below.
Theus went to the third door and opened it without bothering to knock or call. An open doorway from the bedroom led elsewhere, presumably to a bathing room. Clothes were puddled on the floor. He had found Coriae.
He heard the tromp of boots on the stairs. He stepped into the room, scooped up the clothing, and entered the bathing room.
Coriae was sitting in her bath, her body gleaming with moisture. She was unclothed. She was stunning to see.
“Coriae!” he wished he could take a moment to observe her, inappropriate as he knew it was.
“Eek! You do spy on naked girls! I knew it!” she crossed her arms over her chest as she spoke, her eyes circling around the room as she tried to discover his unseen location.
Theus reached down into the tub and grabbed her arm, cautious of where he touched her.
“There are guards coming up the stairs to search the house. We need to find a place to hide,” he told her as his touch enclosed them both within the circle of his invisibility spell. She could suddenly see him, as she became invisible.
“Which room is hers?” a man’s voice sounded very near as it asked the question.
Theus pulled with sudden strength, lifting Coriae out of the tub. He stepped into a corner and pulled the girl against him.
The door was pressed wide open, and a pair of men in uniforms entered, followed by a maid.
“It’s not right that you come in here like this,” she exclaimed, while her eyes furtively scanned the empty bathing room, looking for her fugitive mistress.
“Somebody’s been here very recently, taking a bath. The water’s still warm,” one of the guards said, placing his hand in the water. He picked up the empty wine glass.
Coriae hiccupped.
The maid looked around wildly, then murmured, “Excuse me.”
Theus ran his hand upward to clamp it over Coriae’s mouth. It had been resting inappropriately low on her back, he
blushed to discover, not aware of where it had been until he moved it in response to the hiccup.
“Was it you in your lady’s bath tub?” the guard asked the maid.
“Indeed it was; we didn’t expect her for some time, so why not? We do such things from time to time,” the woman answered pertly.
“Why not indeed? And why not a drop to wet your whistle?” the guard asked slyly in response.
He put the wine glass down.
“Let’s go see the next room,” his companion said. “We can get this over with in a hurry. She’s not here.”
“I’d like to know how she beat the two guards she did, first and foremost, when she escaped,” the first guard commented, as he placed the wine glass down, then trailed out of the bathing room door.
Theus let out a deep sigh of relief, while Coriae’s tense body relaxed against him. Their eyes locked as he removed his hand from her mouth.
“I’m sorry to do that so abruptly,” he barely breathed the words as their faces nearly grazed against one another.
“I don’t think you had any choice,” she murmured. “Thank you for saving me once again.” She closed her eyes, then rested her head on his shoulder, as he leaned slightly back against the corner walls, and felt their bodies mold to accept the contact between one another.
Her skin was soft, but the muscles beneath it were firm, Theus noted. Perhaps she really would be a formidable fighter with the staff, he mused. He felt drops of perspiration begin to bead on his forehead. He juggled hands, and wiped his head with the clothing he had picked up off her floor. It was Coriae’s undershirt, he realized, and he blushed.
“It’s humid in here,” he commented softly.
“It doesn’t feel so to me,” Coriae replied.
They heard the sound of boots stomping on the stairs, descending.
“They must be leaving,” Coriae spoke with relief in her low voice, but she remained pressed against Theus, and after a moment, she began to softly hum a tune.
Theus recognized the tune; it was a lullaby, a song that he remembered his mother crooning to his young siblings when each was an infant. The tune had a melodic rhythm, and he began to gently sway, swinging his hips and torso from side to side in time to his companion’s song.
“Isn’t that funny; you never danced with me when we were a couple,” Coriae spoke softly, her lips pressed against his shoulder. “All it took was for you to forget me, and we can finally dance.” There was sadness in the last comment.
“Were we a happy couple?” Theus dared to ask.
“We were, very much so, except when we weren’t,” she answered enigmatically.
“We broke up twice, and both times, it was my fault, mostly,” she told him. “And one time, for a few days, you were cool towards me, but just when I was ready to bring it out into the open, you got over whatever your issue was, and we were open with each other again.
“You know nothing at all?” she asked. She lifted her head to look at him.
“The very first memory I have of you is seeing you before the throne just a little while ago, and listening to Klermie’s complaint,” Theus answered.
Coriae sighed. “Maybe that’s better,” she told him. “If you don’t love me any longer, at least you don’t hate me.”
“Should I?” he asked. He lifted his eyes and stared at the far wall. It was a mirror, he realized, and he was seeing her full backside, unclothed. He turned his head to look back down at her face.
She was staring back.
“You came to Great Forks and fought the magician. You beat him; you saved the city,” she said.
“I remember that,” he agreed.
“You were injured, and I was there. I was engaged to Klermie – impetuously, just weeks before, because I was mad at you from before. But when I saw you fight and then fall injured in your victory, I knew I still loved you. I tended to you while you were injured and recovering at my family home, and I know I was forward, too forward and intimate and,” she stopped and paused and sighed. “I didn’t tell you I was engaged, so we were as good as lovers, until that dratted brother of mine told you I was engaged.
“Then you left the city. I was disgraced; my family hated me, the city hated me, and I was sent back to Klermie to,” she paused again, her eye closed, “to make the mess go away magically somehow, I suppose. You’re the magician – tell me how to agree to marry someone you don’t love, when you know there is someone else who you do love?” she opened her eyes and looked at him.
The door to Coriae’s room opened. “My lady?” they heard a maid’s voice timidly call.
Coriae looked at the doorway from her bathing room to her bedroom.
“Yes, what is it? I’m in my bathroom,” she spoke.
“Did the patrol not find you?” the voice asked incredulously, as it sounded nearer.
“Don’t come in just now, please,” Coriae spoke sharply to prevent the maid’s entrance.
“Yes, my lady,” the answer came quickly.
“What’s happened? Are they gone?” Coriae asked.
“Yes, my lady. They didn’t find you, the gods be praised! So they’ve posted guards around the house to try to capture you if you come here. My lady, it’s not right! Them treating a noble woman like you – and with a family like yours! – this way!” the maid was indignant on behalf of Coriae.
“Thank you, I know we’ll always be treated right by our servants and friends, regardless of the strange ideas of the crown,” Coriae spoke loudly into the other room. “Leave me in peace to clean up, and I and our guest will be down for dinner soon,” she instructed.
“As you wish, my lady,” they heard the answer, then they heard the door close.
“I better get dressed,” Coriae responded to the maid’s entry and comments; the personal conversation that they had been having was lost in the interruption, though Theus felt his heart asking for more such talk. She stepped back from him, her nakedness exposed, then saw the clothing in his hand and she pulled it away. He released his invisibility spell given the lack of any need for it any longer.
Theus gawked at her momentarily, then lifted his head to look away. He looked into the mirror and saw her again, then looked away.
“Don’t worry too much,” Coriae laughed lightly as she pulled a shirt over her head to cover herself. “I certainly saw you without clothes often enough; we’re not even yet,” she laughed at the befuddled expression on his face.
“Go on, I need to be properly dressed,” she unconsciously ran a hand down the front of her thin shirt. “Shall I meet you for dinner in twenty minutes?” she asked.
Theus bowed and departed to his own room, just down the hall. He closed his door, and let himself fall onto his bed, then he looked up at the ceiling and let the wheels in his mind spin madly.
Coriae. He let the sound of the name reverberate in his mind. She was an extraordinary person, complex and beyond his ability to truly comprehend. She was bright and appealing and full of personality, but contradictory and unpredictable. She was Forgon’s sister, which had to be good, though Forgon had said little about her around Theus, apparently to avoid bringing up a painful topic.
Theus decided to ask Holco about her when he saw the prince later that night.
He sat up, realizing that the prince might be coming over sooner rather than later. With the delay caused by the patrol guards’ search of the house, they might have crept into the time when Holco should have come to the house to meet for discussions. Holco didn’t need to be seen by the guard who were stationed at the house; his visit to Coriae’s home would look suspicious at best. Theus needed to warn him.
Theus stepped over to his bedroom window and looked out, but found his window looked out the wrong direction to spot Holco’s arrival. Then he remembered that Coriae’s room fronted the street, with windows that would allow him to spot Holco and warn him not to approach.
Theus left his room and went back down the hall, preoccupied with worries about Holco. He opened C
oriae’s door and entered without knocking, then paused upon entry, as he found the girl in a state of undress.
“Theus?” she asked calmly, with a raised eyebrow, as she held a slip in front of herself. “Is there something we need to discuss?”
“I wanted to see Holco,” he answered with a confused blush.
“And you thought you’d find him in my room? Just minutes after you left here? What are you saying?” her tone of voice was rising, and Theus knew he needed to clarify quickly.
“No, I meant through your window. He’s going to come here, and under the circumstances, with a patrol keeping an eye on the house, I don’t think it’s a good idea to be seen here, if you take my meaning,” Theus stumbled quickly through the words.
“And you didn’t bother to knock because?” she asked.
“I forgot,” he answered. He wanted to go to the window, to look for his friend, but Coriae stood between him and the window, and he had no desire to approach her at that moment.
“Well, I’ll go in my bathing room to dress, if you need my room,” she backed out of his way, leaving him in embarrassed but grateful occupation of her bedroom as her door closed.
“I’ll be invisible while I’m by the window,” he spoke the warning loudly as he passed her bathing room door. He walked to the window, seized his energy and cast his spell, then opened the window and stuck his head outside to look down the street in the fading sunlight.
His timing was perfect. He spotted Holco three blocks down the street, walking causally.
Theus called upon more of his energy, then issued the spell to allow him to throw his voice, and aimed his words beside the ear of his approaching friend.
“Holco, this is Theus, don’t come to the Warrell home,” he advised.
Holco stopped, and his head turned from right to left, searching for Theus.
“I’m throwing my voice to you so that you can hear me at a distance; I’m still in the Warrell house,” Theus explained.
He saw Holco’s mouth moving.
“I can’t hear you,” Theus informed his friend. “I can see you and talk to you. There are guards around this house; the patrol came and searched it, looking for Coriae. They’re still here, watching the doors. I don’t think you should be seen coming here.”
Tangled Engagements (The Memory Stones Series Book 4) Page 16