Page 42 of The Unseen Hour

I tilted my chin, looking up at him and the pity on his face.

“My father was tall, broad-shouldered. He would have been not far past fifty when he made it down here. He has hair just a shade or so lighter than mine, and striking pink eyes. He⁠—”

Gently, Orion pulled my hands off his shirt, steadying me as I tilted. He squeezed both my hands between his own, the warmth centering me.

“None of them were men that age. There was a lone woman. She looked like a housemaid. There was a younger man once, and he appeared to be a blacksmith’s apprentice. Another man had black hair and a short black beard. He looked like a sailor, based on his clothes. The only other man I’ve seen was old, grey-haired and bent. He was dressed in furs like those from Tang. None had pink eyes.”

Orion slowly sank to his knees, lowering us both, until we were seated on the ground. He leaned me up against a tree trunk for support, then moved so he was crouched in front of me.

“I didn’t mean to worry you about your father. I just wanted to be open with you. Are you all right?”

I was still trembling, but I managed to nod.

“It wasn’t him, then. He could still be here,” I reassured myself. “How embarrassing.”

Reaching up with one hand, I wiped the tears that were running down my cheeks. I wasn’t afraid to show my feelings, but showing them outside my own home would have started all sorts of rumors in Emrys. You never knew who was watching. You never knew what they would say.

That the house was in trouble, that I was involved in some tryst gone wrong, that I was a hysterical woman prone to fits. The possibilities were endless.

It was simpler to pretend. But I was so incredibly tired of pretending.

Orion reached up, tucking a piece of loose hair behind my ear. My breath hitched.

“I’m sorry. I should have clarified right away, but I was most concerned with getting you away from the Meadow, and then making sure you trusted me enough to stay away from Charon. I haven’t had anyone else I could really talk to in so long … I guess I’m not very good at conversation anymore. Not very good at being human at all, really.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I’m still breathing, right? I’d say that’s a success.” I smiled at him and received the smallest shadow of a smile in return.

I sniffled.

“I warned you I’m not much of a lady, and so if you’re not much of a nobleman, that’s just fine. We’ll both just be temporarily displaced misfits down here and figure it out together.”

His smile spread, and the blue flecks in his eyes gleamed. The impact was dazzling, and I wanted to find ways to keep that expression on his face.

“Deal. One aspect of being a nobleman in Emrys I have kept is making sure I deliver on my promises. I always keep my word, and you have my word that I will be honest with you going forward. And that if your father is here I will make every effort to get you both home.”

Once my breathing was even again, he helped me to my feet. It didn’t take us long to make it the rest of the way to his cottage; we’d been closer than I realized. It really was well-hidden between the trees.

Orion held the door open for me as I made my way inside.

“I will have to go to Charon when he calls for me, and you’ll have to stay here. There’s food on the shelves”—he gestured at the wooden pieces built into the walls—“and perhaps a distraction would help while you wait? What do you enjoy? I don’t have many traditional materials for embroidery, but I do have needles and thread and cloth⁠—”

I scoffed.

“Not a talent of mine. If push comes to shove, I could mend a hole in our clothes, but trust me when I say you don’t want me to embroider anything you care about.”

He laughed, reaching one hand up to tousle his hair.

“No? You did warn me. Honestly, I’ve grown used to my own hobbies down here. You’ll have to tell me what you’re interested in doing, and I’ll see if I can make it happen.”

My legs still felt shaky beneath me. I desperately wanted to run back to the Meadow and search for my father. It made no sense, after years of him being missing, but now that I was here it felt as if I had to hurry or risk Charon finding him first. But Orion was right. If Charon had eliminated the others like me, I needed to be careful.

I sat on the single wooden chair near the fire.

“I enjoy riding on my horse, Pellix. I can play the piano. I like to read.”

He grinned.

“I’m fresh out of horses, but I do have several books. You can entertain yourself with those until I get back. Once Charon summons me, I may be gone for a day or two, although of course I would have given you the cot anyway. When I return I’ll work on making another one, and another chair.”