Page 16 of The Milliner and the Griffin Rider

Harrison glanced at his silenced men, a smile quirking the corner of his lips, but when he turned back to her, his gaze was serious.

“A griffin is born knowing its own name, but it only tells it to its own kind and the human with which it chooses to bond. This is the first time any of us have heard Sage’s name.”

Chloe’s mouth dropped open. “But wait…Are you saying…Sage has…” She knew she should repudiate the suggestion—she was a milliner, not a griffin rider! But as she looked at the small griffin, her heart swelled with love, and she knew she could never reject Sage.

You are mine. Sage didn’t look up from her bowl. Why shouldn’t you be?

Chloe laughed weakly, sinking back to the ground, her shaky knees giving out. She wrapped her arms around the griffin’s neck, no longer hesitant to touch her as she pressed her cheek against the griffin’s neck feathers.

A babble of quieter voices broke out again, and one of the men at the back of the group shouldered his way to the front, his eyes on Chloe.

“But I recognize her,” he said. “She’s the new milliner on High Street. My sister bought a hat from her only two weeks ago.”

Chloe flushed, her eyes leaping to Harrison. He was staring at her, and she saw a flash of something cross his face at the man’s words, but the emotion was gone too quickly for her to identify. She tried to remind herself that it didn’t matter what Harrison thought of her occupation. She wasn’t ashamed of being a milliner, and she had never claimed to be a lady to either him or Fletcher. Quite the opposite in fact.

But another man had jumped on the first man’s protest. “We’re an elite fighting squad. We can’t accept a milliner into our ranks!”

Fletcher cast a wary glance at Harrison, who was now staring at Chloe’s arms wrapped around Sage’s neck. But the lieutenant didn’t speak on Chloe’s behalf. Her heart sank. If Fletcher wouldn’t speak for her, who would?

Not that she wanted to become part of their squad. But she couldn’t be separated from Sage.

A fresh wave of exclamations and protests broke out from the crowd of men, and Chloe clung to Sage more tightly.

“I don’t want to hear another word.” Harrison didn’t raise his voice, but every man in the squad heard him, falling instantly silent.

He turned to meet each of their eyes, his own gaze icy and his voice cold and commanding. “The choice isn’t yours. It’s not even mine. Sage is free to choose her own companion, and she has made her choice. Do you think any of our griffins would permit us to interfere?”

The men exchanged resigned looks. Clearly none of them felt strongly enough to fight their own griffin over the situation.

Harrison continued to stare them down, not finished. “We’ve known for some time that Sage was unlikely to ever be able to fly with the squad. At least not in full training or official flights. So what does it matter if she’s partnered with a milliner? Sage is still one of the flock, but she will never need to carry a partner into battle.”

Rumbles of agreement broke out, the mood in the room shifting.

“This is good news, really,” Fletcher said, his earlier cheer returned. “Haven’t we been hoping Sage would choose a bond partner soon? You’ve brought in enough lads to meet her.” He looked at Chloe. “The captain has a theory that she might grow better once she’s bonded.”

“Of course you will, clever girl, won’t you?” Chloe crooned, pressing her cheek against Sage’s neck again.

Naturally I will do so, Sage said calmly, having finished as much of the stew as she could get out of the deep bowl.

Chloe laughed before remembering that the others might not have been able to hear Sage’s words.

“She says she will certainly grow more now.”

Fletcher and several of the other men burst out laughing, and the tight knot by the door broke up, the men clapping each other on the shoulders and several coming forward toward Chloe and Sage. But at one threatening look from Harrison, they changed directions, heading out of the hall.

“This isn’t something to be taken on lightly,” Harrison said warningly to Chloe.

She shrugged. “You must know that I could no more turn my back on Sage now than I could choose to stop breathing.”

“You’ll need to come by every day to learn how to care for her,” he continued, something in his eyes she couldn’t read.

She swallowed, thinking of the orders piling up for her at the shop, her mission with the Duke, and her spectacular failure at her resolution to avoid Harrison. But all of that paled beside Sage’s needs.

“Of course I’ll come every day,” she said with determination.

Somehow she would just have to make it work. And perhaps Sage would provide the solution to the main problem that beset her. Surely the Duke would be curious to meet the girl who had bonded with his smallest griffin—even if she was just a milliner.

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