Aurora in Secret (Seasons of Aurora Book 2) by Sara Liane Bevis

Author:Sara Liane Bevis [Bevis, Sara Liane]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Lusk Creek Publishing
Published: 2023-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

John

A week after my arrival to Bradley Castle, and a week after I had promised Lady Layla that I would escort her to her abandoned home in Madeline Forest, the weather seemed to be fair enough for a day of travel. I had tried to convince her that we should wait until winter was through, but she insisted that she couldn’t wait any longer than she already had.

My first week at Bradley Castle had been mostly uneventful, aside for a few tense moments with the warden, Lord Bradley, who took offense to my presence in his home. Thankfully, his steward, Niles, had given me a preview of his feelings, so I was prepared for his disdain. His wife, Lady Mary, was equally as cold to me.

His son, Lord George, on the other hand, was nothing but welcoming and helpful to me. He seemed to truly care about Lady Layla and her wellbeing, so he didn’t seem to mind having me there at all. He would talk to me about ideas he had about how to get her to come out of her dark place. It seemed as if he thought there would be an easy fix for the state of her mind. I tried not to discourage his optimism though.

I had somehow managed to avoid his brother, Lord Edward, for the most part. Or maybe he had been trying to avoid me? When he would see me in the corridor outside her door, he would turn around and go in the opposite direction. When he was with George, who had stopped to talk to me, he would only intersperse the conversation with flippant comments. I was not so quick to write him off, as I had learned from talking with George and the other guards that he was quite close to Jack and James Maddox, who had both been killed in the massacre. I reminded myself that everyone had their own way of mourning.

Lady Layla’s way was to cry in her room all hours of the day. Hearing her frequent bouts of sobbing during the day and night was sometimes more strenuous than marching for hours in the hot summer sun during my Guard training. She wanted no comfort; refusing even the soothing words of the lady’s maids that dressed her and brought her food each day. What should have been the easiest assignment was turning out to be the most difficult.

She would poke out her head each morning to ask if I would take her to her home that day, and each day I had had to tell her no for there was either rain or a cold frost. She always argued that it did not matter to her, and I would argue back that my duty was to keep her safe, therefore I could not risk her catching cold out in the harsh elements.

On the seventh morning, I had heard from the gardener that the air was rather warm for the season and there didn’t appear to be a cloud in sight.

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