Bound to Be a Groom by Megan Mulry

Author:Megan Mulry [Mulry, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2014-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

The trip to Bilbao lasted many hours. Pia awoke first. She untucked herself from Anna’s loose hold, where she’d fallen asleep against her chest. She moved to the other seat to avoid waking either Sebastian or Anna. Amid the usual bounce and rumble of the carriage, her change in position did not cause Anna to stir. Sebastian, on the other hand, was awake in a flash, his hand reaching for his sword beneath the seat. When his eyes cleared enough to remember where and with whom he was, he smiled gently and slid out of Anna’s hold to join Pia on the forward-facing seat.

Pia pulled aside one of the curtains to look out across the passing landscape. She gazed at a range of mountains to the west, purple and majestic in the fading light of dusk, then let the curtain fall back into place.

“So beautiful.” She turned to Sebastian. “Do you know this part of the country?”

“I do, actually. Those are the Montes Obarenes. Even though I grew up in Madrid, Javi and I went to university in Pamplona.”

“And you and your friends spent much time in the countryside in this region?”

He looked skeptical. “We did.”

She nodded; it was more than enough information to draw the conclusion she’d been forming.

“What do you know of the countryside?” Sebastian pressed.

She smiled. “You can put your tongue on my breast, your lips on my mouth, but you think it ill-advised to give details of a political nature to a mere miss. I understand.”

They were both whispering so as not to wake Anna, but if Sebastian’s surprised look had been given voice, it would have been heard from a mountaintop. “What do you understand?”

She shrugged and continued whispering. “I understand that, at the convent, we used to leave food and other basic provisions at the edge of the garden for . . . people . . .”

“And?”

“And . . . I have heard Javi’s name mentioned,” Pia continued slowly. “I don’t know if it is the same Javi, but . . .” She shrugged again. “I am nearly invisible to many people. I am a parentless charity case of no consequence. People tend to speak freely in my presence. As if I were a deaf-mute.”

He reached for her hand. It wasn’t a seductive touch necessarily, but it was warm and made Pia trust him. “And you’ve remembered every word, I suspect?” He rubbed her knuckles in a lovely back-and-forth way.

“It’s exhausting keeping it all in.” She leaned her head back against the velvet squabs and closed her eyes as she spoke. “But the abbess and the older nuns, they are powerful. They are landowners or mothers of landowners. Sisters and widows of powerful men. They are aristocrats. They are mothers of kings. Grandmothers of queens. Daughters of dukes, like Isabella.”

Sebastian brought Pia’s hand to his lips and kissed her lightly.

“What was that for?” she asked, opening her eyes and turning to look at him.

“I don’t know.” He smiled at her. “Anna’s been so excited—distraught really—about what would happen when we came to get you.

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