Champion of the Crown by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melissa McShane

Part Seven

Chapter Sixteen

Snow blanketed the roofs of Kingsport, covering their dark tiles with white and making the whole city brighter. Fat flakes tumbled from the dark sky and joined their brothers to fill the streets, where they were trodden underfoot by horse and man and wagon. Willow stood at her window in Waxwold Manor and looked out at the garden. The hedges and the rosebushes looked as if they’d been dusted with sugar, and the paths through the garden, still dark where the warmer earth melted the snow, seemed like grooves carved in marble.

She heard footsteps, and Kerish put his hands on her shoulders, drawing her close against him. “Come to bed. It’s warmer there.”

“I love the first snowfall. Hate the rest of them, but the first one is magical. Especially if you can see it before anyone’s walked over it and mucked it up.”

“I never get tired of snow. It’s so different from home.”

Willow leaned into him so he could wrap his arms around her. “Do you still think of Eskandel as home, then?”

“I think of wherever you are as home. But—yes, a different kind of home.”

She turned in his arms to face him and put her arms around his neck. “I still think of Aurilien as home, even though it’s likely I’ll never live there again, once this is all over. So I guess my home is you, too.”

Kerish smiled and kissed her. “Our own little family.”

That made her remember something she’d been thinking of on and off, the whole time they’d been staying at Waxwold Manor. “You want children, don’t you. I mean yours and mine, not Felix.”

“I do. But I don’t want to impose what I want on you, if you don’t feel the same.”

“I’m just…it frightens me. Childbirth, and then caring for a baby, and…what if I turn out like Nan?”

He kissed her again, a lingering kiss that warmed her inside. “I think that’s highly unlikely. You’d watch yourself too closely for that. And I wouldn’t let it happen.” Another kiss, this one deeper, and his hands moved across her back and lower. “But I think we should go to bed now, and practice what it takes to get children.”

She smiled, and returned his kiss. “You can never have enough practice at that.”

A knock sounded at the door. “Willow?”

Kerish dropped his head and cursed.

“Felix, what do you need?” Willow said.

“I had a really bad dream.”

“You’re sure you want more than one of those?” Willow murmured to Kerish.

“I’m beginning to rethink that decision,” Kerish said. He released her and tightened the belt on his dressing gown. Willow tried not to look too closely; she was fairly certain he wasn’t wearing anything underneath. She adjusted her own robe and crossed the room to open the door.

The moment she did, Felix flung himself at her, hugging her hard. Tears streaked his face. Willow’s irritation dissipated. She picked him up and carried him to the bed, setting him down in the middle where it was warmest. Felix scrubbed his eyes and leaned up against Kerish, who put his arm around the boy.

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