The Ugly Stepsister by Megan Van Dyke

Author:Megan Van Dyke
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781648981890
Publisher: City Owl Press

23

Anna didn’t leave the convent until almost noon, striding across the open yard toward the barn where they still lingered. Sunlight caught in her short hair, and Will would swear he’d never seen a sight quite so lovely, especially with the mountains reaching skyward behind her.

Koen nudged his side with an elbow. “Stare like that and she might run back inside,” he whispered.

Right. He shook himself. She probably hadn’t seen them yet, not with the way she stared at the ground.

Will adjusted the pitchfork in his hand, at least pretending to look like he was still engaged in work. They’d stayed in the barn, keeping out of sight lest castle guards or anyone else should travel to the convent and report seeing men there. Such an odd sight wouldn’t go unremarked upon.

But it had been Brandt who insisted they be put to work when a woman arrived just after dawn with fresh hot bread and porridge. He’d said it’d be a waste for his muscles to go unused and had flashed his bulging arms for good measure. The woman had blushed, remarking how it would be nice to have the help of a big, strong man.

Brandt nearly swooned like a maiden at that. The sight even brought a genuine grin to Will’s face.

Though the brothers were undoubtedly tired from the trek the day before, they worked hard mucking out the stables, refreshing the hay, and fixing a few loose boards. They barely let Will help with his arm the way it was. Koen’s tonics worked wonders on it, but the damn thing still throbbed with a bone-deep ache.

The hard work, though painful, would have been preferable to the minor tasks they doled his way. It’d have kept his mind from wandering. Too often he found himself staring like a dumbstruck boy toward the convent, searching for figures in the windows despite the glare of day hiding everything within. He’d been up half the night too. Will told himself it was thunder keeping him awake, the flashes of lightning and occasional hard pelting of rain. That was why he couldn’t sleep, why he’d picked a spot with a clear view of the convent doors. It had absolutely nothing to do with their kiss, or how he longed to taste Anna’s lips again, or about the way her lithe body had felt pressed up against his.

He was good at lying to himself, had done it pretty much all his life.

It wasn’t until that morning, when he awoke with an empty longing in his chest, that he had to confront reality. He wanted Anna. He’d wanted her before he knew who she was or even that she was a woman.

It’d been months since he let himself feel anything other than his endless desire for revenge. It was the fire that consumed all, until another fire rose to beat it back and take up space within him that he didn’t know existed anymore.

The last time he’d felt so strongly about something was around his father after one of his episodes, when he was sure he’d cast him off for being a failure.

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