Chapter Five

 

Scarlett

“Nana, where’s the sugar?”

“Where it always is, Red.”

“It’s not in the cupboard,” Scarlett said in exasperation. “Where did you put it?”

“Oh, Miss Scarlett, that’s my fault,” Sam murmured from the parlour, where he was building a fire in preparation for the sun setting. He came through to the kitchen and reached up to one of the higher shelves that Scarlett couldn’t reach and pulled down the jar of sugar she’d been looking for. “I was helping your grandmother tidy up yesterday and put it on the shelf.”

Scarlett smiled warmly. “Thank you, Sam.”

“No problem.”

Sam scratched his head, then, and wrinkled his nose as if a fly had landed on it. It made Scarlett giggle.

“What’s wrong, Sam?” she asked. “Seems like something’s on your mind.”

“There’s nothing wrong. Well, at least I don’t think there’s something on my mind,” he muttered as he fiddled with the ochre braces holding his trousers up.

“How can you not know whether something’s on your mind or not?”

“He’s probably hungover, the rate he was drinking last night.”

Scarlett turned; by the open front door stood a grinning Adrian Wolfe. Her heart felt like it had jumped into her throat quite suddenly, which she didn’t like in the slightest.

“Knock, knock,” he chuckled, silently chapping his knuckles against the door.

“What are you doing here so late?” Scarlett’s grandmother complained as she got up from the table, where she’d been knitting. “It’s almost sunset! We were just about to retire to the parlour before the wolves started up their dreadful howling.”

Adrian seemed amused by the comment, though Scarlett failed to see what was so funny.

“I was wondering if you still kept a stock of tansy and sweet violet?” he asked. “I’m all out.”

Her grandmother frowned. “And why should I give any of it to you?”

“Because I’ll pay?”

She sighed heavily; for a long moment Scarlett was sure she would refuse, though she had no idea why her grandmother and Adrian Wolfe were on such bad terms. Scarlett had always thought her grandmother would be grateful to the man for saving her life.

But now, thinking about it, hadn’t Nana initially been angry that Adrian was outside her house in the first place two years ago?

Now all Scarlett could wonder about was what Adrian had done to anger her grandmother so.

Eventually the old woman nodded and, with some reluctance, got up from her chair and beckoned for Sam to help her. “I keep my stocks in the attic these days. Come on, Samuel, I need you to pull the ladder down for me.”

Sam looked very much like he didn’t want to leave Scarlett alone in the kitchen with a man she barely knew, but then he frowned as if in confusion and ran a hand through his hair. He shook his head as he followed Scarlett’s grandmother through to the corridor.

There were a few seconds of awkward silence as Scarlett moved about the kitchen making tea. She was very aware that Adrian’s unsettling eyes followed her wherever she went.

“So where’s the cloak, Red?”

She flinched. “Don’t call me that.”

“But that’s what Heidi calls you. And it’s what your name means.”

“Even so.”

“Red it is, then,” he said, smirking when Scarlett finally looked away from her tea to glare at him.

“What were you talking about when you said Sam was hungover?”

Adrian moved from the doorway to settle into a chair before Scarlett could say anything about it, stretching out his long legs in front of him in satisfaction. He was dressed in black as usual, though the braces that held up the dark leggings largely hidden by his leather boots were silver. They matched the strange, white streak in his hair.

He shrugged. “He was drinking a lot in the tavern with those men who asked to marry you yesterday.”

Scarlett bristled, turning away from Adrian in order to curl her hands into the wooden counter-top by the wash basin. The more she thought about what had happened the more annoyed she became, especially because Adrian had witnessed the entire thing.

“They were all talking about you,” he continued jovially. “Apparently your Mr Birch has seen you naked before.”

“He what?” Scarlett exclaimed, outraged and mortified. Her eyes darted to the corridor and back again to confirm that both Sam and her grandmother were out of earshot, then rounded on Adrian lounging by the kitchen table as if he owned the place. She narrowed her eyes. “You’re only saying that to tease me.”

“Oh, that’s definitely so, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. They were all very enthusiastically discussing how you – ah – measured up, as it were. Now that I can see you without the cloak on I can ascertain that Samuel was telling the truth. Maybe you should wear a little more when he’s around just so he doesn’t get any ideas…or so your lack of attire doesn’t excite unexpected guests.”

Scarlett had no idea what Adrian was talking about at first, then felt her cheeks flush as she glanced downward. She was wearing the white smock she tended to wear to bed, though it was several years old and much too small for her now. The bodice barely held in her breasts and the skirt skimmed a few inches above her knees, something which Scarlett had never deemed an issue before given that nobody came out to visit her grandmother unexpectedly. And Sam was, well, Sam.

Clearly I need to rethink that last part, Scarlett thought, though if he’s already seen me naked then there’s nothing else new for him to see.

Shocked by her own obvious lack of modesty, she looked about for something to cover herself up.

Adrian merely laughed. “Good; be more aware of yourself. Never mind those wolves two years ago – a baker, a blacksmith and a doctor almost ate you whole yesterday morning. That sounds like the beginning of a joke.”

“Do you take nothing seriously?”

Adrian stared at her. Scarlett had to fight the instinct to look away.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Why, are you interested?”

“No.”

“Liar.”

“Stop calling me a liar.”

“I will when you stop lying.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?”

Adrian stood up and closed the gap between them, brushing a gloved hand against Scarlett’s chin where he had touched her the day before. She couldn’t believe he had the audacity to do such a thing in her grandmother’s house.

“An interested party,” he murmured, gently turning Scarlett’s head left and right with his hand. She numbly allowed him to. “You really have grown up, little miss. Though I did enjoy the frightened look on your face when you were sixteen.”

Disconcertingly close, a wolf howled, and Scarlett’s eyes widened as her body twitched and her heart raced with the memory of the very night Adrian was talking about.

“Ah – that one. Beautiful.”

He watched Scarlett intently, his amber eyes fiery in the bleeding light that filtered through the window as the sun began to die. The white in his hair flashed gold when he cocked his head to the side as if he were anticipating what Scarlett would do next.

The action didn’t seem entirely human. Scarlett didn’t know why.

“You’re…very strange, Mr Wolfe.”

It was an understatement, but it was all Scarlett could think to say without very obviously insulting the man. And then he grinned, drawing back his thin lips to reveal sharp, white canines. He moved away from Scarlett, retreating to the front door just as her grandmother and Sam returned to the kitchen.

“I found what you needed, Adrian,” her grandmother said as she handed him a small, paper-wrapped packet, “but it could do with drying out by a fire. Be sure to do so before you use them for anything.”

“Naturally. Many thanks, Heidi.”

And then he was gone as quickly as he’d disappeared the night he’d saved Scarlett’s life.

“Miss Scarlett?” Sam wondered aloud. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm?”

She turned to face Sam, though she barely saw him. Her hand had found its way to her chin, where Adrian had touched her. Part of her wished he hadn’t been wearing gloves. Part of her was very, sincerely glad he had.

And then she came back to her senses and remembered what Adrian had said about Sam.

“I’m going to get changed. I’m cold,” she muttered suddenly before rushing out of the kitchen.

In reality she was burning.