Honor and Desire (Gold Sky #3) - Rebel Carter Page 0,67

did what would she say?

She didn’t trust herself to say the right thing. Not with how she had just exploded at August. Seylah winced and ran a hand over her face.

“What have I done?” she whispered. She bit her lip and looked back towards the lane that led to her home. Yes, she had been upset at the situation but her words had been too harsh. August hadn’t meant to hurt her. She knew it was a difficult place to be, between her and her fathers. Her ire was with her fathers’ decision, and that was a matter left for her to discuss with them, not August.

She made to walk back towards her home, but the sight of her fathers astride stopped her in her footsteps. They were not the men who had raised her, not now. Now they were lawmen, they were soldiers on a mission, she could tell by the rigid lines of their bodies and their narrowed eyes. Seylah couldn’t approach them. It would take them out of their current mindset, and that would not do. That would put them at risk.

Seylah stayed silent and watched her fathers ride out of town. The people in their way cleared the path, each one knowing the look of the sheriffs when they were on the job. Everyone seemed to quiet down sensing the intensity of her fathers’ focus and Seylah counted herself one of them.

She like everyone else continued to watch them with bated breath, her hands clasped together until they were out of sight. The townsfolk around them slowly came back to life, the scene springing into action until Seylah was the only one among them not moving. She bit her lip and turned away, the fire that had propelled her snuffed out under the weight of knowing her fathers had left while she had been upset with them. She blinked back the tears that threatened to fall and trudged forward towards the Sheriff's station.

If she could not take back her goodbye to her fathers, then she could, at the very least carry out the duty they had given her.

And all the while she would pray that nothing happened to them. She entered the office and sat down, her hands already working on filing the papers that awaited her. Her fathers would return, there would be a tomorrow with them, a day where she would finally have the words to make them understand her.

But for now there was paperwork, and she would not fail them in that.

Chapter 13

“You’re moping.”

Seylah kept her eyes trained on the mail she was sorting through. “I am doing nothing of the kind. My family does not mope.”

August snorted and leaned against the wall beside her. “Your family most certainly does.”

“Does not.”

“Then someone ought to tell your sisters, because they’ve made a business of it.”

Seylah pursed her lips, but said nothing. It was nearly quitting time and she hadn’t been able to shake the previous day’s events from her mind. The fact that word from her fathers was woefully absent did not help the matter. She slapped down a letter with far too much force and August came forward to put a hand over hers.

“Seylah,” he said, but she refused to stop in her sorting which made for an awkward arrangement, but she somehow managed to carry on one-handedly sorting mail around the hulking man. “Seylah stop,” he tried again.

“Stop what?”

“The mail.”

“It’s my job. That’s my duty, hmm? Let me do it.”

August sighed and pried her hand away from the letter she was clutching. “Honey, look at me,” he said touching her shoulder gently.

She wanted to refuse but it was difficult to when he used that soft voice with her. Seylah pursed her lips but did as he asked and looked at him.

“What?”

“You’re still upset about yesterday. What can I do?”

Seylah bit her lip and sagged forward. It was easier to be mad, mad at herself, at him, anything. But it was impossible to maintain it when August had a knack for cracking her shell. “Nothing short of taking us back there. If anything happens to them I’ll never forgive myself,” she whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“I left and I was angry with them,” she said voice shaky. “If they don’t come back the last thing I would have felt was anger, the last real conversation with them would have been an argument.”

“That’s not going to happen.” August dropped down to his knees until he was level with her and pulled her chair around so