the moment, he had to admit that he was rather more grateful for his magic than he had been before.
“I should have held to my vow never to let you out of my arms again,” he said grimly. “I’m sorry I did.”
“You were trying to save my reputation, though I’m not sure why we care here.” She let out a deep, shuddering breath. “I am no threat to the queen, though I daresay she would like to have you as a husband for one of her girls.”
Ruith had his own ideas on what sort of threat Sarah posed, but he kept them to himself. “Too late,” he said cheerfully. “I am already promised.”
“To whom?” she asked with a snort.
“To someone who has set for me impossible tasks to surmount before she’ll look at me twice.” He shuddered delicately. “The thought of dancing with those harpies below—”
She smiled. “Unkind.”
“Accurate,” he corrected, “but I will force myself to dance with each of those gels downstairs, so that I might appease you and the queen at the same time. Then we will quite happily march off into the gloom sooner rather than later where you will look for spells and I for the final lass to fulfill my tally. And then, my lady, you will have exhausted your excuses and have nothing to hide behind except perhaps an intense dislike of your would-be lover.”
She sat up, pushing him out of her way as she did so. “That won’t do, so I suppose I’ll need to invent something else.”
“Don’t,” he said reaching for her hand. “Please don’t.”
She looked at him quickly. “You choose the damndest times to speak of romance.”
“You’re a difficult case. I must take the opportunities as they present themselves.” He kissed her hand quickly, then rose. “I’ll leave you to think on that whilst you dress.”
She hesitated. “I don’t think I can wear that gown over there. I’m not proud, well, not overly, but there is something sewn into the seams that ... hurts.”
Ruith supposed he should have looked just to see what that something was, but he didn’t have the stomach to. It was one thing to make Sarah miserable; it was another to endanger her, a guest in the hall. He spelled the gown into oblivion, then created another, along with shoes to match and a wrap to ward off the chill.
“I’ll wait for you without,” he said, holding out his hand to help her to her feet.
She nodded, looking quite a bit worse for the wear, but determined. He left her holding on to the footpost of the very lovely bed he’d made for her, then walked out into the passageway, pulling the door shut behind him. He leaned back against it, though, so he would hear if anything untoward happened inside.
It seemed only a handful of moments had passed before Sarah opened the door. He turned, then caught his breath.
He wasn’t much of a designer of ladies’ gowns, that he would freely admit, but he could remember a pair of them his mother had worn. Sarah was wearing one of those, an emerald thing that dripped with crystals from various appropriate parts of itself. Toes of lovely crystal-encrusted shoes peeked out from beneath the hem of her gown. He opened his hand and a necklace of diamonds lay there with another smaller circlet to go around her wrist. She looked up suddenly, her eyes full of tears.
“I didn’t realize your imagination extended to sartorial endeavors.”
He smiled faintly. “My mother had a gown that looked like that.”
“I’m sure she was exquisite in it.”
“She was,” he agreed, “and so are you.” He motioned for her to turn around, then asked her to hold up her hair so he could fasten the necklace for her. He slipped the bracelet over her wrist after she’d turned back to face him, then shook his head slowly. “I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully. “I may only manage four of the six.”
She smiled hesitantly. “You’re daft.”
“That isn’t the word I would use, but I won’t argue.” He heard someone calling his name loudly from down the passageway. He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, then held out his arm for Sarah. “Shall we go?”
She put her hand on his arm, then paused. “Thank you, Ruith,” she said quietly. “The gown is beautiful.”
“It is a poor covering for the true gem, but it will have to do.” He tucked her hand under his arm, then nodded down the passageway. “Let’s go have this over