Chapter 63 Whispers In The Wind
As she spoke, she lurched toward Zephyr, aiming to collapse into his arms.
Zephyr kept his hands clasped behind his back and let her fall short.
“Miss Lillian!”
Sadie cried out in concern, darting forward to catch Lillian before she could hit the ground.
Yet, a gust snapped Sadie’s skirts against her ankles; she trod on them, stumbled, and pitched down the steps instead.
Charlie, closest to her, caught her around the waist in a flash. “Miss Francis!”
A textbook rescue.
Zephyr’s brow rose a fraction.
Steady once more, Sadie dipped a grateful curtsy. “Had you not intervened, Mr. Campbell, I might have tumbled to the bottom and broken half my bones. I owe you my thanks.”
Charlie offered his arm and smiled. “No worries, Miss Francis.”
The wind tugged at Sadie’s teal sash and brushed cool against Charlie’s fair cheek, carrying with it an unspoken tenderness.
In Verdant Pavilion, the young man and young woman, both clad in flowing silks, made a picture almost too harmonious to be real.
As Zephyr watched them, his lips curved into a slow, unreadable smile.
Still sprawled and ignored, Lillian had a plan. She stretched a languid hand toward Zephyr, her voice syrup- sweet. “I fell too, Commander Gates. I simply cannot rise unless you hold me.”
Zephyr lowered his gaze to her.
The smile had not yet faded; to Lillian, it looked predatory, those perfect white teeth sending an icy shiver down her spine.
Zephyr’s voice was gentle, threaded with a playful edge. “Are you quite sure you want me to carry you, Miss Lillian?”
Lillian stared at him, mute, a prickle of unease running the length of her spine as she pictured Zephyr hoisting her up only to fling her over the cliff.
Better he kill me outright than make me marry such a demon. She jerked her hand back, scurried behind a column, and crouched like a frightened kitten, whispering, “You can’t see me…”
Zephyr’s arm came around Sadie from behind, his fingers locking over her shoulders as he drew her into the shelter of his chest.
Smiling past her, he told Charlie, “The wind bites up here, and my sister is delicate. I’ll escort her to Goddess Hall to pray. We’ll make a move.”
Sadie dug in her heels. She liked the Campbell sisters and had hoped to linger, nurturing that new
Chapter 63 Whispers In The Wind
friendship.
“I’ve never prayed for anything, so why start now?” Sadie said with disarming honesty.
“You have,” Zephyr replied, catching her wrist before she could protest. Without another word, he guided her down the steps of the Verdant Pavilion.
“Let me go!” Sadie cried. Zephyr kept hold until they reached Goddess Hall; only then did he release her hand.
She rubbed the reddened spot and lifted her chin. “Zephyr, must you meddle even with the simplest of my friendships?”
Zephyr straightened her peony–shaped hairpin, the gesture tender though his tone was not. “Mr. Campbell? Have you forgotten I am your elder brother? A brother has every right to discipline his little sister.”
Sadie clenched her teeth. She knew perfectly well Zephyr simply did not want her getting close to Charlie; he was terrified she might marry and slip beyond his reach.
I’ve basked in luxury for only a few days, and he already plans to keep me chained to the Gates Estate for life, sharing every hardship with him. Is there a man in the world more petty?
“I’m going inside to offer a prayer,” Sadie said at last, swallowing her annoyance. “Please wait for me here, Lord Zephyr.”
She stepped into the hall, beckoned Finn–no more than six or seven–and whispered a few instructions into his ear, pressing a small silver ingot into his palm. The boy’s dark eyes sparkled as he bowed. “I’ll remember, miss!”
When she emerged, she asked, “Aren’t you going to pray?”
Arms folded against a pillar, Zephyr watched the worshippers set their candles alight. “I do not believe in prayers,” he said.
Finn suddenly darted out of the hall, clapping to the beat of a children’s rhyme.
“Green iris leaves, dragon boats glide, thunderclouds gather! On the seventh month, the rain pours down; by Autumn, new walls will rise!”
Candle smoke curled thick outside the hall, and within a breath, the boy slipped into the tide of worshippers and was gone.
Sadie’s lips curved with quiet amusement. “That little boy is delightful. I have never heard that before.”
Seeing Zephyr remain silent, she continued in an offhand tone, “Green iris leaves, dragon boats glide… Clearly, it points to the Summer Dragon Festival. Does the rhyme hint at rain that day? The seventh day of the seventh month could bring torrential rain. Yet why say by Autumn, new walls will rise? Does it warn of floods that will devour Aurelia Province?”
The single word, flood, landed like thunder on open ground.
Zephyr’s gaze sharpened to ice. Do not speak nonsense.”
Sadie lifted innocent eyes. “Zephyr, I am only repeating the boy’s words.”
Zephyr trusted few apart from himself.
08:34 Wed, 20 Augz
Chapter 63 Whispers In The Wind
That was why she had penned the verse and let Finn recite it, planting a seed of doubt in Zephyr a girarded, mind.
With luck, he would summon the Royal Observatory once they returned.
The astronomers there read clouds and wind like scrolls, some of them talented enough to foresee the weather months ahead.
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