Love's Magic Read Online Free PDF Page B

emotion.
    “Sleep, Sir Nicholas,” she said with a giggle and a wave as she went up the stairs. “No one will harm you here.”
    Setting the cup on the counter, he knew it was time to leave.
    He got as far as the stables before getting caught.

    It was her youngest sister’s snoring that woke her, and Celestia did not even mind. The three days of nursing Nicholas back to health had taken all her energies, but the solution to her problem had come to her in a dream.
    She had to protect her family and marry Sir Nicholas so that her brothers would not come to harm. Running away would only cause her family worry, not to mention that if she was to directly disobey her liege lord, her family could lose their lands and be outcast. The needs of the many most definitely outweighed her own need to be happy.
    Except …
    What if she spoke to Sir Nicholas before he found out that they were to wed, and what if she assured him that they could get an annulment once they pleaded their case to the baron in person? The baron could not refuse his own son, not face to face. Could he?
    For certes, she’d not stand in the way.
    And if she could speak to Nicholas privately, he would not have the chance to reject her in public. Celestia shoved the covers back, setting her bare feet on the wooden floor.
    “‘Tia? What ails ye? You look green.”
    Shoving her arms through her robe, Celestia realized that green must be the color of remembered humiliation. “Go back to sleep, Ela. You can’t have slept well, since you kept me awake most of the night.”
    Her sister sat up, her bright red hair exploding from her long braids in wispy curls. She rubbed her eyes. “Sir Nicholas has a gray aura, something I have not seen before. It is too dangerous for you to wed him. Tell Father you cannot do it, please, ‘Tia?”
    Unsettled by her sister’s announcement, Celestia expelled a loud breath. “You know that I have no choice.” She crossed her arms defensively. “Why are you in my bed, anyway? What is the matter with yours?”
    “I am afraid for you,” Ela said, her lower lip trembling and her green eyes brimming with tears.
    “Oh, shhh, now, don’t cry.” Celestia sat back on the edge of her bed, pulling her sister into a hug. “I am a powerful healer,” she said in a storyteller’s voice, “what is a gray aura to one such as me, eh?” She laughed, tickling Ela until the tears dried.
    “I will miss you,” Ela said, climbing from the mussed covers.
    “Miss me?” Celestia repeated, a shard of ice lodging in her chest.
    Galiana threw open the door to Celestia’s room and marched inside, followed by a line of five serfs. One carried a bathing tub, one carried two pails of hot water, another carried two pails of cool water, one carried breakfast, and the last carried a huge basket of oils and lotions that Galiana had made.
    “Quick, ‘Tia. Ye must bathe and dress, sleepyhead. We’ve all been up since dawn, except you two. Were you crying, Ela? No matter. Go to Gram, she has your dress laid out, you’ll carry the flowers.”
    “Flowers?” Celestia asked, the cold traveling through her blood.
    Galiana would not meet her eyes. “You’re getting married.”
    Celestia’s knees gave out. “Now?” she squeaked, sinking to the floor in a puddle of boneless nerves. “But I … Nicholas doesn’t even know, and I was going …”
    Clapping her hands, Gali dismissed everyone and shut the door behind them, Ela included.
    Taking a seat on the floor next to her sister, Galiana said softly, “Nicholas knows.”
    Heart beating rapidly, Celestia burned to ask how. “If I am to be married right now, he must have agreed to it.”
    Gali covered Celestia’s hand with hers. “Aye.”
    Apprehension was thick in the air, and Celestia bowed her head. “Tell me. The truth, please.”
    “Nicholas tried to escape the manor last eve, but Sir Petyr caught him at the stables.”
    “He is not well enough to travel!”
    Galiana, her brow smoothly