I squeezed his hands back. “Well, if we’re doing it, we’ll do it right. How can I help?”
“Most of it’s going to be on me—equipment, figuring out the claim.” He reached into his pocket and handed me a bag of silver. “You can help by taking care of your clothes.”
“What do you mean, take care of?”
He gestured to my organza dress. “This isn’t going to really work in Hadisen. You need something that can withstand some wear and tear.”
“I figured you’d just mend anything I needed.”
A little of his tension faded. “Well, I did enjoy that the first time.”
“I knew it! You’re not as good at hiding your thoughts as you think you are.”
“Well, actually, you were the one who wasn’t hiding that much—”
“Ugh,” groaned Tamsin behind me. “Will you stop already? I just endured one agonizing situation. Please don’t put me through another.”
Cedric flashed her his winning smile, only to be met with a scowl. Turning back to me, he closed my hand over the silver bag. “I mean it. You’re going to need a whole new wardrobe out there. I’ll ask Aiana to help—she’ll know what to get.”
“Where did this silver come from?”
“I have some savings of my own.”
I knew what those savings were for. “Cedric, you can’t—”
“I can.” He rested a hand on my cheek. “If this all works out, it won’t matter.”
There were no more protests to make. We’d signed on to this plan, and I wasn’t going to argue with him anymore. We would stand by each other and make this work. Hopefully.
“Just tell me this,” I said. “If things go horribly awry, can we just go run off into the wilderness together?”
“Sure. But we’d have to leave all civilization behind. Sleep under the stars. Wear animal skins.”
“Hey, watch it,” warned Tamsin.
Cedric looked at her in surprise. “There was nothing improper about that at all.”
“I know what you were thinking.”
“Can I at least kiss her goodbye?”
“No,” said Tamsin.
“And here I thought things were difficult before you got back.” Cedric dared a kiss on my cheek. “We’ll talk later. I’ve got to go break the news to Nicholas Adelton—assuming he hasn’t already heard it from some gossip.”
After Cedric was gone, Tamsin shook her head. “I don’t know how you got by without me.”
Despite the complications with Cedric, I still couldn’t get over the wonder of having her back. I gave her another fierce hug.
“Me either,” I said. “Me either.”
Chapter 21
Tamsin wasn’t kidding about jumping right into the Glittering Court’s busy world. Some of the new girls were clearly still in shock from all they’d endured. But for those, like Tamsin, who were ready to get back on track, Jasper had no problem helping them. A new wave of parties and one-on-one meetings were arranged for that week, and in no time, Tamsin’s reputation had spread, making her one of the most sought-after. Mira and I helped prepare her as best we could for life in Cape Triumph, but she seemed to need little adjustment. The settlers from Grashond were still around, and while Tamsin was polite to them, I noticed she went out of her way to avoid them. They were a disapproving lot, and Gideon—the young minister who’d helped save them—seemed especially troubled by the Glittering Court’s social whirlwind.
Meanwhile, I dropped out of the public eye and began preparations of an entirely different nature. As Warren had predicted, there were a number of families who were interested in having an interim teacher while Hadisen became established. I made an arrangement to help the children of multiple families with their studies. One of the families, the Marshalls, had a claim within riding distance of Cedric’s and offered to give me room and board.
Mistress Marshall was a stout, pleasant-faced woman with six children. “We’ll need the children to help around the homestead during the day,” she told me in one of our meetings. “But you can help them with their lessons at night.”
“That would be great,” I said. “I could help Cedric on the claim during the day—if you don’t need me around the house, that is. I want to earn my keep.”
“If I need you, I’ll let you know. But otherwise, I have no problem with you helping your young man, provided you give me your word nothing untoward will happen. And he’ll need to escort you there and back each day. I can’t have you traipsing through that wild land on your own.”
The arrangement suited me just fine, and I was excited that I’d get to help Cedric and hopefully wrap up this deal that much sooner. I saw little of him that week. He was busy, wrapped up in the logistics of supplies and claim arrangements.
“You realize I’m one of the ‘lucky’ ones,” he told me one day. “There’s actually some sort of shanty on the claim they’ve assigned me. Some prospector built it and then decided he didn’t like being in the wilderness. I hear it’s in disrepair, so I’ll have to buy some things to fix it up. But most of the miners are living in tents and lean-tos.”
We were in the cellar, where I’d finished the painting. Our relationship might be in the open, but we attracted too many prying eyes to feel comfortable speaking in public. “To think we first met in that drawing room,” I mused. “And now this shanty is the height of luxury.”