The Cursed Blood novel · Chapter 27 of 32

Chapter 27: Second Night

I didn't ask anyone where he'd gone.

I left the cook in the middle of her sentence and ran.

Hettie shouted something after me. I didn't hear what.

The Line ran east under the full moon, white as a road.

I ran it barefoot, stone to stone, the way my mother had.

The ground knew him.

It gave him to me in pieces as I ran.

Long strides. Not running. Going steady.

Going to the Gap.

There was smoke from my chimney.

I stopped on the path below the post and stood there, breathing hard, with my hands on my knees.

Then I walked up the step and opened the door.

He'd lit the stove.

He'd swept the floor. He'd stacked the wood box to the top and filled both water buckets from the spring.

He'd folded the blankets on my mother's bed into a neat square.

He was standing by the window in his coat, looking down at the valley.

His pack was on the floor by the door.

Packed.

"You lit my stove," I said.

He didn't turn around.

"So it'd be warm," he said. "Either way."

"Either way what?"

"If you came up tonight. Or if you only came up for your things."

I shut the door behind me.

"My things," I said. "A bed, a postcard and a broom."

"The cook offered you a room with a window."

"I heard her."

"They meant it."

"I know they did."

He turned around then.

His face in the stove light was the face he'd had on the ridge road the first night. Shut. Ready for no.

"The bond's gone," he said. "Tonight. I watched it go. You've got a pack begging you home, and a high table, and you're twenty-two, Isla. You can have anything."

"Yes."

"I'm a warden with a ditch and one coat."

"And spare hinges," I said. "You carry spare hinges."

His mouth moved. He stopped it.

"I didn't want to stand at the back of that ring and watch you choose them," he said. "So I came here. I'm a coward. You can tell Hettie."

"She'll be delighted."

I walked across the room.

I stopped in front of him, close, the way I had on the night of the call.

"Do you know what I was about to say to the cook?" I said.

"No."

"I was about to say no." I put my hand flat on his chest. "I turned round to find you so I could watch your face while I said it. And you were gone, you idiot."

He went very still.

"No," he said.

"No. I'm the Warden of Cinder Gap. I live here. With my stove. And my captain, if he unpacks his bag."

He looked down at my hand.

Then at me.

"You ran the Line," he said. "In the dark. Barefoot."

"My mother used to."

"I know." His voice cracked. "I watched you come up the path."

"Then why didn't you come out?"

"Because I wanted you to open the door yourself."

I laughed. My eyes were wet.

"I love you," I said.

It came out plain.

He shut his eyes.

When he opened them, they were wet too.

"I love you," he said. "I've loved you since you spat on my boots."

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