Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 337

Chapter 337: Nighttimes and stars
The night was chilly, and the group had brought no firewood on their ascent. The darkness wasn’t oppressive, as a bright array of stars filled the sky. Mia hunkered into her bedroll next to her aunt, the two women sharing their heat on the odd white surface of the powdery shelf of the cliffside.

“It’s gorgeous,” The younger woman remarked. “I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the stars.”

Anaisa paused before replying with a somber tone. “I imagine a lot of things are like that. Some, you don’t realize how much the absence of something has affected you until it returns. Others, you don’t realize how used to them you’ve grown until they’re gone.”

“That sounded very serious,” Mia quieted. Her aunt must be missing Uncle Trace terribly. “I’m sorry this journey is taking so much longer than I thought.”

“I don’t hold you responsible for any of this, Mia,” Anaisa assured her. “You never need to apologize.”

“I feel guilty, just the same,” Mia felt a small weight off her shoulders at the admission, and Anaisa shook her head slightly as she stared up at the star-filled sky.

“Don’t. It does no good. None of this is your fault. I just…” She lingered before continuing on with thoughts that must have been on her heart for a long time. “I hope Trace is all right. Even if the wights didn’t hurt him, even if the dragons didn’t kill him, Denholm will be trying to find a way to take his revenge. The foul man.”

Mia’s ears perked up at the mention of him. She’d been intensely curious at first, but never wanted to upset her already emotional aunt with peppered questions about the fiend who’d deceived her and hurt Ford, then been kidnapped alongside Trace.

“He was rather…” Mia searched for the right word.

“Disgusting? Abhorrent? Vile?” Anaisa provided a few possibilities, causing Mia’s eyebrows to raise.

“All of those, yes,” She could admit with hindsight.

“A distant cousin of mine, on my father’s side,” The redhead sighed. “I had to dance with him one terrible evening, when I was the princess’s body double.”

Mia blinked and turned her head to look at her aunt. “When… what?”

Anaisa laughed softly. “The ball wasn’t all bad. It was also the night I invited your uncle Trace back into my dreams and began to realize how in love with him I was.”

Her eyes went somber for a while, soft in the memory. Mia waited, not wanting to disturb the thoughts her aunt seemed to be drifting through.

“How did you know… that you were in love?” She finally asked when Anaisa’s expression seemed to refocus on the present.

“That’s a difficult question,” Anaisa turned her head towards her niece thoughtfully. “I knew by degrees, if I’m honest. Admitted it to myself a little more every time I thought of him. The sight of him each morning made my heart beat a little out of rhythm. The thought of him being harmed made me feel sick.

“Trust, I suppose, was the most important step for me. I’d never had a man in my life I could trust before Trace. And then, there he was, safe and steadfast and, even though he hid some things from me at first, I could tell it tore him apart that he’d done something to hurt me. That was different than anyone I’d ever known except my sister.”

Mia laid her aunt’s words alongside her feelings about Ford. Trust was the most important step?

Ford insisted that she trusted people too easily. Ford had even insinuated once or twice that she’d trusted in him too easily, too quickly.

That didn’t make her feel good… but hadn’t he lived up to her trust each time? Though trust alone didn’t mean love, Anaisa said it was the most important step.

“I’ve been able to trust everyone I know,” Mia said aloud. “Until Denholm pretended to be Gary.”

“You’re a sweet girl who’s been raised much better than I was,” Anaisa told her softly. “I was raised around men who used others for their own purposes, lying and cheating and manipulating. You don’t have that baggage, so your biggest hurdle might be something else entirely.”

“Does my father count as a hurdle?” Mia whispered, and Anaisa clapped a hand over her mouth, a snort of laughter escaping before she could quiet herself. The older woman’s shoulders shook for some time before she regained total control.

“Absolutely, he does,” She agreed. “But if he’s the only thing in your way, that’s not too big of a problem.”

“It’s not?” Mia blinked.

“Not at all,” Anaisa assured her in a voice so soft that Mia strained her ears to hear. “Now, I’m not going to meddle enough to make a mess of things, but I’m not above a gentle nudge in the right direction. Now, try to get some sleep. I’ve got some thinking to do.”

“Are you sure?” Mia was slightly uneasy with the sudden gleam of the starlight reflected in her aunt’s mischievous gaze.

“Mia, you’re helping me rescue my love from what may as well be the ends of the earth. I’ve had relatively little in the way of pleasant distraction on the journey, and helping you in return sounds like a perfect way to pass the time as we journey onward. Don’t you think?”

“Papa won’t get mad?” Mia had only just restored a bit of her hope that her relationship with her father could heal. Was this the right way to go about things? “I’m not even sure if…”

She struggled to express her doubt of Ford feeling anything more for her than curiosity and obligation, but Anaisa smiled softly.

“I won’t do anything to make your life more difficult or complicated,” She promised. “You probably won’t even notice I’ve done anything at all.”

Mia wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or worse, but Anaisa rolled to her other side, effectively ending the conversation.

“Goodnight, Mia.”

“Goodnight, Aunt Annie.”