Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 338

Chapter 338: Getting to know all about you
Ford cringed back against the cliffside. Every time he let his gaze drift upward, he was overwhelmed with the vastness of the sky above and the land below. To see so much of both of them at one time left him feeling smaller and more vulnerable than ever before.

His watch was the last one of the night, so he hunched, wrapped in his blankets, waiting for the coming dawn to warm the land. It would come from behind him, so he just marked time until the sky would begin to lighten slowly.

The sooner they got moving, the better.

Daniel mumbled in his sleep nearby, and Ford glanced at the boy, envying him for a moment. His father was a magic user, and his mother was strong willed but kind. What might it be like to have been raised like that?

On a whim, he reached into his bag and pulled out his mother’s simple wooden ring. A promise left by his father to come back and marry her. A promise that wasn’t kept.

Ford’s mother told him something must have happened to him, but Ford’s uncle always sneered when she talked about the man. He’d never liked him, and thought Ford’s father was a worthless blackguard.

Mama always cried when her brother spoke ill of the man she had loved, leaving Ford confused and dejected.

“Anything eventful?” A voice from one side drew Ford’s attention back to the present from his reverie, and he swiped the back of his hand across his cheek.

“No, Seth. Everything’s quiet,” He answered.

Mia’s father sat up and stretched in his bedroll, and to Ford’s great surprise, he stood and moved it over to sit beside the younger man and lean against the white cascading cliffside.

“I’ve always liked the stars,” Seth commented idly, and Ford nodded. Why did Seth suddenly have an interest in small talk?

“I can’t remember seeing them until after the mines collapsed,” He answered, remembering looking out the window of the infirmary at the sky above.

“You’ve lived a different kind of life than I have,” Seth turned to him with a curious expression. Ford braced himself. Was he about to be told a mining brat like himself was unfit to pursue Seth’s daughter?

“Yes,” Ford answered, breaking eye contact to look around at the family still sleeping around them. “Very different.”

“You seem to have taken to Grandpa,” Seth seemed to choose his words carefully, confusing Ford further.

“He’s a good man,” Ford swallowed. “He’s taught me a lot.”

“It’s an admirable trait to be teachable,” Seth looked back up at the stars again, and Ford stared at him. “There are a lot of people in this world who aren’t.”

“Sir?” Ford was baffled to be receiving what sounded quite a lot like a compliment from this particular man.

“Tell me more about yourself,” Seth invited, and Ford floundered.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand…” He shook his head. What was happening? Hadn’t the man been glaring at him until… well, hours before?

Seth sighed deeply, his friendly expression falling away.

“I told Mia I would try to get to know you. This is my half-baked attempt to do so. You’re not being very much help.”

“I’m sorry,” Ford coughed. “Ah… what would you like to know?”

This entire conversation was too odd. Had Mia asked her father to get to know him? Extracted a promise? To what purpose?

He swallowed. There were a few purposes he could think of. To dispel the awkwardness of the glaring at the young pair. To smooth the tension in the group as they drew nearer to the goal of their mission. To convince Seth to allow Ford to hold Mia’s hand while she slept so that she could replenish her magic more readily and sleep better… and one other, faint possibility he didn’t dare fully form thoughts around.

Seth stared at Ford until he became even more uncomfortable than he had been before.

“Tell me more about your origins,” He decided after a moment. “I’ve never been to Foundrel, despite living relatively close to the border. I would like to know more about your customs, your family.”

Ford lifted one hand to scratch his neck, hesitating.

“I suppose I don’t actually know much about the whole country,” He admitted. “Just the mines, and the mining town.”

“Then tell me about that,” Seth invited with a slight twitch to his mouth. He was obviously going to great pains to be as kind and friendly as he could, which made Ford feel even more awkward than if the man had been surly like before.

“I think I told you before that my mother died when I was young. Never met my father. My uncle took care of me for a couple of years until he died. Then I was on my own, since I was eight.” Ford shrugged. “Been around no one but miners since then.”

Seth looked at him skeptically. “That’s all? Just miners? No townfolk or anybody?”

“I’d wake up, go to work, put in a twelve hour shift, sometimes more, and eat on the way back to bed to get up the next day and do it all again. Some of the miners managed to find time to visit the town for the… er..” Ford stumbled over his words as a blush crept up his cheeks, “brothels, but it always seemed like a horrible waste of wages to me.”

Seth raised one eyebrow and Ford wanted to shrink under the scrutiny. He’d been ridiculed by some of the older miners for his ‘innocence,’ as they called it, but he had no reason to lie about it now.

“I see,” Seth responded at last. “I’m sorry you lost your folks so young. A father and mother’s influences are important for a young man, in my opinion. Teaches him how to treat women, how to be a man, how to live his life.”

The wooden ring Ford had been holding between his fingers seemed to grow heavy there, a reminder of what he’d lost. Maybe never had to begin with.

“Thank you,” Ford nodded slowly. “I can’t say that I’m entirely sure what I missed out on, but perhaps it’s more than I realize.”

Perhaps it made him incapable of being the kind of man Seth wanted lurking around his only daughter.