Dawn closed her eyes and sorted through his words. “I am trapped in another realm. How can any of this be real?”
“You should have grown up knowing your oral history. I’m sorry you didn’t have that. I cannot imagine how difficult it is to assimilate a millennium of history in just a few hours.” He stroked up the back of her neck again, and another ripple ran down Dawn’s body.
“I’m not sure you should do that. It’s not very conducive to thinking,” she murmured.
A softer laugh vibrated through his chest. “I shall keep that in mind. Distract me with another question before I decide to discover if you are ticklish.”
“Tell me why this garden is so important.” Now she sought distraction, her mind wondering what it would be like to be tickled by him.
He held her close and dropped his head to rest on top of hers. “Our strength and longevity comes from our connection to the earth and water. Each clan has care of a Ravensblood tree, and this estate is the heart of our Alysblud family. Many years ago our parents were entrusted with a Ravensblood sapling to establish a sanctuary for the north of England. If the tree ever sickens and fails, so our entire family will sicken and fail.”
Their tree did sicken and wither, its black leaves showing its distress. When she breached the centre of the maze, what condition would the tree be in? “Why have you waited so long, if she can weaken you all and the tree is at stake? Surely you could remove Ava yourselves?”
He clenched his hand and then relaxed his fingers along her arm. “It’s not that easy. Once a sanctuary has a heart, it cannot be without one. Ava replaced our mother when our parents died, and we cannot supplant her without another to step into the void.”
“You need a heart to replace Ava.” She laughed at the irony. Her defective organ was a sorry replacement.
“More than a heart. It must be an Elemental with the right soul, who would have a care for this family and estate. Ava has no regard for the community and she spreads neglect. I have searched for someone to share the responsibility of this land and the people who rely upon us.” He stroked a thumb over the base of her throat. Then he cupped her face and turned her to toward him. Jasper leaned down and kissed her. Gentle but insistent, he stroked along her lips with his tongue. She sighed against him, and like the tendril of invisible vine, he explored her mouth. Dawn opened to him and wondered again at all the things she found in this remote part of England. At last her heart found something to live for.
He released her lips and kissed her forehead. “For decades, I have searched for an Elemental who might have the necessary power to save the estate. I dared not dream they might also have a care for me.”
If he spent most of his time on a rural estate, how had he searched? Then Dawn remembered how she came to be in his arms. “The advertisement, a much easier way to reach a wider audience of people with green thumbs than roaming the countryside on horseback.”
Would she still have applied if the fine print read successful candidate expected to battle evil demon currently poisoning the garden?
Probably not.
18
Jasper let her go and a cool breeze washed over her back as he stood. Then he held out a hand to her. “The advertisement has run in many newspapers, in many counties, for over thirty years.”
“Thirty years?” It seemed like a lifetime of waiting, but Sleeping Beauty had slept for a hundred years while brambles claimed her castle. If she had advertised, the prince might have found her sooner.
Jasper helped her to her feet, and she brushed moss and grass from her skirts. Mouse sighed and heaved himself upward as though he only followed them under sufferance.
Dawn wondered how many people had sent their drawings to Lord Seton over the years and what percentage of gardeners had the required bloodlines he sought. “But I don’t understand. If you were searching for an Elemental who was willing to be the new heart, why were you so angry when you saw me?”
He stared at their hands and he clasped hers in both of his. “In all those years, a woman had never before responded, and the men have not been up to the task. Most left on the first day when they saw the state of the grounds.”
She could understand that. It was a formidable job to tackle single-handed. “Did you seek a man to replace Ava?” There was something she had not considered, did a heart have to be male or female?
He shrugged. “Man or woman doesn’t matter. There can be a working relationship between the heart and Lord Warder without any personal entanglement. After so much neglect I needed to find someone who would embrace this land and I thought a gentleman would be more robust and up to the challenge. When I saw you, you seemed so delicate, I couldn’t put you in harm’s way. Then I saw how much you cared for this estate and your determination to repair the damage that Ava has wrought, and I realised you might be the one.”
Her heart quivered with a feeble, erratic beat of expectation. How pathetic that she thought he would give some grand declaration of devotion toward her. That he might admit that she roused protective instincts and he didn’t want to lose her. Dawn didn’t even understand her own position on the attraction between them, but the woman inside her wanted to hear that she was more than a weapon he planned to wield. “Was that why you changed your mind, because I care for this land?”
He lifted his face to hers and storm clouds gathered in his eyes. “No. The depth of my reaction to you took me by surprise. There is a bond between the Lord Warder and the heart, one that once formed can only be broken by death. I selfishly did not want to risk losing you, and I put my wants above the needs of the ward under my protection.”
His gaze pierced her and heat flowed along her limbs. He said nothing and yet everything with that one look. An enduring bond would unite them until death, if she accepted what he offered. But was this love or compulsion? Neither of them had mentioned that little four-lettered word and in truth, she didn’t know what she felt.
Her head spun with all she had learned over the last few days, and she was no fit judge of her emotions. She glanced to Mouse who watched the exchange, his head swinging back and forth. The dog gave his affection to her in an instant. Could people know their heart’s desire so easily or quickly as a wolfhound?
She swallowed, her throat dry as her tongue tried to wrap around the words she wanted to say. “Were Julian and Ava chosen by the Cor-vitis too?”
Jasper’s shoulders rose and fell in a shrug so similar to those given by Elijah. “Ava said yes, but I suspect not, as Julian never mentioned it. If the vine didn’t appear to them, then he might have thought it would just be a matter of time. It is not an essential requirement in choosing a heart, but it adds another layer to the pairing that makes the family stronger.”
This was all very complicated, like a divine matchmaking service. A Lord Warder had to find a person with the suitable type of ability or affinity to be the heart, but without the blessing of the little green plant they could be forever bound to someone without any attraction between them. Otherwise it would be like a frosty marriage of convenience, two parties forced together but with little to unite them apart from circumstances. Mundane aristocratic engagements seemed easy by comparison. You only had to match breeding stock to fortunes with no concern for supernatural abilities and mystical alliances. Religion did play a part for some couples, if you counted that as mysticism.
Did that make it all the more remarkable when the vine chose two people? Should she set aside her rational and logical objections and trust to a diminutive supernatural plant to bind her to her life’s partner?