171: Inappropriate questions - Egon's POV

Inappropriate questions - Egon's POV

"It's definitely my fault. I should have used one of her father's carriages to commute here instead of taking mine. My energy must have overwhelmed her," Aldric muttered angrily.1

Fuc* you.

Egon shrugged as he listened to his brother and his uncle's soft murmurs from behind the door of the neighboring house. His ears then focused on the heavier, deeper breaths Adela had started drawing.

How can anybody fall asleep that quickly? 

Without a word to the idiot, Egon opened the door again and closed it behind him. He walked until he reached the couch where Adela lay, sound asleep. His eyes followed the rise and fall motion of her chest beneath her riding gear, then slid down to scan her veins and arteries. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until he reached the bottom of her riding pants and noticed something silver colored peeking through. The sight extinguished the fire of his anger.

...Why do you have to be such a stubborn mountain goat?

Relief and anger competed inside him as he observed how the bracelet she had tried to convince him she no longer wore had found its way to her alluring ankle which slightly flinched under his gaze.

"We need to talk..."

He shrugged off his jacket and placed it on top of her body. It wasn't cold, but he wanted to cover her with something that belonged to him. And if he was honest with himself, he wanted to collect some of her scent on his clothes, just enough jasmine to help him sleep for at least an hour tonight.

Even one hour without nightmares and searing pain would be enough for him to carry on another day.

Andreas had been right all along.

"I should have kept you in Kolhis and never brought you back,"

Deciding that staying longer might lead him to do something he would regret, he turned around and left Adela to sleep some more. He opened the door, went outside, and stood next to the obnoxious fool again.

The warlock didn't glance at him. "It's a beautiful land, a blessed one for finding a place in the heart of a Healer. Actually, what makes this land beautiful is Adelaide," 

Unbelieving of the words he had just heard, Egon turned his head to glare at the warlock, but the latter never looked at him.

"What a woman..." the warlock continued, "She's both close and distant, hot and cold. Her contrasts provoke a desire to understand the reasons behind her peculiar nature." He took a sip of the glass he had taken outside with him. "I had just arrived in Lanark when I saw a beautiful Emorian woman walking in a busy street. She looked like a wounded winter fairy who had woken up in the wrong season. She was all alone, with tears streaming down her cheeks, not sobbing, nor wiping them away. She made her way to a carriage that bore my savior's family emblem and royal purple colors."

Egon continued to glare as the warlock carried on with his monologue.

"I wanted to approach her right then and there, to ask her who or what had made her cry in the street. But if I had done so, it would have drawn too much attention to her," the warlock finally looked at Egon. "What man in his right mind would cause a woman like that to shed tears in a street full of men who surely were thinking just what I was?" He turned his entire body toward Egon now. "You have known her for not so long, but longer than I have. I wanted to ask you directly..."

Egon turned around and licked his lips, nodding in anticipation of the question he knew was coming. It was as he had suspected—the warlock suffered from the effect she had on men in general, an effect she herself seemed oblivious to.

"Is there a man in her life?"

"Why do you ask?" Egon replied nonchalantly.

"You could say that she got under my skin," 

Egon's face remained expressionless. "You are a friend of her father. I thought your proposal to her was of a business nature,"

"I fail to understand your reasoning. This and that are different. Let us not mix them together, not in privacy, nor in front of other people."

There was something about how easily the warlock spoke his mind that provoked Egon endlessly.

He envied the man.

He envied anyone who could make Adelaide smile so much.

"You've just arrived here. Getting to know others will take time and effort." he sold him nonsense. 

"I like her a lot," the warlock said casually. "It has nothing to do with getting to know her. She stirred something inside of me, and I want to see what more she can do."

Egon's glare turned menacing.

"I am asking honestly and directly, is she committed to someone? I would like to know," the warlock pressed.

"You're forgetting who she is and the blood she carries. If I were you, I would forget the whole thing," 

"You're the only person I know here besides Kaiser, and it would be embarrassing for both of us to ask him without making a proposal. Of course, making a proposal while someone is in her life would be even more embarrassing for everyone involved," the warlock explained. He looked like a different man when he lost his foolish smile. "I will repeat my question: Is she committed to someone? If she isn't, I see no reason why we cannot be together."

Egon was a moment away from lashing out again. "Look, whether she is committed to someone or not, I am not the one to ask," 

"Why? Everything that woman feels is written all over her face. It takes very little effort to know what she thinks and how she's feeling. How can you not have known that by now?"

When Egon gritted his teeth and left the question unanswered, the warlock's curiosity piqued even further. "Why do my questions vex you so? I have not besmirched anyone's honor. She is the daughter of my friend."

"Once you know her well enough, you'll understand that your words do offend her," Egon said before he turned around and headed to his house to check on his uncle.

Adela was the kind of woman who wouldn't take it lightly when her mate was being pushed to his limits.

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