CHAPTER 256: THEN I’M GLAD YOU DID

The older woman merely lifted her cup to her lips and sipped on her water. Darius scratched the back of his ear and blinked rapidly. Did she not hear him? He knew the years had begun to take a toll on her but surely her hearing couldn’t be that bad.

"I have a mate," he repeated even more quietly this time.

"I heard you," she said, setting the cup down.

Darius hummed and interlaced his hands on the table and stared at her. Her lack of reaction was putting him off so much that he felt like leaving immediately.

"Did you know?"

The old woman shook her head and laughed. "Oh no. Well not exactly, you just seemed happier these days. I figured it was because of that wonderful rogue but..."

Darius cleared his throat loudly but she went on. "So I know why now..."

Darius shifted on the bench, his shoulders tight as if the air in the room pressed too closely against him. This was not how he had imagined it at all. In his mind he had steeled himself for tears or for a long lecture on responsibility, perhaps even for a raised voice. But Evelyn merely sat there with that knowing expression, so calm and certain that it left him feeling strangely unmoored.

"You are very quiet for one who just unburdened his heart," she said, her eyes twinkling faintly with mirth.

"I am... I had thought you might scold me," Darius admitted. He looked away briefly so the old woman would not see the way he looked guilty. He had gone through so many routes in his mind but here she was accepting his words like he was telling her it would rain the next day.

"Scold you? For finding joy? For having what your parents had?" She smiled faintly, shaking her head. "Oh, child. You have been carrying storms within you far too long if you believed I would scold you for this."

Darius rubbed the back of his neck and let out a slow breath. "I do not know what to do with this weight, Nana. I have held it so close I thought it would crush me, and now you are-" He paused, at a loss for the words.

"Calm?" she supplied.

"Yes," he said, almost petulantly.

Evelyn chuckled, a warm, rich sound that made the corners of his mouth turn up despite himself. "Would you have preferred I faint upon the floor?"

"No," he said quickly, though his ears flushed.

She leaned forward, resting her chin upon one hand, her face softening. "Tell me truthfully, Darius. Would you be willing to let her go, should the day ever come that she wished to leave?"

The question struck him like a bucket of cold water. His head came up sharply, eyes wide. "Let her go?"

"Yes." Evelyn’s tone did not waver. "You know as well as I the tale of your father and mother. He loved her so fiercely he could not release her, even when the illness had taken her strength and her body could endure no more. His love bound him until it destroyed him. I ask you this, not to wound you, but to spare you such a fate."

Darius blinked rapidly, feeling the air grow heavier. Every effort he had made in the past weeks, though small, had been to draw Serena deeper into Ironshade, to make her see that she belonged here. The thought of simply letting her slip away was unthinkable. The man had thought of such a situation but he consoled himself with the fact that it was too far into the future to worry his head about.

"I..." His voice failed him. He dropped his gaze to the table, watching the candlelight flicker across the wood grain.

"You need not answer me tonight," Evelyn said gently. She picked up her spoon again and resumed her meal, as though she had not just thrown his heart into disarray. "But if you come to truly love her, you must hold your hands open. Love is not possession, Darius. It is an offering, freely given."

He swallowed hard, her words gnawing at him. For a long while there was only the quiet sound of the fire and the soft clink of her spoon against the bowl.

At last he gave a short, dry laugh. "I am my father’s son," he said.

"You are," she agreed, glancing up at him with a smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes. "But you may also be wiser than he was."

He leaned back, letting her words settle into him. Slowly, he felt a strange peace begin to creep in where guilt had sat.

Evelyn did not press the matter further. Instead she tilted her head and said, "Tell me, was it your clever mind that made you call her an ambassador? To shield her from too many curious eyes?"

Darius snorted softly. "No. It was not cleverness at all. I came up with it on the fly when she first arrived because of Beatrice. In truth, I wanted her gone as swiftly as possible." His lips curved faintly. "And now I find myself wishing for nothing less than the opposite. How strange that things can change so quickly."

"Not so strange," Evelyn replied with a knowing look. "The heart is ever changing when it is young."

He gave her a wry glance. "Young, am I?"

"You will always be young to me."

He chuckled, rubbing a hand over his face. The tension in his shoulders had begun to ease at last.

Evelyn laid her spoon aside and folded her hands neatly. "So, is this why you rode out here tonight? To tell an old woman you had found your mate?"

Darius looked at her, the question hanging between them. For a long moment he simply breathed, the corners of his mouth tugging upward in a reluctant, boyish grin.

"Yes," he admitted finally. "I suppose it was."

Evelyn smiled, her gaze warm and proud. "Then I am glad you did."