by Lucy Leven
The early morn lit bright gold for a heartbeat, and the Beast, she knew, was gone.
Estienne waited for her in the lee of the castle’s grand front door. He had two horses in hand, saddled and waiting.
“I beg your forgiveness, my darling wife,” he said when he saw her making her way down the steps towards him. “I should have bought a carriage for your comfort. But my tenants need new roofs, and the estate roads need mended, and a thousand other—”
Claria clasped his arm to quieten his worries. “I would be happy to ride.”
She had ridden often, after all, during her time in the village. Ridden to the miller or the market. She was not an accomplished horsewoman, but she could ride — any mule or any old nag.
But this horse: a beautiful mare with a gold-gleaming coat and a white-gold mane. Claria knew it. Magic made real and whole. Another gift from the Beast.
The first of those precious gifts she tucked up safely in her saddlebag, well-wrapped in one of her aprons, and the rose she laid gently atop. Then Claria mounted her beautiful mare, and at her husband’s side, she set out for home, along the long, winding road east, with the first bud of spring blooming all around.
Tales of the Dark Forest
A Tithe to Be Paid
A Deal to Be Done
An Oath to Obey
A Bond to Break
A Troth to Take
About the Author
Lucy is an Edinburgh-based author with a love for exploring the secret passions to be found at the heart of our most familiar stories.
Click here to visit Lucy’s website.
Copyright © 2019 Lucy Leven
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
‘Red Roses Flower Arrangement’
by Asoggetti/Unsplash
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