Awakening Love Reborn to Be His Duchess (Elowen Hale) novel Chapter 277

Chapter 277 Church

Elowen froze.

Vanelle?Something happened?

She looked at Cassian. She couldn’t bring herself to refuse him. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Cassian looked pleased. He kissed the back of her hand. “Good.”

69

Fashed

So they climbed back into the carriage in the night and headed for Serenity Church again.

Elowen was exhausted. The carriage rocked, and she fell asleep hard.

Even when they arrived, she didn’t wake.

Cassian touched his knee. It didn’t hurt much.

He glanced toward the horizon. A few thin streaks of light had already started to break through the clouds. Sunrise was close.

He left the chair behind, lifted Elowen onto his back, and carried her step by step toward the viewing platform.

Elowen woke to the feeling of being draped over a broad, steady back. Her cheek pressed against cool fabric, and beneath it was warmth, heat and the firm lines of a body she knew.

The scent was his: clean, grounded.

She opened her eyes, still hazy.

It was still dark. Everything sat in that deep blue just before dawn. The mountains and trees were only shapes. A faint scatter of light, maybe lingering stars, maybe the first edge of morning, outlined part of Cassian’s profile.

She shifted her numb body and whispered, hoarse with sleep, “Cassian.”

His voice was lower than usual, but calm. “You awake?”

“Yeah.”

Her mind cleared. “Put me down. Your leg isn’t healed. You can’t do this.”

She tried to get down, but the arm hooked under her legs held firm. He even adjusted her higher, like he was making sure she was comfortable.

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19:49 Tue, May 12

Char

Pusch

“I’m fine.” Cassian said. “Not tired.”

Then, just as simply, “I want to carry you.”

69

Falighed

Something inside Elowen tightened, like she’d been tapped in the center of her chest. Heat rose, spreading without permission. She could feel her ears warming.

A cool dawn breeze swept through, tugging loose strands of her hair.

Elowen didn’t argue again. She let her cheek settle back against him.

For a while neither of them spoke. Only Cassian’s steady footsteps sounded against stone steps and the path.

Before long, they reached the platform.

They had watched the sunset here the evening before, and the low table and chairs the attendants had set out were still in place.

Cassian walked to the cushioned bench and bent slightly, careful as he set Elowen down.

Elowen sat steady. She smoothed the wrinkles in her skirt and tucked windblown strands of hair behind her ear. Then she looked up at Cassian, who was straightening his sleeve, and asked, “Am I heavy?”

Cassian shook his head. “You’re light.”

After a beat, with a trace of amusement in his voice, he added, “I could carry two of you.”

Elowen murmured, “Two of me would be a lot. You wouldn’t make it.”

Cassian sat beside her and gave a quiet laugh. “You forgot? I was a general. When I was healthy, I charged into battle wearing armor that weighed dozens of pounds, carrying a weapon heavier than that. You don’t weigh much.”

Elowen blinked, suddenly wanting to see him like that, silver armor, white cloak, on a battlefield, the kind of man enemies feared.

Then her thoughts slid somewhere they shouldn’t. If she’d met Cassian first, would she ever have liked Alaric?

But that was only a question that could never change anything.

The past was already the past.

A faint heaviness rose in her chest, and her

eyes

lowered.

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19:49 Tue, May 12 ō

Chanter 12 Church

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