My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 414

Nadia

I slipped out of the hospital, no one paying me much attention. I started walking, no particular hurry, when a gleaming black car rolled up beside me. The window slid down, and Lord Aldous's face appeared, a warm smile creasing his weathered features.

"Nadia! Where are you headed?"

"The palace," I said. "I'm on my way to see Lyra."

"Well, I'm headed the same way myself. Hop in."

I climbed in and shut the door behind me. The interior smelled faintly of leather and pine.

"So how have you been, my girl?" he asked, pulling back into traffic.

"Busy," I said, and smiled. "You'd think working at the library would be quiet, but somehow it never is."

He laughed. "Ah yes, the great peril of literacy. What is it this time, an uprising of overdue notices?"

"Worse. Someone tried to return a book with a sandwich pressed inside it as a bookmark."

That drew a real laugh out of him, warm and easy. "A sandwich. Please tell me it was at least a good sandwich."

"I have no idea. I was too busy trying not to think about it."

We talked easily the rest of the way, catching up on people we both knew, a wedding coming up in the fall, a horse he'd just bought that apparently hated him personally. It was the kind of conversation that didn't require effort, the kind that simply happened.

Before I knew it, we were pulling up to the palace gates. I got out, then leaned back in through the window to say goodbye.

"Oh, wait," he said. "Almost forgot. Tell your father I heard there's a grain buyer this season paying well above the usual rate. Someone I trust. I wanted him to have the chance before the season closes."

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