“All my chickens?” she asked, not as shocked as she should have been. “Michael, we depend on them for a good part of our food supply.”
“I know, Darby, but I also know you have a lot of other animals in that barn. The chickens are a small part of what you’ve got, and the guards have to eat,” he said. “I have to take them.”
For a few minutes, she could only stare out at the harbor, the waves benignly crashing against what was left of the pier and wonder how one storm could ruin all her carefully laid plans for the summer. It would take weeks to repair the damage; that meant no tourist boats, no income, no new drying shed, and definitely no money to replace the chickens.
She turned to face Michael, unable to stop the tears that sprang to her eyes. “We had to put them in the barn during the storm. I’ll go get them for you,” she said.
Colin fell in step with her as she walked to the barn. “Are you just going to let him take them after we worked so hard to save them yesterday?” he asked, shocked that this fiery woman was giving in so easily.
“I don’t have a choice; he’ll get them one way or another,” she said, her shoulders sagging. “It’s just the way things are, and he is right: I’m better off than most people.”
When they got to the barn, Michael was already sitting there in his wagon waiting for them. “Ummm, Darby, if a few of your chickens got loose in the storm last night and you haven’t found them yet, I don’t have time to help you look,” he said.
It took the sting out of what she had to do, but it was still difficult to hand over most of her flock. “It doesn’t seem fair,” Colin said, a concerned look on his face as watched the wagon disappear into the trees. “Does this happen a lot?”
Darby shrugged. “This isn’t that common, but someone is always coming around with their hand out: taxes, protection money, donations to the guards, you name it, we pay it. I don’t want to talk about it anymore; it just makes me mad.”
She started around the barn, planning to see what she could do to fix it, so the few chickens that remained would have a place to roost, but Colin caught up to her. “Wait, I do want to talk about this,” he said. “I want to understand.”
This was not a conversation she wanted to have with him. It only reminded her that he’d be gone soon and taking a piece of her heart with him. “You aren’t going to want to hear what I have to say,” she said, then waited. “Okay, let’s start with taxes, which are about ten percent of our income, all to pay for you and your family to live in the castle, eat fancy food, and make rules for all the rest of us. Have any of you ever worked a day in your lives? Do you contribute anything to the town?”
Colin stepped back, clearly surprised by her words, but now that she’d gotten started, it was impossible to stop. “Then there are the guards who require money above and beyond what we already pay them to do their job, which consists mainly of looking good in their uniforms and directing tourists around town. You’ve been to the bad side of town. Did you see any guards down there?”
“Darby,” he said. “It can’t be that bad. My parents really do care about the town and the people: that’s one of the reasons they kicked me out.”
“They sit up there on their little mountain, surrounded by other royals, and think that they’re taking care of us, Colin. But let me ask you this: how much better would our lives be if we didn’t have to take care of them? What is it that makes you so much better than me that I should have to slave away part of my life so you can live in luxury?” she asked, then turned and started back to the farmhouse.
Chapter Fifteen
***Colin***
Colin watched Darby walk away, her words echoing in his head, then hurried to catch up to her. “Where are you going?” he asked.
“I’m going to change my clothes and go into town,” she said. “I need to check on the store.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said. “I’d like to see what’s going on in town.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, stomping back to her bedroom.
When she came out a few minutes later dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt, he could tell that she was still upset, so he pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry, Darby,” he said. “I’m sorry the chickens are gone, I’m sorry things are so unfair, but I promise you I’m going to try to change that.”
She looked up at him. “Really?”
He grinned at her. “I think my parents got more than they bargained for when they sent me away. I don’t think they realized that I’d meet a hard-as-nails Fae who would finally open my eyes and make me see the reality of my world.”
The smile on her face and the way her eyes lit up made his body begin to throb with desire, but then it disappeared, and sadness took its place. Darby pulled away from him and said, “We’d better get to town.”
She started for the door but he grabbed her and stopped her. “Wait, what just happened?” he asked. “You were so happy just a minute ago.”
A huge sigh made Darby’s chest rise and fall, then she reached up and stroked his cheek. “It’s time for you to go home, Colin; you’ve learned what you needed to, and Ballentine needs you where you belong,” she said.
“What if I’m not ready to go home?” he asked. “What if I think I still have things to learn?”
“Then I’d think that you were still hiding, Colin,” she said. “You’ve spent too much time hiding already; you were born to lead, and it’s time you started doing that.”
He pulled her into his arms, the truth of her words too obvious to ignore. “I don’t want to leave you,” he said, looking down at her. “I want us to be together.”
“I want that too, Colin, but you and I both know that’s impossible,” she said, tears in her eyes. “We’re from two different worlds, and the two never mix.”
He was tempted to ask for one more night but knew it would only be prolonging the pain. “I wish it could be different,” he said instead, then held her tightly in his arms for a long time.
When they pulled apart, she brushed the tears off her cheek and said, “I’ll never be sorry you showed up in my drying shed.”
He smiled at her. “Neither will I.”
They walked to town in silence, their hands joined, neither ready to let the other go. But as they stared down the first street, it was clear that the town had sustained a lot more damage than the farm had, and their heartache was quickly forgotten. As they picked their way toward the center of town, they stopped and helped where they could, clearing branches and limbs, sweeping up broken glass, and carting away debris. But it barely made a dent, and Colin knew that it was going to take a long time to recover from the storm.
They were nearly to Main Street when they came around a corner and saw a group of guards standing in front of a damaged house and a woman crying in the front yard. Darby guided him across the street, but he stopped to watch as three of the guards pushed past the woman and went inside the house, returning a few minutes later their hands full of food.