Restart Again: Volume 1 by Adam Scott (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📕

Marten shook his head, a grim look on his face. “Aye, terrible thing, what happened to you. Lia told us the general story. I’ve always said there’s a real problem with the guards in Yoria, haven’t I, Hana?”

“Yes, you certainly have, dear,” she responded, with a look that gave me the impression it was a well-worn line of conversation. Marten grumbled a bit in response, seeming to suppress the urge to continue on about it.

“Well, regardless, I’m glad to see you out of there. We were so worried when our Marlia was taken, and to get her back so soon after...it’s truly a blessing.” He weighed his words carefully. It was clear to me that Marten was not a man to often wear his emotions on his sleeve.

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not around!” Lia complained at him, squirming with awkwardness. “I’m right here!”

“That you are. Because of him.” Marten met her gaze, pointing his thumb in my direction.

She scrunched up her face and stood abruptly, gathering her plate and silverware. “Mother, could you help me take care of the dishes, please?” Lia grabbed my empty plate from in front of me and retreated with haste to the shelter of the kitchen. Hana smiled as she stood to help her daughter, taking the platter of food away.

“Thank you for the meal, darlings.” Marten got up from the table as well. “Lux, why don’t you come with me? I’ll show you around.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked out of the dining room.

“Thank you again for dinner,” I called back to the kitchen as I followed him out. He led me out the front door of the house into the fading light of the evening. I took a moment to look back at the house, admiring the quaint facade. A small garden was tucked up against the wall next to the door, though it was currently empty of all but a few small flowers, no doubt due to Jack and his men. It was quite a small structure, standing only one story high with a gently slanted roof. I got the impression that there could only be one or two more rooms inside I hadn’t seen already.

Beside the house in the direction Marten was headed was a small barn. As we approached, I spotted a horse stabled inside next to a wagon. The space was barely large enough for both of them, and I found myself wondering how the logistics of getting both the wagon and horse in at once actually worked. Marten gave the room a once over, patted the horse on the side of the head, and closed one of the large barn doors. I pulled the other closed as well, allowing him to loop a chain through the door handles and secure it with a heavy padlock.

With the barn secured, Marten leaned up against the door, staring off into the sky in silence. I joined him, closing my eyes for a while and taking a deep breath of the fresh evening air. Eventually, Marten broke the silence. “Hana tells me that Jack won’t be bothering us anymore. Your doing.”

“Yes sir.” The sky was a brilliant patchwork of pinks and purples as the sun set somewhere behind the Corells’ house.

He was quiet for a while. “I wanted nothing more than to bash that man’s face in with a hammer, but I knew it would do more harm to my family than to him. Besides, I’d heard the stories about him, about how fast he could move those swords of his. I’d never have gotten close.” Marten paused. “But you killed him.”

“Yes sir.” Jack’s face twisted in my mind, black lines running up his neck as he screamed in pain.

Marten nodded thoughtfully. “What will you do now?”

“I haven’t had the time to think about that yet.” I took a moment to consider. “If you’ll have me, I’d like to rest for a few more days to get my strength back. After that, I suppose I’ll be on my way. I don’t feel like Yoria is finished with me, but I’m finished with it.”

Silence, again. “And Lia?”

“Lia, sir?” I looked down on him, eyebrow cocked in confusion. “I’m not sure I follow.”

He sighed. “You know she loves you, don’t you?”

I was taken off guard by the question. “She doesn’t even know me. She met me four days ago, and I’ve been asleep for three of them.”

“And yet, here we are.” He let the statement sit in the cool night air. “I know you’ve just met her Lux, but I’ve been watching over her since the day she was born, and she has never looked at someone the way she looks at you. We’ve tried to set her up with a good man in the past, Primes know we have. A girl her age shouldn’t be stuck at home taking care of her parents. But she’s refused every single one out of hand, always finding a flaw here, or a reason there.”

Marten laughed. “And then she drags you out of a hole in a tree, crying and insisting we bring you back to our house. Sitting with you every day while you slept.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen her with so much drive...so much passion. As her father, it wouldn’t be right if I let the source of that passion leave her behind.”

His honesty stunned me. “But, you hardly know me. And you’d trust me with your only daughter?”

“Let me tell you what I do know, Lux.” He finally turned to address me directly. “You helped an innocent girl out of a situation that didn’t involve you in the least, knowing full well how much more trouble it would put you through. You killed the men that have tormented my family, and other families, for years. You walked with her into the darkness until it nearly killed you. You woke up in our house, and the