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A LOUD BANG shot Lily Walden from her bed, her hand reaching for the cricket bat she’d leaned against the wall. For a moment, confusion raced through her as she struggled to pull her brain from the delicious dream she’d been having to determine where, exactly, she was.
Right, then. She was in the small one-bedroom cottage she’d just moved to in the hills outside Grace’s Cove. She was safe, Lily reminded herself, even as her heart raced in her chest.
When the bang sounded again, she realized it was a shutter that had come loose in the wind, and flipped on a light to attend to the matter. Catching a glimpse in the mirror, Lily sighed. Even to herself she looked like a shivering, frightened mouse.
It was the name he’d always called her. First as a pet name, and then in a derogatory way. His little mouse. Once she’d thought it sweet, before it had become a taunt. Her eyes, huge in her small face, were a deep boring brown, and her hair was one of those right-in-the-middle browns. Not a rich mahogany, nor was it shot through with golden highlights. With delicate features, a slight build, and a propensity to get lost in her dreams, Lily lived up to the name her mother had given her. If she were the lily-pad part, that is.
More like a doormat, Lily berated herself as she opened the window to let in a few spatterings of ice-cold rain before pulling the shutter closed and firmly shoving the hook in place.
Lily’s mother had always been prone to flights of fancy. When she’d found out she was pregnant with a girl, she’d immediately picked the name Lily, fancying her daughter to be as beautiful as a trip to Thoreau’s Walden Pond. Never once had her mum led her to think differently, but Lily couldn’t help but wonder if she was disappointed with her daughter, a quiet schoolteacher who’d let a man take over her world.
“Not anymore,” Lily said fiercely to nobody in particular. She was making her own decisions now.
It had been the first time he’d hit her. Lily had known, without a doubt, as she lay on the floor clutching her cheek, that it also wouldn’t be the last – unless she worked up the courage to stand up for herself, that is. It wasn’t until she’d snuck away in the middle of the night, clear to the other side of Ireland, that she’d finally started to find the thread of who she was once again. She’d lost it, for years, tangled up in Bruce’s demands, and he’d groomed her to keep her opinions to herself and to be at his beck and call. Even when she was perfect, Lily had still been reprimanded, and silent fury had begun to burn deep in her soul.
A part of her wished it hadn’t taken Bruce’s fists to finally give her the courage to leave, but nevertheless, she was proud of the steps she’d taken. Lily was determined to start living life on her terms, and finding this little cottage snuggled in the hills outside the darling town of Grace’s Cove had seemed like just the sign she’d needed. She’d never been to this town before, in fact had hardly known it existed. Yet, when she’d made the decision to leave, it had been like a neon sign blinking in her brain – THIS WAY.
Lily had followed that instinct, and once she’d arrived, all of the pieces seemed to be falling neatly in place for her. She was to start her new job as a preschool teacher after the Christmas holiday. She’d been lucky there, to find a job this close to Christmas, but it sounded like the last teacher had found love in England and wouldn’t be returning.
Grateful for work, Lily had accepted under one condition – that her students would call her Ms. Lewis. When the head of the school, a lovely woman named Mary, had shot her a questioning look, Lily just explained she’d had a bad break-up. Nodding once, Mary had accepted the explanation, patted her on the back, and welcomed her to the school.
With that, Lily got to start her brand-new life.
She scrambled back to the pretty wrought-iron bed, piled high with pillows and a handmade quilt. The rain pounded harder outside, and Lily snuggled in, feeling…calm for the first time in ages. She wondered if she was brave enough to take the next step she craved.
What if she embraced her dreams?
Lily paused when a warm feeling spread through her, almost like her heart was dancing. It was a secret dream, buried so long, that she had stopped pulling it out to look at it. But here it was, and maybe now was the time to finally embrace it.
Lily wanted to write fairy tales.
It was silly, maybe, and even escapist at times, but she quite often lost herself in very rich, almost lifelike daydreams. Those dreams would then continue at night, and there it was like she was living as a different person. A fierce woman who owned her space in the world, Lily danced through magickal realms and made men fall at her feet. There had been one man, over the past two years, that had particularly caught her fancy. A prince of the fae, mercurial and magick, and he’d been slipping into her dreams almost every night now. Her hands itched to sketch him.
Instead, she closed her eyes and brought his face to mind, smiling to herself when a warm trickle of excitement slipped through her. It wasn’t like seeing an old friend – it was like discovering a new lover.
At that thought, Lily giggled and slapped a hand over her mouth. To even think of taking a lover again was something that was so absurd, she wasn’t even sure why the thought had entered her mind. Bruce hadn’t broken her, but he’d done his damnedest. Lily didn’t think she’d be able to allow herself to be that vulnerable to anyone anytime soon.
But she could dream, couldn’t she?...
