Read Autumn in the City of Lights for Free Online Page A

safety for granted.
    I gave Snicket the rest of the carrot, tugged on her butterscotch-colored forelock and whispered goodnight to her, then secured her stall door. I helped Rissi finish with her pony, whom she’d named Nugget. When we were done, I sent her on to the house while I stopped at Connie’s stall, where she was methodically combing Coach’s black mane.
    “Was Daniel mad we rode back alone after dark?”
    She looked confused for a moment, then composed herself and began combing again. “He’s just upset about Ben. We all are.”
    I nodded. She paused to hug me tightly. “I’m so so thankful you’re okay,” she whispered fiercely into my ear. Her tone frightened me a little, but since moving back home, Connie had become quieter, and yet louder at the same time. She was withdrawn, but had forceful and even emotional outbursts when it came to our safety and well-being. She worried Rissi would fall off her horse, she set Shad and Ben up with any nice girl she met, she fussed at Daniel about eating his vegetables, and gave Grey dark looks when she found us alone together.
    “Are you okay, Connie?”  I asked suddenly. “We’re all going to get through this, you know.”
    She stared at the wide-tooth comb in her hands for a moment, then looked up at me. She opened her mouth, paused, then sighed. “Of course I’m okay.” She smiled, and I felt better as we went into the house together.
    Half an hour later, I was sprawled across my unmade bed in clean pajamas, paging through my parents’ photo albums.  The leadership of New Burbank still considered it too dangerous for us to ride down to the Westside, at least until the peace talks were settled, so Grey had projected us to The Water Tower to let me collect some personal items. It was a comfort to have these photo albums, one of my mother’s necklaces, and my father’s reading glasses.  I kept everything in a box hidden in the back of the closet, so no one would know we’d gone back.
    There was a quiet knock at the door. I tossed my quilt across the albums and called, “Come in!”
    It was Grey. Even after all we’d been through, and the somewhat quiet months we’d spent together here in New Burbank with little to no drama between us, his presence still made me pause sometimes. Seeing him enter a room and smile at me, knowing he found relief near me as well, always amazed me.
    Without a word, he closed the door behind him and crawled onto the bed beside me. He crammed a pillow under his head and, as was our custom, pulled me against his side. He must have gone to the guesthouse first to change and shower after the hospital, because he smelled like warmth, lemons, and home.
    “How’s your head?” he murmured after a few minutes.
    With everything that had happened with Ben, I’d completely forgotten about my concussion. So I had to consider it for a second. My head still hurt, but my heart ached more. “It’s better,” I lied. “How’s Ben?”
    “The same,” he said. “He hasn’t woken up yet. But that’s not a bad thing. We’re going to take this day-by-day for a while. I’ll take good care of him, Fòmhair . I promise.”
    He shuffled his arm out from underneath me and turned to inspect the bump on my head. I turned my head slightly, bringing our faces together, and briefly touched my lips to his. When I pulled away, his sparkling blue eyes focused on me.
    “What was that?” he asked, quietly smiling.
    “That was a thank you,” I answered. “For... miscellaneous things.”
    “Miscellaneous things?” he repeated. “Can you be more specific?”
    “For staying here with all of us when you could have left,” I said, brushing a lock of his hair behind his ear. “For staying up for 48 hours straight to take care of Ben. For loving me. For everything.”
    He leaned toward me, and our lips connected again. The throbbing in my head was replaced by a falling sensation in my stomach, and I slid my arms around his neck. For a moment,