She meets my gaze head-on. “I would like you to be available to my brother—and only my brother—for the next week, my lady.”
“A full week of my time is going to cost you, Your Highness.”
“Name your price.”
My breath catches in my chest, but I fight to hide the excitement I know must be visible. “Fifty thousand gold marks.” It’s an exorbitant amount—enough to pay off not just my debt, but Andra’s as well.
“Done.” Dom holds out her hand. “I will have the first half delivered tomorrow. You’ll receive the rest at the conclusion of the week.”
I wrap my fingers around hers, making the connection that the conclusion of the week is the day after the Scotan killing period begins. I squeeze a little tighter, as if I can imbue enough sympathy in that single grasp to make up for the fact that her father is about to be killed, even if I’m not sorry about that fact itself. “Pleasure doing business with you, Dom.”
She drops my hand and rises.
I stand, ready to see her out.
Dom pauses just before I can open the door. “Sometimes he comes off brusque, my lady, but I promise, you’ll never meet a kinder man.”
I nod, warmed by her loving words. “I promise to do everything I can for him.”
“Expect him tomorrow for his first…lesson.” She reaches for the door herself, nodding to Lady M and Harold, who wait just outside.
Harold rushes to show her to the front entrance.
I make to leave the sitting room, but Lady M blocks my passage, herding me back inside and shutting the door behind us. The last thing I want is to be trapped alone with her hard-as-amber eyes and cold mouth. She ushers me back over to the divan, pushing me down and then folding herself, sitting much closer than Dom did. Uncomfortably close. The hairs on the back of my neck rise as I take in the glint of excitement in her eyes.
“Tell me exactly what she asked of you,” she demands.
I think about refusing, but I know she is going to notice if the same man—the same former prince—is coming to my room for days in a row. “I am going to be providing the prince of Scota withsex lessons. I’m to be paid forty thousand gold marks for a week of my time.” I lower the number, knowing forty thousand marks is enough to pay out our contracts. I’ll keep the extra ten for myself, just in case.
“Do you realize the opportunity before you, Caterine?” Her whisper is hushed but no less fierce than her normal tone. The possessive glint in her eyes makes my stomach turn.
“The opportunity to clear our debt and then some in a matter of a week? I’m aware.” I brush my skirts and move to stand, but Lady M reaches out and holds me in place.
“You will have access to Callum Reid, the likely candidate for the Scotan province, under your power, Lady Caterine.”
“How do you know he’s the likely candidate for the Scotan province?”
Lady M rolls her eyes, like I’m a small-minded fool. “You really think he isn’t going to even attempt to take the position?”
From everything Dom just told me, I can’t imagine Callum Reid being the kind of man who could murder his father, but then again, there isn’t much I would put past the royals.
I attempt to tug my arm from her grasp. “None of that is any of my concern. Callum is a client and I will treat him as I would any other.”
Her pointed nails dig into my bare skin, and I don’t like that this is becoming a habit. “You will do more than that.”
My eyes narrow. “Just tell me plainly what it is you want from me, Lady MacVeigh.”
“I want you to act as a spy. Bring me information about Callum’s plans. When he plans to kill his father, where, and how.” Her eyes glitter with something bordering on malevolence, and I can practically see the wheels spinning inside her diabolical mind. “Better yet,you could make that man fall in love with you in a matter of hours. Think of what we could do then.”
The joy I see in her eyes at the prospect freezes the blood in my veins. “Why would I do that?” All I care about is his money. Or his sister’s money, in this case. Callum Reid means nothing to me.
“So we can thwart him, obviously. Why should a Scotan heir be the voice of the people? Why not someone who could truly bring new representation to our government? Wouldn’t you rather see someone like Harold leading Avon?”
“Is that something Harold is considering?” He’s never before expressed any interest in politics, at least not beyond his involvement with the Uprising, content to run the club and lead our found family.
Lady M nods, her lips pulling into the closest thing I’ve seen to a smile. “Isn’t that something you would want for him? For all of Avon? For Harold to finally come into the kind of power he truly deserves?”
She has me there, and she knows it. I can think of no one I trust more than the man who has cared for so many for so long. Harold would be the perfect Scotan candidate, a fair and just leader who knows better than most the difficulties the common people—the Gifted, particularly—face. He has overcome challenges and hardships most couldn’t even dream of. And I would do just about anything for Harold, a fact Lady M knows well by now, given how quickly I agreed to sign my contract, even if I do find his recent decisions to be questionable.
