He shrugged. “I am a knight,” he said. “I am trained to observe. I have seen the young woman who only wants men in her bed. I’ve seen another young woman who talks to the food she eats and recites the most detailed poetry without the benefit of reading words before her. And then there’s you.”
“So there is.”
“Is that all you want out of life?”
“You ask many questions, my lord.”
“That is because you intrigue me.”
Anosia wasn’t sure what to say to that. She’d had nosy clients before, but Orion was coming on strong. She knew he was an elite knight, undoubtedly from a good family, but that didn’t give him the authority to know everything about her. As she struggled to come up with yet another refusal to allow the man into her personal world, Heracles was suddenly at the door of the chamber.
His gaze sought her out.
“Anosia,” he said quietly, “Lord Ellersby is here.”
Anosia immediately stood up. “Thank you,” she said. “I will come.”
Orion stood up, too. “Why?” he said. “Where are you going?”
Anosia paused. “Lord Ellersby has come to listen to me read the journal his dead wife kept,” she said. “He wants to hear it in my voice. It reminds him of her.”
Orion scowled. “Ridiculous,” he said. “I paid for the entire day with you.”
Anosia cocked an eyebrow. “But you are early,” she said. “It will not take me long to read to him, and then we will have the rest of the day uninterrupted.”
She started to leave the room, but he caught up with her, blocking her way. “I will pay you double what he will,” he said. “I want to hear more of the song. I want to talk to you.”
Anosia stood her ground. “Lord Ellersby has a session with me every week at this time,” she said. “I told you yesterday that our time would start midmorning because I will not tell an old man that I will not read to him simply because you want to talk. I will see you afterward if you still wish it, Sir Orion, but for now, Lord Ellersby calls.”
With that, she pushed past him, out into the feasting room and on into the foyer, where a very old man with a bound book in his hand was waiting for her. Anosia greeted him sweetly as Orion watched and proceeded to escort him into the reception chamber. Far away from Orion and his demands.
And he knew it.
But he also knew he’d see her later.
Dejected, he went to break his fast with Aidric and Britt, who were in the feasting chamber, devouring an egg dish. As Orion sat down beside them, he was already plotting the rest of the day with Anosia.
This time, there would be no more old men to interrupt them.
Or so he hoped.
*
It had beenan eventful morning.
Jareth was sitting in the solar with Aidric, both of them going over the ledgers that Desdra so carefully kept, analyzing the details of what, exactly, Jareth had inherited. Aidric had a mind for sums, so Jareth wanted the man’s help in deciphering everything. He would have asked for Desdra’s help, but she’d made her loyalties clear the night before when she spoke of her devotion to Chester, so the truth was that Jareth wanted someone with an unbiased point of view to help him review everything. Not that Desdra wouldn’t tell him the truth about the empire he now found himself in command of, but he couldn’t be entirely sure she wouldn’t omit something out of loyalty to Chester. Even though she had told Jareth she felt him a worthy heir, he wanted the opinion of someone who had no stake in this.
There was also the fact that Desdra had had a run-in with her father that morning. Zeus had told him all about it when Jareth saw The Guardians running a man out of The Feast. There had been some shouting going on, so there was clearly a conflict, and Zeus had told him what happened afterward. Desdra was well, he assured him, so no harm had come to her.
But Ciaran le Daire was a man to be watched.
Ciaran was the one who had used his very own daughter to pay off the debt to Chester, which, in turn, ended up being the best thing that could have happened to her. But he was back for some reason and had evidently tried to abuse his own daughter, which brought Zeus and The Guardians to her rescue. Jared had tried to speak to Desdra after that, simply to ask if she was well, but she was so upset that she went to her chamber and shut the door. She didn’t want to speak to anyone. Therefore, Jareth had left her alone and retreated to the solar to busy himself by inspecting the ledgers.
But his mind continued to linger on her.
It was odd how he felt that the chamber, though it was technically his, seemed to belong to her somehow. Her imprintwas all over it, from the careful writing in the ledgers to the very furnishings around them. It was a woman’s chamber even if that hadn’t been the intent. About two hours into the audit, it was clear that this was something that was going to take more than just a day. Not only were there ledgers stacked on the table, but there were a dozen bookshelves that were positively stuffed with well-organized accounts.
Desdra had organized them by month and by year, so it was easy to go through them one at a time and get a picture of the fiscal health of Aphrodite’s Feast as well as the entire de Long empire. Every property had its own ledgers, and that included the farms and the other dwellings that the de Long family owned. By midafternoon, they had at least isolated the ledgers for every property, and both Jareth and Aidric counted twenty-nine different ventures.
