I took that as permission.
Chapter Eleven
Milo
Even the sitting room outside the patriarch of House Lynx’s office was gaudy.
Olympia had warned me it would be. After our secret dinner with the Bexleys and following discussion about the journal three days ago, I’d learned from grandmother that this meeting with Raghnall was in my near future. Olympia had been present when it was discussed and had chatted endlessly about the inside of House Lynx ever since, as if she was convinced I’d need a mental blueprint of the place for escape purposes during my visit. Staring at the foreboding mahogany doors in front of us now, I couldn’t necessarily say she’d been wrong.
“He makes us wait to soothe his own ego,” grandmother said suddenly from beside me. I glanced over to where she sat next to me, wriggling in these uncomfortable velvet chairs set against the wall opposite the door to the patriarch’s office. “The older I get, the less time I have for male arrogance.”
“I hate to break it to you but there’s no shortage of that up here,” I replied in a mumble.
She barked out a laugh at that, bright eyes sparkling with humor.
“He speaks,” she exclaimed with a grin, “and a joke at that. I was beginning to worry you’d lost all semblance of personality, hafid. You’ve been so sullen and silent lately.”
“Apologies, grandmother,” I replied. “It’s the lack of sleep. I’m afraid I still don’t possess the willpower to send myself off to bed at a reasonable time.”
“A wife will assist you in that regard, I imagine.”
My gaze snapped to her once more to find she wasn’t looking my way. Her gaze was settled firmly on the door before us, but my brow rose all the same. I hadn’t told her what my decision had been. In truth, I hadn’t completely made one yet. But she was referencing a marriage as if she already knew what I would choose.
She was right. I couldn’t allow my House to suffer because of my desire to remain unbound. I had no business turning my nose up at a wise and powerful match that could only strengthen our line when hundreds of men before me had not. Still, the way she said the wordwife, as if it were a curse rather than a blessing, had me hesitating once more.
“Madam Nascha,” a pretty red-headed acolyte announced with a smile as she stood in the now open entrance to Raghnall’s office. “Sir Milo, he will see you now.”
My grandmother and I exchanged one final glance before standing and making our way into the office.
It was precisely as Olympia had described it. Everything was drenched in burgundy and velvet. Artwork in gilded frames hung on every available wall while tall, shining bookshelves took up one entirely. Raghnall’s desk was twice the size of mine which made the man behind it seem comically small despite the fact that I already knew how large he really was. Behind him, on either side, stood the twins. Isla and Cora’s eyes both foundmine the moment I entered. But it was the fourth man, the one leaning unexpectedly against the bookshelf in the back corner, who caught me off guard.
Luca’s narrowed gaze tracked my every movement as I made my way across the room, helped my grandmother into one of the seats opposite Raghnall, and settled into the other.
Surrounded by all three potential Lynx heirs, the stakes of this meeting skyrocketed even further. This wasn’t going to be the casual negotiation Nascha had indicated. Raghnall had come prepared. I couldn’t see a way forward which would allow my grandmother and I to exit this room without an agreement in place and that had my heart beating nearly out of my chest before anyone even spoke.
“Nascha,” Raghnall crooned with an oily grin. “A pleasure to see you again.”
“Raghnall,” my grandmother responded with a curt nod and nothing else.
“And Milo,” Raghnall added, looking at me as his grin broadened. “What a treat to see you within these walls once more. It’s been far too long, wouldn’t you say?”
He was baiting me. I just bit the inside of my cheek and nodded.
“You’re aware of the opportunity which brings us together today?” he asked, raising a brow as he folded his hands together on his desk in preparation for whatever onslaught he’d prepared.
“I am,” I replied. “Though I admit I’m a bit surprised by the pace of these negotiations. As I understand it, you only made this offer to my grandmother less than a week ago.”
“Your matriarch indicated she would speak to you about it immediately. Are you insinuating you haven’t had sufficient time to consider it?”
“Marriage is a lifelong commitment, Raghnall. A few days is hardly enough time to make such a lofty decision.”
And I haven’t had the chance to talk to you yet,I shot to Isla.
Her gaze snapped to mine immediately but her expression never changed as she stood still as stone behind her grandfather.
Speaking to me now, are you?She asked.
Did you know?I forged on, ignoring her cheek.When I called out to you by accident at my grandmother’s birthday weeks ago, did you know then what he intended?
