“These tapestries are exquisite.” She runs those blood-red talons over the fine gold threads.
“Alaric made them,” I say. “He’s a talented artist.”
“I’m aware. I’m the one who taught him to use a paintbrush, although I see that his eye has far surpassed mine. I hope to discover many more of Alaric’s talents.” She smiles sweetly, but the way she strokes the stem of her glass is anything but sweet.
I’d like to dunk her head in a vat of honey.
They know each other? She taught him to paint?
“Mother, Perdita, you must be tired from the road,” Alaric says. “You will have my chambers. Reginald will make them ready for you now.”
“Certainly, my lord.” Reginald hurries away.
“Where will you sleep?” Perdita asks, her words heavy with suggestion.
“With my love.” Alaric plants a kiss on my hair that might’ve appeared chaste and loving, but feels like a lightning bolt straight between my thighs.
He’ll what?
Perdita makes a face.
“We all have our perversions, but must you flaunt yours in front of your mother?” Callista pats the sofa beside her. “You know what you risk by fornicating with this … this?—”
“Things do not have to be as they always were, Mother. Gideon has introduced me to this wonderful invention called contraception.”
What is happening right now?
Why are we talking about contraception in front of his mother?
My face heats uplike a fried tomato.
Callista rolls her eyes. “I don’t want to hear anything more about it. Sit with me. I have much news of our predicament to impart.”
Alaric lifts a questioning eyebrow to me. I clutch my wine glass like it contains all the meaning of the universe. “Go,” I whisper. “I don’t need you to babysit me. It’s not as if Perdita bites.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” With a forlorn look at me over his shoulder, Alaric strides across the room to perch next to his mother. She leans in close, whispering frantically, her elegant hands gesticulating wildly. I can’t hear a word they’re saying. I toss back my head and skull my wine.
And I thought my mother was difficult. At least she never tried to arrange my marriage.
“Walk with me.”
I whirl around. Perdita has somehow crossed the room in a flash to stand right behind me, her tits practically brushing mine. Before I can protest, she grabs my arm in her cold hand, shoves it through hers, and starts dragging me around the perimeter of the room like we’re extras inBridgerton.
“You were saying that Alaric made these tapestries. Is that why there is so much stuff in the hallway and rooms?”
“Alaric’s very artistic,” I say proudly. “He fills his castle with his passions. He paints, sculpts, makes pottery … but I’m helping him to tame the mess. We’ve cleaned out the ballroom and?—”
“This is excellent. My court celebrates the arts. I’m an accomplished cellist, and with my connections, I’ll have his work in the finest galleries in Europe. I’m particularly enamoured with this one.” She stops in front of the battle scene in the valley. “It’s a wonder that he was able to capture all these precise details of this battle, almost as if he were there.”
“Alaric loves history.” I don’t like the way she talks about him, as though she knows him better than me.Although she probably does.“He does his research.”
“Yes, I’m quite sure he does.” She gifts me with a cold smile. I catch a flash of incisor as sharp as her talons, but it’s gone when I blink.I imagined it. I must have.“Alaric was always popularwhen he lived at my court. He would delight my parents with his mock battles in the throne room, and present me with the most lavish gifts that he made.”
Alaric was at a royal court? I glance over at my fake-fiancé, leaning in close to his mother while she whispers fervently to him. With his aristocratic nature and his old-fashioned manners, I believe Perdita.
I also believe he would’ve hated it. I think I am beginning to understand why he hid himself away in this remote castle.
“Run along now, little human girl,” Perdita hisses in my ear, her teeth scraping my skin. Something about her heady perfume and strange, haunting beauty scrambles my thoughts until I’m almost wishing thatshewould kiss me. “Too much is riding on this marriage for it to be undone by Alaric’s stupidity. You may be his fancy – a tempting plaything he’ll discard as soon as he breaks you, like one of his little hobbies – but his mother will make certain he does the right thing for his kin.”
