He waved. “It doesn’t matter. Niamh says it’ll be fine. Time will tell. Anyway, Patty said I was to join you for dinner tonight. I wanted to check to make sure that was correct? If it is, please let me take off this cape.”
I dissolved into giggles. “Yes, lose the cape. And yes, I guess you should come to dinner. Wear Elliot Graves stuff with a very fancy watch. Also, does Nessa have a watch I can borrow? Mr. Tom only packed that Ivy House pocket watch you guys found in a drawer or whatever.”
He hesitated, scanning my dress. “You look beautiful, by the way, and no, you don’t need Nessa’s. That pocket watch is perfect. I’ll see if Mr. Tom has a sewing kit, and I’ll make it work.”
“No, Sebastian.” I clucked my tongue in frustration. “I’m not going to do this weird mage pocket-watch-Cinderella thing you chose?—“
He held up a finger. “Niamh said I needed to wear a cape to help you, and so I wore the cape because she knows about gargoyles, and I do not. We each know our jobs, and we need to trust each other. I know watches. I know which ones will work best when. We can talk about your persona in the mage world, but tonight, you wear that pocket watch.”
I was ready to argue, remembering all the internal arguments I’d had about that mage dinner and him choosing what hethoughtwas right for me. I’d looked ridiculous, and I wanted to choose what I wore instead.
But as I looked at him, I saw the Elliot Graves confidence shimmering in his eyes, along with his assurance that he knewwhat was best. I felt in my gut that he was right. We needed to trust each other. There were so many moving parts at this point and each one was important. We couldn’t all be an expert on everything. We had to let everyone handle what they were best at.
“Okay.” I deflated. “Just…please don’t make me look as ridiculous as you do in that cape.”
“Salt, meet wound,” he mumbled, and I laughed again. “Give me the dress, please. Mr. Tom has the watch?”
“Yes.” I slipped into a robe and let him take the dress away.
After I’d finishedmy makeup and hair, I found Sebastian in his full Elliot Graves garb waiting for me on Austin’s and my bed.
“I swear,” Mr. Tom said as he bustled around the room, tiding things that didn’t need to be tidied. “The shambles that these gargoyles call guest rooms would make a lesser butler faint. Hardly anyone can fit in that excuse for a living room out there, and there isn’t even a kitchenette! How do they expect me to prepare snacks and breakfast, with a camping stove? They try to squeeze our betas into the only solitary rooms they provide besides this one suite, force everyone else to share, andsomehowquestion our status and profitability?” He tsked as he straightened up and faced me, his wings rustling angrily. “It’s absurd, all of this. You are the Ivy House heir!Theyshould be begging to joinyou, not the other way around.Begging!” He made a disgruntled sound and went back to it. “Preposterous.”
“He’s not wrong,”Ivy House told me. “These gargoyles have things backwards, and you need to show them.”
I needed to do a lot of things.
Sebastian stood with a little grin and held out the dress. “It isn’t perfect, but it should work.”
He’d sewn a little black loop on the red sash at the waist. The watch would then tuck into the sash, secured with black material to make up a pocket. The chain would then dangle down.
Mr. Tom stopped to survey Sebastian’s handiwork, his lips thinning. “It’ll match the guest rooms, at least.”
“I promise.” Sebastian held the dress out to me.
How I presented myself to Evan was important. He’d be going out on a limb with someone who had no status and trusting that I boosted prosperity and convocation stability. Only recently, he’d taken over one of the largest cairns, and he was contemplating allying with a start-up, and an odd start-up at that.
Wearing an old pocket watch sewn into an evening gown…really didn’t hit the right note, here.
Sebastian’s eyes were pleading. He could see my hesitation.
“I promise,” he whispered.
Trust. In the end, that’s all we really had.
I nodded and took the dress. He let out a breath and withdrew to give me a moment to dress.
Mr. Tom didn’t say a word as I slipped out of the robe and stepped into the luxurious material. He zipped me up in the back and went back to his task.
“What do you think would sway Evan our way?” I asked him, checking myself over in the mirror.
“You.” He handed me a shawl. “In the end, miss, it is always you who bring people into the fold. You never do it the same way twice, and you are never calculating. You are just unequivocallyyou, and people realize there is nowhere safer or better than to be by your side.”
I smiled at him, my eyes glistening with unshed tears.
He tsked. “There is no reason to get so emotional. It’ll ruin your makeup, and then all that undeserving cairn leader willsee is an old watch haphazardly sewn into—and ruining—a new dress. Let’s keep the distraction to your face, shall we?”
“What’s wrong with my face?” I asked, glancing in the mirror as I trailed after him.
