“It’s none of your business,” Rosalie insists.
“The last guard you hooked up with is still being cleaned out of the kitchen tiles, so I think it’s everyone’s business,” I tell her. I step closer and grab the vase of lilies from her hand. She tries to fight me, gripping it tighter, but I pull it out of her grasp and set it down nearby.
“Julian, what’ve you done?” I ask him.
The younger man puts his hands up. “I don’t know! All I did was?—”
“He told me he thinks I’d make a good mother!” Rosalie cuts him off. “A mother! As if that’s all I’m good for.”
“Hey, now…that’s not what I was saying,” Julian tries to assure the both of us, but mostly her.
I roll my eyes. “Clearly, he’s wrong,” I say tiredly.
“Excuse me?” she asks.
“No offense, Rose, but the day you’re a good mother is the day a wild boar grows wings and becomes the Pope.” I brush my fingers through my hair.
“I’ll be whatever I want, and I’ll be damn good at it,” Rosalie huffs at me.
“Exactly! That’s all I meant,” Julian cuts in.
Rosalie’s head practically swivels as she looks from me back to him. “Oh, Julian,” she croons and rushes over to him. The glass crunches under her house slippers as she walks over it and tosses her arms around his neck.
“This is whythisshouldn’t be allowed,” I wave at them, and then look at the floor with a sigh. “I’m not cleaning that up.”
My sister nor her new boyfriend-slash-bodyguard are listening to me, they’re too busy kissing and writhing against each other in the hallway. I’m happy to just walk away, wondering if I can sneak back upstairs before anyone else wakes up and demands my attention.
I’m too late.
“Soren, you’re awake, good. I’d like to discuss something in my office,” my Uncle Eivor’s voice comes from behind me. “I’ve already arranged for coffee.”
I stare at him for a moment, before pulling myself together and nodding. “Perfect.” I follow him through the opposite site of the entry way, past the kitchen and to his office that sits across from the library.
“Is anyone else joining us?” I ask. Hoping that I won’t want to face Rosalie again after all that.
“No, just us.” The balding, older man who has been my and my sister’s guardian for over a decade sits down behind the large wooden desk with a groan.
The door has been closed behind us, and suddenly there’s a tension in the room.
It’s never good when I’m the only one he wants to talk to.
“Come sit, boy,” he tells me. That tone of voice the same as it’s always been since Iwasa boy. I’m a man now, and yet…sitting across from him in his office still makes my shoulders tight.
I take a slow breath through my nose. “What is it?” I ask.
“Let’s wait until the coffee arrives. There’s no need to rush.” He waves a hand. He picks up a fountain pen and begins to write in a leather-bound notebook, one of dozens that he has on his shelves behind him.
A moment or two of small talk passes before a small pot of coffee, two coffee cups, cream, sugar, and spoons are brought in on a silver tray and placed between us.
“Thank you, Francesca,” he smiles and motions her to leave.
I pour my uncle’s coffee first, then my own, and add just sugar to mine, stirring it slowly.
“I suppose I’ve made you wonder long enough,” Eivor says as he sips his coffee black and steaming hot without even a flinch.
I watch the vapor rise from my own but don’t drink yet. “Yes,” I reply. It feels as though I have to drag every single word out of him.
“We’d like you to negotiate with the Dresvanni’s,” he says casually.
