Mr. Tudor has a completely different reaction. His jaw becomes tighter and tighter the more he learns, more and more anger flashing in his eyes.
“If I could get my hands on that woman,” he mutters, “I’d wring her neck.”
“She’d kill you before you got the chance,” Dray says simply, helping himself to more of the wine.
Fly obviously decides the topic of conversation is too dark and too depressing, because a few minutes later he has Clare and Mrs. Tudor on the sofa with him and he’s explaining in detail the different hairstyles and makeup fashions we saw at the palace in Onyx Quarter. And in the next moment he’s attempting to create one of the hairstyles on Mrs. Tudor herself.
I swivel around on Thorne’s lap and smile at him. I’m definitely a little bit drunk – the room is swaying – and I’m pretty sure my next words come out slurred.
“You okay, grumps?” I boop him on the nose and he frowns at me. Then, to my surprise, he leans forward and whispers in my ear.
“I never appreciated how hard it would be keeping my hands off you. Now I can touch you, Nini, all I want to do is pull you onto my cock.”
And I can’t help it – I’m drunk, my life has been in constant danger for the last few days, and I’m probably slightly losing my senses – but I giggle. Thorne pouts at me, obviously not appreciating my response to his attempt at dirty talk.
I try to suppress the giggle and form a straight expression on my face.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “It’s just I’m not used to hearing you speak like that. You’re usually so polite.”
Thorne pouts even harder and that sets me giggling again. It starts low in my belly. And the way he looks at me with disdain and impatience and very little amusement has that laughterspreading through my body and completely taking control until I’m having to hang on to my stomach and tears – actual tears – are rolling down my cheeks and I can hardly breathe.
“I’m glad you find me so amusing,” Thorne says, which makes me snort with laughter even more.
Then, to my absolute delight, he starts tickling me. Right on the sides of my belly. Which has me laughing harder still.
“Don’t,” I say. “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
“You deserve it,” he says, continuing to tickle me, “for being so cruel.”
I can’t believe that we can actually be like this together – completely natural, playful. I love it. And I can’t help it, in the next moment, I’m flinging my arms around his neck and kissing him, forgetting that we’re in a room full of people – a room full of people that includes Fox’s parents.
“I apologize for our little mate,” Dray says with amusement. “She can be a little feral at times.”
“Absolutely no need to apologize,” Mrs. Tudor says as I force myself to stop kissing Thorne and spin around to face the room. “Oh, to be young and in love again. And besides, I was pretty wild in my day, I’ll have you know.”
“You were?” Fox says, looking a little distressed.
“Absolutely.”
“She was,” his dad says. “Totally seduced me. Came up to me at a dance, demanded I dance with her, and then halfway through, kissed my face off.”
“I’d been waiting for him to ask me out for a long time,” Tudor’s mom says, “and I got impatient.”
“Were you in the academy together?” I ask.
Tudor’s mom shakes her head. “I’m a couple of years younger than Mervin. And luckily for us, we both completely flunked the academy and ended up back in Slate.”
“Lucky.” Fox sniffs.
“We may not have a lot, Fox,” his mom says, “but we have each other, and we had you. And I’d say those are the most important things a person can have in life.”
“Hear, hear,” his dad says, lifting his glass again.
Fly does the same. And I nod. I remember what life was like when I was alone, with no one who loved me and no one to care for me. I wouldn’t go back to those times for all the money and all the riches in the realm.
“So you met at a dance?” I asked them both.
“Yes, one of the dances at the town hall. Did you ever go to one?” Mrs. Tudor asks me. I shake my head and she smiles at me kindly. She turns to her husband. “Do you remember the song that was playing?”
