Elizabeth’s evasion and flustered appearance must have been deemed answer enough. “I had heard there was a match in the works.” Her maid contentedly hummed and returned her attention to styling her hair.
Elizabeth plastered a false smile on her face and nodded, hoping her maid wouldn’t press further. Her heart hammered in her chest, but her maid said nothing more and continued to plait her hair so that it was out of her face, and her long hair swept over her shoulder.
Her maid applied a small amount of rouge to her cheeks to make her look more alert and tucked the pot of rouge into the vanity drawer. She strode to the closet. “Perhaps a cream coloured dress today, Lady?”
“Er. Sure,” Elizabeth replied, quickly hiding Caspian’s note in her writing desk while her maid picked out her attire. As she was cinched into a brown corset worn over a cream cotton dress, her thoughts drifted to the note and whatever was in the thicker, folded piece of parchment. She itched to know what it said, but was whisked downstairs.
To Elizabeth’s dismay, she was forced to entertain her mother’s friends all morning, and it wasn’t until late afternoon that she was able to return to her chambers.
Her mother had remarked upon her distractedness and eagerness to say her farewells, exclaiming that she looked like she was finally getting excited about her coming nuptials.
How wrong she was.
She nearly ran to her chambers when she was dismissed and yanked open the drawer to her writing desk. With trembling fingers, she finally pulled out the note and read:
Lady Elizabeth,
If you would like to come with me, sign this contract, and I will come to fetch it tomorrow night. In exchange for helping you run away andsettle your life somewhere, I ask for blood.
-Caspian
He wanted to drink herblood?
Revulsion gripped her as she realized the other sheet of parchment was a formal looking contract, with a line for her signature at the bottom.
She held the unsigned contract in her pocket throughout the entire next day. She was tempted, sorely tempted. Especially as she suffered through her mother insisting on altering her gown’s neckline to plunge even lower for the ball. She did not want to feel so on display in front of Duke Howard.
The following day passed at a snail’s pace, and when evening came, Elizabeth swore time ticked by even slower. She watched the terrace, eyes flitting across the landscape for any movement between the shadows. Eventually, a dark figure dropped onto the ground, looking for the letter.
“Hello, Caspian,” she said, slinking out of the shadows where she had been waiting since the sun had begun to set. “Looking for this?” She kept her voice soft to avoid waking anyone and held the contract aloft.
He reached out a hand, and she snatched the letter away, holding it just out of reach.
“What exactly is the deal you are trying to make with me, sir?”
His eyes slowly met hers. Elizabeth tilted her chin up, challenging him even when it felt like his gaze seared into her soul. “I would spirit you away from here and help you disappear from the responsibility to your name. I would help you build a new life. In exchange, I ask for something very small. Blood.”
“Am I to be your wife?”
His nostrils flared. “If you want to be someone’s wife, I suggest you marry Duke Howard.”
She pressed her lips together.
“You will be my companion and live with me for a year. You will trade a small amount of your blood with me whenever I desire. When the year is up, I will give you enough gold to buy yourself a home and make your way in this world.”
“A year is too long,” she said, raising her brows. “One month.”
“A year.” His voice was firm.
“Three months.”
“Three,” he agreed, looking content that he had won. “You will live at my home and be mine to call upon for three months.”
Silence stretched while she mulled it over.
After a moment, she smiled and said, “Tempting, but I think not.”
She handed the unsigned contract back to him and slipped inside, locking the door and firmly shutting the curtains.
