Page 28 of Victorian Bride

“And somehow as though it was exactly what should have happened all along.”

“Yes,” Kayden said. “That is it exactly.”

He took another bite of the stew, and she saw that same frown flicker across his face before it was gone again. A look like he was trying to remember something that he couldn't quite grasp.

“So,” she said when they had both finished their bowls and were waiting for the next course. “You know that I have no idea who my family is. But I would love to know of yours.”

Kayden paused in the middle of setting his bowl to the side. “I am afraid there is not much to talk about.”

“You do not have to lay out every moment of your life with them,” Mya said, laughing a little. “But I think we have been spending a great deal of time together, and it is likely proper that I at least know something of them. That is all.” She smiled. “And, I admit, I would like to know the people who raised a man like you.”

She had expected Kayden to laugh too, to ask if that was meant to be a compliment or an insult. But he didn't laugh. He said nothing at all, staring down at the plate of food the maid had just brought out instead of looking at her. Mya frowned.

“Kayden? Did I say something wrong?”

He looked up, then, slowly, like he was reluctant to meet her eyes. “No,” he said. “You did not.”

“Then why will you not answer my—”

“Why will you not let it alone?” he demanded, cutting her off. “I think I have made it clear that it is not a subject I wish to talk on, and yet you continue to push as though you have any right to know. We have spent how many days together? Three? And before that you treated me as though you could not stand me. So I do not see why you thought it would be proper to ask about them.”

Startled by the sudden tirade, Mya straightened up in her seat, glaring across the table at Kayden. “They are hardly national secrets, surely. Is it not expected that one would ask after family? Even with the barest acquaintance, it is a topic that is safe to discuss.”

“And yet, I think, if the barest acquaintance asked you to drop the subject, you would do so. Is it only me that you will not respect?”

“With someone I hardly knew, I would not feel shut out,” Mya said, trying to drop the discussion back to a more reasonable tone. “I care for you, Kayden. We have been more intimate together than I have ever in my memory been with anyone else. Does it matter that it has only been days?”

Kayden laid his fork down. “That I have been to bed with you does not make you privy to things about my life I do not wish to share,” he said, voice cool. “It affords you no special privileges, Miss Boyle.”

Mya stood up so quickly she nearly knocked her chair over. “Get out.”

He seemed to realize, in that moment, what he had said. His eyes widened.

Mya was not going to let him sit there as though someone else had spoken the words, however. They had quite clearly come out of his mouth. “Out, I said.”

“Mya…” He reached across the table for her hand, and she yanked it back.

“If I am not afforded any ‘special privileges,’ Lord McGregor, then neither are you. Go eat dinner in your own manor. I do not wish to look at your face any longer.”

For a moment, she thought he would try to protest further, but he did not say whatever was on the tip of his tongue, only turned and walked out without a word.

Mya sank back into her chair and dropped her face into her hands, wondering how a night that was supposed to be magical had gone so terribly wrong.

Chapter 12

“Mya?”

Eleanora's voice broke into Mya's thoughts, and she looked up from the food she was listlessly poking at with a fork to find both Ella and Lottie standing in the doorway of the dining room, looking at her with surprised concern on their faces.

“What happened?” Lottie demanded.

Mya shrugged, and stabbed at a bite of fish with particular viciousness. “Kayden and I had a disagreement. We fought.”

“Over what?” Eleanora's tone was gentle, and she moved as she spoke, coming to sit down at Mya's side. Lottie took the other chair.

“I asked him about his family,” Mya said. “How was I to know that it is a capital offense?”

There was a moment of silence, the other two exchanging a glance over Mya's head that she didn't know how to interpret.