Page 2 of The Shadows Between Us
“But—I’ve shared your bed,” he splutters.
Yes, he and three other boys this month.
“And now it’s time for you to leave it.” I move to rise from the bed when the door to my chambers bursts open.
Myron freezes with his hand outstretched toward me, and my father, Sergios Stathos, Lord Masis, looks down at what he can see of our naked bodies.
“Leave,” he bites out in a deathly quiet voice. My father is shorter than my five and a half feet, but he’s built like a bull with a thick neck, wide shoulders, and keen eyes that pierce to the soul.
Myron tries to take the sheets with him, but I’ve got them firmly clamped around myself. When he fails to wrest them from me, he reaches down to grab his pants.
“Leave now,” Father specifies.
“But—”
“Listen or I will have you whipped!”
Myron stands. Barely. He hunches as though he can hide his tall frame. He makes it halfway to the door before turning. “My ring?”
“Surely you want me to keep it? So I can remember our time together?”
Myron’s face twists. He has one foot pointed toward the door and the other toward me.
Father growls.
Myron takes off at a run, nearly tripping over my father’s boots as he bolts over the threshold. Once he’s gone, Father turns to me.
“You make it difficult for me to find you a suitable match when you’re caught with a new bedfellow every night.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Father. That was Myron’s fifth stay.”
“Alessandra! You must stop this. It is time for you to grow up. To settle down.”
“Has Chrysantha found a husband, then?” Father knows very well the law forbids me to marry until my older sister does. There is an order to things.
Father treads over to the bed. “The Shadow King has dismissed a number of single women from the palace, Chrysantha among them. I’d hoped your sister would catch his eye, rare beauty that she is.”
Oh, yes. Chrysantha is a rare beauty. And she’s as dumb as a rock.
“But it was not to be,” Father concludes.
“Myron’s free,” I offer.
Father levels a glare at me. “She will not wed Myron. Chrysantha will be a duchess. I’ve already made arrangements with the Duke of Pholios. He’s an aging man who wants a pretty girl on his arm. It’s done. That means it’s your turn.”
Finally.
“You’ve suddenly taken an interest in my future, have you?” I ask, just to be difficult.
“I’ve always had your best interests in mind.”
A complete untruth. The only time Father bothers to think of me is when he catches me doing something he thinks I shouldn’t. Chrysantha has been his focus my entire life.
Father continues, “I’m going to approach the Earl of Oricos to discuss the match of you and his son, who will inherit one day. Soon, I should think, given Aterxes’s ailing health. That should make you happy.”
“It doesn’t.”
“You’re certainly not going to remain my problem forever.”
