Page 20 of The Shadows Between Us
“Yes, and your maid was all too happy to let me in. All I had to do was smile and make up some story about leaving a trinket for you to find on your vanity. Apparently, she’s a romantic.”
I grimace. “For your sake, you’d better hope she doesn’t talk.”
“Why? Would it be so terrible for people to know I’d left you something?”
I stare at him, trying to make sense of why he could possibly be here, when he kicks off his shoes and reclines on my bed.
“Come here,” he purrs.
“Get out,” I say, my voice turning abrupt and sharp.
“Just because you didn’t want my ring, it doesn’t mean you don’t want this. I know you.”
“Since you’ve failed to notice, allow me to spell things out for you.I don’t want you.The king is courting me now. The king, Myron. Why would I want the second son of a viscount, when I can have the Shadow King?”
Myron rises so quickly, the bed creaks. “He won’t have you. You’re not a virgin. Not after I was done with you.”
I sigh. “Myron, just because you were a virgin when we met, it doesn’t mean I was.”
His mouth drops open.
“What did you say to Lord Vasco and the council?” I demand. “They said they spoke with you.”
“I wasn’t your first?”
I tug off my gloves and toss them aside, then do the same with my slippers. “Here’s how this works. You don’t sayanythingabout knowing me ever again. You came to my father’s estate a couple of times with your father on business. Nothing more. You saw me in passing. That is all.”
“I didn’t see you in passing. I saw you naked. More than once,” he says threateningly. “I bet the council and your beloved Shadow King would love to hear that.”
I toss my eyes heavenward. “That’s not how this game is played. Have you forgotten, Myron? I know what you did. Your father gave you one of his most prized possessions. Toyou, his stupid second-born son. And you gambled it away. And if he found out? I’m betting a disinheritance is in your future.”
Myron’s jaw clenches.
“Why do you think I don’t have a reputation, Myron? It’s because I know how to play this game. Now leave, and don’t ever speak to me again.”
He grabs his shoes on the way out, slamming the door loudly enough for my neighbors to hear. As long as no one is out in the corridor, hopefully no one can guess which room he came from.
WITH MORNING COMES Afresh set of ideas for scheming. I’m getting my king, and I’m ridding the palace of anyone who gets in my way.
After breakfast, I tend to the pile of letters, rating them by importance. Invitations from duchesses and marchionesses go in one pile. Countesses and viscountesses in another pile. And those from baronesses I don’t bother to open. I use my morning to make replies, accepting invitations and declining others. I write up a schedule for myself, so I can keep track of all my appointments, and then I send a letter to Eudora. I will need more evening attire. It won’t do to be seen in the same dress twice.
Two hours later, and I call a maid to help me get ready. Naturally I had to fire my first maid, but the new one knows all kinds of fun coiffures. She piles my hair onto my head, placing every strand with an individual amethyst-studded pin. A gift from a previous lover, ofcourse. My face is painted to perfection. I pull on lavender pants with a complicated bead design running down the front of each leg. The violet brocade overskirt is simply divine, with long sleeves and a floor-length hemline. I slip into black boots with a small heel, pull on black wrist-length gloves, and then head down for lunch.
Not so beautiful as to tempt me.
I huff as I remember those hateful words.
I appear to be one of the first to arrive in the great hall. Small groups of courtiers chat animatedly with one another. When I step into the room, a few heads turn, voices quiet to gossiping tones, and ladies pull out their fans.
And then a man approaches me.
“Lady Stathos! I’d hoped I’d get a chance to speak with you again.”
Blond. Handsome. Perhaps a decade older than I. Where have I seen him before?
“Orrin, Lord Eliades,” he says.
I still must give him a peculiar look because he adds, “Your father introduced us at the ball!”
