Page 16 of Pawns of Fate
ROSE
R ose spent the whole morning replaying last night’s kiss in her mind. The memory still caused her heart to leap into her throat, which made it impossible for her to keep her guard where Nicholas was concerned.
Should she have turned him down? That seemed pointless. They would do far more on their wedding night, and when the time came for her to give Nicholas an heir. Rose was no virgin. She shouldn’t be losing control of her heart over a mere kiss. Well, kisses.
“Lady Rose?” Betty asked, apparently having called her name a few times.
“You seem distracted,” Lyla said, barely disguising a smirk.
Had Betty told Lyla about her late-night rendezvous? It made Rose feel a little indignant. It wasn’t like she and Nicholas had been doing anything out of the norm for a newly engaged couple.
Rose didn’t want to be teased. She ignored Lyla’s comment.
“I apologize for my distractedness, Betty. I am simply tired from last night’s banquet.”
“You were such a perfect lady! And in that heavy dress, too. No wonder you’re tired,” Betty replied cautiously.
Neither she nor Betty had done anything wrong, so Rose hated to see Betty acting nervous. It reminded Rose too much of how her uncle’s servants behaved when he was around.
Lyla’s voice lazily interrupted her thoughts. “Are you sure the banquet made you tired, Lady Rose? Not your walk in the garden with Lord Nicholas?”
Rose choked on the water she was sipping.
“Lyla! That’s none of our business!” Betty chided the shadow mage fearlessly, bonking her on the head with a hairbrush.
It was a bit like watching a kitten try to fight a tiger.
Rose wondered if Betty was unaware of Lyla’s actual occupation or simply brave.
She also realized that Betty couldn’t have told Lyla about her walk in the garden, since she’d been waiting in Rose’s room after the banquet.
The shadow mage had probably tailed her.
Rose wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She was used to having a lot of privacy, but it seemed like those days were gone .
“Please forgive her, Lady Rose. She’s new to the staff.”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Rose replied.
“If she teases you too much, you can always ask about her midnight walks with Syzman .” Betty’s brows wiggled suggestively. “Those two are always sneaking off together. Even more than Lady Ava and Lord York!”
“Hey! That’s not true!” Lyla snapped.
“Then why do you disappear at the same time as him every day!?”
“Well, it certainly isn’t for what you think. Syzman and I are just colleagues.” Lyla scoffed, but Rose swore she saw a slight pinkness on the mage’s cheeks.
Betty opened her mouth to retort when they were interrupted by a letter sliding under the door.
“What is it this time?” Lyla grumbled as she retrieved the letter and handed it to Rose.
“It seems that my fiancé needs to meet with me in his office at my earliest convenience,” she said as she glanced over the letter. “How quickly can you prepare me for the day, Betty?”
“Just let me finish your hair. You’ll be all ready to go!”
Rose knocked on the door to Nicholas’s office and was surprised when a man with rust-colored eyes and black leather armor opened the door.
She’d met him at the banquet last night and found his demeanor to be as intimidating then as it was now.
This was Syzman, the other shadow mage in the Sharp’s employ.
Despite the flare of fear that rushed through her as the mage walked past her, Rose found a smile playing at her lips. She couldn’t help but picture him chasing Lyla around after hearing Betty’s take on the situation.
Nicholas’s office was dark, except for the windows, and it smelled of dusty paper.
The bookshelves were stuffed with fat, ornate books that looked like they belonged in a university or a lawyer’s office.
The furniture was even thicker and more elaborate than the books, crafted with dark wood and upholstered with burgundy and jade fabrics. The desk could double as a boulder.
Nicholas looked out of place with his silver hair, pale skin, and green tunic. Even his pleasant expression seemed at odds with the overbearing atmosphere of the room.
“Rose, sit down,” he said cheerfully. “I suppose this is your first time seeing my office. It was my grandfather’s. I haven’t had the heart or time to change the decor.”
“The windows let in a nice light,” Rose said diplomatically.
“I have a good view of the mountains. That’s what I like about it.” Nicholas smiled and shrugged noncommittally.
“The furniture is comfortable, too,” Rose said, sitting on an overstuffed chair. It was true. The chair was ugly, but that didn’t detract from how good it felt to sit in it.
“I called you here because I have a very large favor to ask of you,” Nicholas said. His cheerful tone had taken on a pensive, concerned edge .
“Whatever it is, I’ll try my best to help you, Nicholas.
” She tried to hide the disappointment in her voice.
A small part of her had hoped that, perhaps, he would continue where things had left off last night, but Nicholas was all business right now.
Somehow, the thought added more fuel to Rose’s flame of desire.
“How much do you know about the Dahtey clan?” Nicholas asked.
“I know quite a bit about them. I visited their estate last year to help my uncle secure a few business deals.”
“Syzman told me as much, but I wanted to confirm. Did you interact with Lord Dahtey’s mother when you were there? She can be a viper of a woman.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say she’s a viper.” Her voice trailed off as she tried to find the right words to describe a woman who frequently tormented her servants by throwing hot tea at them. Rose had been lucky that Lady Ylimia Dahtey hadn’t considered it worth her time to harass a mere hostage.
“Are you familiar with her preferences? What sort of tea and food does she like or dislike? She can be picky.”
“Are you hosting her? Wait, are we hosting her?”
“Yes, she is coming here for tea with Ava.”
“That’s a terrible idea.” An old noble like Ylimia Dahtey would trample all over Ava’s sweet personality and lack of etiquette.
“I know. I hoped you could join them and smooth things over.”
Rose frowned. She weighed her options and decided to tell Nicholas the blunt truth .
“Is there any way you could cancel? She’ll eat Ava alive. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to step in.”
“We can’t cancel, especially not this late. She’s coming tomorrow.”
“What is the purpose of her visit? I thought the Sharps and Dahtey were on good terms.”
“The Sharps and Dahtey are on good terms. Ylimia is an old friend of my father’s because she was a close friend of my mother’s.
She always stops by this time of year to visit my mother’s grave.
I haven’t interacted with her much, but she changed quite a bit after my mother, who was her closest friend, and her husband, Lord Idne Dahtey, died within six months of each other.
I remember Lady Ylimia as a kind woman before that. ”
Rose barely suppressed a scoff. Kind was not the word she’d use for Lady Ylimia. Grief certainly changed people.
“She usually just visits the grave, chats with my father, and leaves. But this year, we have Ava. Ylimia requested to meet with Ava specifically.”
“Why?” Rose questioned. Ylimia Dahtey rarely concerned herself with matters outside of her own family. It surprised Rose that she visited an old friend’s grave each year. Rose was shocked that the noble lady was concerned about Ava at all.
Nicholas let out the low hum that Rose was learning escaped his lips when he wanted to choose his words carefully.
“I think she wants to vet York’s wife for herself since his own mother can’t do so from beyond the grave.
She arranged this before news of our engagement spread, or she would have requested to meet you, too. ”
“What exactly will this vetting gain her?”
“Maybe she just wants to have as much information about Ava as possible, in case she needs it later.” Nicholas ran a hand through his hair, then propped his chin up with his palm.
“Maybe she feels responsible for York in some twisted way we can never hope to understand. It doesn’t matter either way. My father would never turn her down.”
Rose bit her lip and flipped through all of her memories of Ylimia from her stay with the Dahtey. However, most of that involved staying well away from the woman the servants called an ice queen when they thought no one important was listening. And that was the nicest nickname they had for her.
Besides throwing hot tea at servants she thought were underperforming, Ylimia was also known to purposefully break dishes and blame those who’d displeased her.
Her handmaids never lasted more than a month; most only served Ylimia for a week.
It was a well-known fact in high society that her son, the current Lord Dahtey, refused to attend any social or political event with his mother.
But hopefully, Nicholas was right and she really did just want to meet with Ava out of a sense of duty to her old friend.
“What do you need from me?” Rose felt a headache teasing the edge of her consciousness when she thought about trying to corral Ava and Ylimia.
“I need you to join them for tea. Lady Dahtey will be interested in meeting you, too, even if she hasn’t had the opportunity to request it officially. You can guide Ava, and take a little of the—” Nicholas hummed again, “the focus.”
“In other words, you need me to help take the attention off Ava?”
“Precisely. Ylimia will care about York’s wife, but ultimately, that matter is settled. She’ll be more interested in critiquing you since we haven’t married yet. It will feel like she can have more influence.”
“You are really throwing me to the wolves.”
“Don’t let one old woman’s opinion bother you. It certainly won’t bother me.” Nicholas tapped a finger on his desk.