Page 43 of Soulbound

There was no sign of anyone else, and Cleo hadn't roused from the bedchamber beside him. She'd been exhausted last night, closing his bedchamber door quietly, and leaving him alone with his thoughts.

A part of him had wanted her to stay.

"Any reason you're plaguing the household this early in the morning?" Sebastian examined the sideboard with a hunger he didn't usually feel. The healing had taken something out of him.

"Careful." Lady Eberhardt snorted, lifting her teacup to her mouth. "I might take offense at some of your sass."

Despite himself, he almost smiled. The old bat had proved an endless source of frustration in the past month, but she treated him precisely as she treated anyone else. The first time she'd swatted Bishop over the ears for being impertinent had been the first time he'd almost relaxed beneath this roof.

"Where's Bishop?" she demanded.

"Probably in bed," he replied, and began loading up his plate with coddled eggs. "Why don't you go haul him out?"

"Because Verity deserves some time with her husband, the poor gel."

He gave her a look. "Verity's no lamb."

A snort. "She is to me."

Verity's clear inability to do any wrong in Lady E's eyes made Bishop roll his and often. Sebastian shook his head. What did it take to get on the right side of Lady E?

"Take a seat," Lady E told him, as if he hadn't been about to do precisely that. "I have something for you."

"A present, just for me?" Something told him he wasn't going to enjoy it. Lady E was of the opinion that people should be given what they needed, not what they wanted.

Lady E gave him a sweet look over the rim of her teacup. "Well, we could sit here and discuss the reason your wife isn't keeping you in her bed, like Verity is with Adrian, but something tells me you'd prefer to have a tooth pulled."

He gave her a sour look. "That's none of your business."

"Oh, boy." Lady E reached out and patted his cheek almost tenderly. "Haven't you realized yet? Everything that happens in my sphere is my business." She set her teacup down. "Adrian tells me you ran into an incubus."

"Could we not discuss this?"

"Well, it's been a good thirty years since I came across one. They're quite rare." Her expression grew distant and fond. "Damned good in bed, though one doesn't appreciate being used as fodder."

He almost gagged on his mouthful of eggs.

Lady E's dark eyes locked on him. "I heard... he might have given your lovely wife a kiss."

Sebastian grabbed his plate and stood, pushing back his chair. Done. He was done with this. "I swear to God—"

An iron hand locked around his wrist. "Oh, sit, and I'll leave you and your wife alone."

Anything was better than this. Anything.

"Here," she said, reaching for the chair beside her and pulling out a slim package bound in brown paper. "I've been searching for this for the past week, and finally found it last night."

He tore the package open, revealing a slim brown leather book. "Is it going to bite?"

"Perhaps." Her voice turned serious. "I want you to read it."

He turned the book over, and then untied the string holding it closed. "What is it?"

"Your mother's journal. I made her write it many years ago when she first came to the Order, and I was named as her master."

Sebastian froze, his thumb sliding from the middle of the book. He set it aside firmly. "I don't need it."

And he was done with breakfast, done with Lady Eberhardt... done with this whole cursed house. Wiping his mouth, he avoided her grasping hand, and escaped his chair.