Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“I was not completely right.”
“What?”
“I still do not think him worthy or suitable for you, but that night, he went through hell to arrive for you, only he was just too late.”
“I do not understand.” But then I did not want to find another reason to keep excusing him. “It doesn’t matter, for even if he did try that night, he still failed to show today.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wrote him a letter telling…telling him to come to me. He did not respond—”
“For the love of God.” He sighed, hanging his head. “I do not know if you are both fated or cursed! Or why I must now be in the middle of it!”
“In the middle of what?”
He stared at me, jaw clenched and expression tight.
“Damon?”
“Bloody…” he stopped himself. “He did not arrive on time to the ball because he was injured.”
“What? How?”
“I do not know, but it was quite serious, which was why I followed him back to his home and did not return till morning. And because he is a stubborn mule, he did not take medicine as the doctor prescribed and got worse.”
“He is—”
“He is better now. However, I do not believe he is aware of the letter yet, Odite.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Do you now see the ill fate in this?”
“I need to see him.”
“What?”
I grabbed his arm and started to run, and, as if my actions angered the heavens, the skies darkened and rain fell.
“Odite, we need to—”
“I am sick of the confusion and the misunderstandings! I shall see him at once!” I hollered, pulling Damon to run with me.
The whole of the queen’s garden party scattered as they sought protection from the rain. I saw my father calling to us, but I would not be stopped, running to where Damon’s carriage would be.
“Odite—”
“Keep pace!” I shouted at him.
I would have an answer today. Let the world flood for all I cared. It would not stop me.
Verity
“You should have gone to the queen’s lunch,” he said as I helped him down the stairs.
“From the looks of it, I was right not to,” I replied as rain drenched the world outside. “Then again, I would have very much enjoyed the looks of those fussy ladies, shrieking to get to dry ground and weeping about their poor, poor dresses.”
“I must say, you have become far too cynical for your age.” He chuckled as we reached the bottom stairs.
“When is an appropriate age to be cynical?”
“For a lady? When you are old. Thirty at least.”
“That does not seem so old to me. Truthfully, I think such an age the best suited to marriage.”
He stopped and looked at me aghast. “Please do not worry me. Seeing you well married should be the least complicated of my tasks, I beg of you.”
I felt the urge to roll my eyes but stopped as soon as Wallace appeared. “Your Grace, your letters have accumulated—”
“Can he not have a short break? He has only just become well again.”
“Do not mind her. Where are they?”
“Your study, sir.”
“Very well,” he said as we walked there. “You should rest. I am not so feeble as to need my sister to watch me read letters,” he said, moving to his desk, shuffling through his correspondence.
“Fine, I will go check on lunch and bring your medicine,” I replied, going to the door.
I had only just stepped into the hall when his voice roared out like thunder, and all of me jumped at the sound.
“Wallace, my horse!”
I turned to see what in the world had gotten into him. He was no longer at his desk but running toward me and then past me so quickly he nearly knocked me over.
“Evander!” I screamed. “What is it?”
He did not seem to notice me, so I grabbed the hem of my dress and ran after him.
“Evander!” I called again, but he was already rushing down the stairs.
By the time I made it to the door, he was upon a horse, the rain beating down on him and all the world. The man did not even wear a greatcoat!
“Are you mad?” I hollered from the door. “Do you not see it is raining? Evander! You have just recovered!”
He merely took off through the gates as fast as the horse would take him, and his figure grew distant in the fog and rain.
It was behavior like this that made me sure that should I ever marry it would not be until he was either wed or dead.
Aphrodite
“Let it be known that you forced me to abandon my wife to become your servant!” Damon yelled at me from outside, his voice fighting against the rain.
“Can it not be fixed?” My head was outside the window to see as they—my brother and the driver—tried to adjust the carriage that had caught in a road rut, the wheel now out of place.