Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Your mother will be fine. An embarrassment, a stain on our family, but fine.” Grandfather exhales a long breath and shakes his head. “We’re both past the point of thinking your mother will ever get better. She will continue to plague our name until the day that she dies, and there is nothing we can do but try to manage her the best we can. However, you’re still here, Katherine. And you can still be useful.”
My fingers dig into my thighs as I stare at my grandfather. He looks back at me, head tilted, appraising. I’ve never heard him talk about me as anything other than a burden before, so it’s strange to hear the word useful attributed to me. I don’t let myself get excited though—the years have taught me to always be on guard no matter how happy or how excited I might get. When I’m at my highest, I can fall the furthest.
“What do you need, Grandfather?”
“You’re twenty-five now, Katherine. I’ve been very lenient with you for all these years on account of your mother’s difficulty, however—” He hesitates, frowning deeply. “That leniency must come to an end.”
I want to laugh. Leniency is not the word I’d use to describe the constant, unflinching criticism I’ve endured from this old man. The only decent thing he ever did for me was give me a job at one of the horse breeders the family owns and that was only after I got a vet tech certification online without telling anyone. It took me two years of sneaking around and doing night classes in my room, and Grandfather was only barely amused when I showed him the official graduation diploma.
At least I love my job at Shady Farms. It’s the only place I can be happy, even if I’m only working there part-time—I show up nearly every day. It’s a fifty-minute drive and worth every second because nobody treats me like a mutated sewer freak there. I’m a colleague and a friend and an actual human being, at least to the staff.
In the Stockton house, I’m the gunk between shower tiles personified.
He slowly stands and walks closer to the fire. I watch him, my guts roiling. Nervous energy rolls up my spine. He turns to me slowly, frowning thoughtfully.
“Your cousins are all married or engaged. Sara Lynn has two babies and a third on the way. The Stockton line will continue well into the future because they have done their duty to proliferate with the best stock we could find, and now it is your turn, Katherine. I am going to find you a husband. You will marry him, have children, and continue on our family legacy, even if your genes are not exactly—high quality.” He stays those last two words with a slow drawl.
Marriage. Babies. Continuing the family legacy. My head feels light and my heart’s racing. I’ve barely even dated and only ever had one serious boyfriend in my life, and now Grandfather wants me to get married? I have no clue how he thinks that’ll happen—unless he’s already got a list.
I stifle a groan. Yeah, of course there’s a freaking list.
“I don’t know who you plan on marrying me off to, Grandfather, but—”
“There are vetted and suitable candidates.” Yep, totally a list. “I will introduce them to you, and you will choose from among them. I know this is sudden and it’s something of a shock, but with your mother’s most recent antics, I’m realizing that nothing will change with her, but it can change with you. I understand you haven’t always been the most important person in our family—” I barely manage to stop myself from rolling my eyes. That’s the biggest understatement I’ve ever heard in my life. “—but this is your opportunity to step up and be a part of this family.”
I clear my throat. “And when do you want this marriage to happen?”
“Soon. Weeks, not months.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. Grandfather only stares at me and doesn’t crack a smile. This is so crazy and there’s been absolutely no notice, and why the heck does Grandfather suddenly care about marrying me off at all when I’m an afterthought at best? When I started working at Shady Farms, after my third shift there, he looked at me in my tall work boots and stained jeans, made a face, and said, at least you found your place, and walked off like he smelled something bad.
Now he wants me to get married for the good of the family?
The idea terrified me. No, worse, it actively repulses me. Not because I’m not interested in men—I am very interested in men—but because the men Grandfather’s going to pick are all the blueblood aristocrat types with lovely breeding, good names, and plenty of zeroes at the end of their bank account statements. He’s not putting it this way, but the old man’s practically selling me off because he’s tired of dealing with me and my mother himself.