Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“And did you feel better after that tantrum?” she asked, and I looked to see her staring at me. It was creepy how dead-eyed she looked.
However, I ignored it and spoke to her like I didn’t notice. “A little but nowhere close to enough. Afterward, while I was sitting in his wrecked living room with a bottle and a bloody hand, I felt a bit ashamed. I had destroyed his work because I was jealous of it and mad at him. But soon, I remembered how happy he was to do it, so it felt like I was hurting him. I tried to clean up. That failed—my hand wasn’t letting me do it.” I laughed, remembering. “I had people pack everything, and I spent my time trying to rebuild his models.”
“It took me a year to fix most of the memories I broke of you. For the ones I lost forever, I am sorry. It’s my fault, but still...” Eliza repeated my lyrics.
“I blame you because I love you, and you’ll forgive me because you loved me too.” I finished, nodding at her.
She grinned then laughed. “That song was about your dad?”
“Yes. What did you think it was about?” It was always fun hearing what fans sometimes thought.
“I thought it was about...” she trailed off.
“You thought it was about what?” I leaned forward, more interested.
She shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t know, some man, boyfriend you loved and lost.”
“It couldn’t be another man,” Gale finally spoke again, his eyes narrowing on me.
“Why not? I liked other people before you.”
“Really, who? Chef Tremaine?” he asked with a wicked grin. “How cute.”
My mouth dropped open, and I wanted to throw something at him. Instead, I glared, and all I could say was, “New topic.”
“Wait, no, who is Chef Tremaine?” Eliza asked, looking between us. “I want to know.”
“Well, he is—”
“Eliza, do you want to know about the wig your brother glued onto his head while we were in Seattle?” I asked her quickly.
“What?” Both Eliza and Elspeth questioned then looked at him
As he glared, I grinned back. “I do not know what she is speaking about,” he lied.
“Really?” My eyebrow lifted. I reached into the pocket of my dress—thank God for them—pulling out my personal phone and not the new one the palace had given me. “Did you really think I did not get evidence?”
“You did not,” he grumbled.
“I did so,” I replied, nodding.
“Let me see!” Eliza squealed, already excited and outstretching her hands.
I unlocked the phone, but before I could give it to her, Sophia spoke beside me, “Miss Wyntor, cell phones are not to be brought to dinner, let alone passed around the table. It is considered very rude here.”
I froze.
Slowly, I brought my hand back down.
“Sophia is correct, Odette. Do not do so again,” Elspeth said gently. “But as you have brought it this time unknowingly, you may show us this evidence during Pašrévaka.”
“Mother”—Gale groaned—“that is not necessary.”
“I shall be the judge of that.” She smirked. “Who knows, maybe I shall like the look on you? If not, I shall get a very good laugh.”
Gale tiredly looked at me with a small smirk on his lips. “And here I thought you cared about me. Now you wish to make me a laughingstock to my own mother.”
“My mom says if you don’t think your parents have been laughing at you your whole life, you either do not have parents or you do not have a life.” I shrugged.
“Mother has definitely laughed at you,” Eliza said to Gale. “Father, I can’t see it. Yelling for sure, but I do not know what you could have ever done to make him laugh outright.”
Elspeth giggled, and we all looked at her. This regal queen had just giggled. She lifted her hand to her lips, composing herself. “You must forgive me. I simply remembered something from your childhood that had your father in tears.”
“What?” Gale asked her.
“When you were a boy, you got stuck in a tree without...without your pants.” She snickered again. “After you were safely down, your father kept asking through his laughter, ‘He had no pants, Elspeth. How did the boy lose his pants?’ He was utterly confused and thoroughly amused.”
My mouth dropped open.
Eliza broke out laughing.
Gale hung his head, shaking it in embarrassment.
Sophia. Well, Sophia just ate quietly.
Chapter 11
I did not know which was more chilling—the deafening silence or the feelings of the woman creating that silence. My sister-in-law, Sophia De Loutherbergh, sat quietly in the chair nearest to the fireplace, drinking wine and holding us all hostage with the weight of her grief.
Since the end of dinner, all of us tried to do what Pašrévaka was meant for, hold a conversation. However, each time any of us would begin to lighten the mood, Sophia would speak ever so softly and yet ever so coldly, chilling everything over again. Odette had managed a few lighter moments, but in the end, we all ended up as we were now. Quietly drinking and waiting for this portion of the night to be over. My sister was now distracting herself with Persephone, though the dog clearly wished to go back to her owner, Sophia. I did not like the spoiled creature, and yet even I pitied it as she sniffed and whimpered at Sophia’s skirt only to be outright ignored. Unable to take much more of it, Eliza gathered her into her arms and began feeding the dog treats, clearly seeking to distract it and herself from the present reality.