Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 126850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“Exactly. Look, lack of communication is what got you both in this whole mess to begin with. If you’re going to move forwards in any kind of way, you have to be on the same page.”
“When did you get so wise?”
“When you fucked off to Scotland with a man you’d just met. Someone had to be the sensible one in this friendship.”
I wrinkled my nose up. “With hindsight, we hadn’t just met.”
“Ah, but we didn’t know that. That’s why you had to check in daily. Just in case he ripped you limb from limb and hid you in the dungeons.”
“I don’t think the castle has dungeons.”
“Ask him. I want to know.”
“Why?”
“So I can embark on my lucrative career as a serial widow when you marry him,” Amber said nonchalantly. “I need somewhere safe to hide the bodies.”
I frowned at her and reached for my phone, slowly bringing it to my lap so I could text William. “Sounds like an elaborate scheme to make me talk to him, if I’m honest.”
“Well, your phone is in your hand, so you might as well.”
“Funny how that works,” I deadpanned, opening my messages app.
ME: Amber wants to know if you have dungeons at Glenroch Castle.
“There. I asked him. Do you feel better now?”
“I will when I have an answer,” she said, putting the cushion back right as my phone screen lit up. “Well?”
WILLIAM: I feel like I need to know why you’re asking such a thing.
ME: She plans to marry rich men and kill them off and needs a safe space to hide their bodies.
WILLIAM: Of course. That makes sense.
Well, the fact he didn’t balk at it says a lot.
WILLIAM: I feel like dungeons is a strong word, but there’s a considerable basement space that could work for her purpose.
“There’s a considerable basement space,” I said, reading his text to her.
“Sounds like it could be a dungeon with some reasonable renovations,” she replied brightly. “And now you’re talking to him, I’m off to take a bath.”
I sighed. I knew it was a scheme. “Don’t use those coloured bath bombs. It took us ten years to get that purple off the sides of the bath.”
“Don’t exaggerate. If you have to be dramatic, be dramatic to your future husband while you convince him how to renovate his dungeons for me.”
“There’s a whole person who’ll own the castle before him,” I pointed out.
Amber shrugged as she left. “Fine, I’ll just marry his dad first. Then you’ll get the castle quicker, too.”
I laughed, leaning back into the cushions.
Okay, fine.
She’d successfully manipulated me into talking to him, talked sense into me, and made me laugh.
Maybe I wouldn’t trade her in for a model that could go grocery shopping.
I mean, I didn’t get a drawer full of Pringles and sour sweets when she went shopping, did I?
ME: Amber would like you to renovate it into dungeons.
WILLIAM: Is Amber going to pay for it?
ME: She doesn’t pay me rent. What do you think?
WILLIAM: I think you let her live with you so she doesn’t have to pay extortionate rental prices in the southeast.
ME: Rent is extortionate everywhere.
WILLIAM: You didn’t deny it.
ME: She’s my best friend, and I don’t want to live alone. Plus, she pays half the electric bill. Have you seen the price of that these days? Rent wishes it was that much of a rip-off.
WILLIAM: Says the one without a mortgage.
ME: Bit rich coming from the guy who’s going to inherit a whole-ass castle.
WILLIAM: Have you seen inheritance tax? I’ll have to renovate the basement to dungeons just to rent them out.
ME: If Glenroch was in the southeast, you’d be able to charge two grand a month for those prison cells.
WILLIAM: I know. It’s unfortunate.
ME: And would probably violate several laws.
WILLIAM: Like the government, then.
ME: Meow.
WILLIAM: Tell me I’m wrong.
ME: I was taught not to lie.
Ironic, given how my grandmother and father had lied for almost twenty years.
WILLIAM: Exactly. How was your day?
And there was the million-pound question.
ME: Pretty shit, honestly.
WILLIAM: Want to talk about it?
ME: In person, yeah. But my dad said the funeral is this weekend. Are you going?
WILLIAM: Of course. Are you?
ME: Yeah, just me and Dad. I think we’re travelling up on Friday afternoon.
WILLIAM: Same here. I’m home tomorrow… Do you have time to talk on Thursday?
I hesitated. It seemed like so much, to tell him everything, to say out loud what I’d just been told.
To tell him how I really felt.
But I was going to.
ME: Yes. In person.
WILLIAM: Stop, you’re flirting with me.
I burst out laughing.
ME: OMG. Shut up.
WILLIAM: Why don’t we go somewhere nice?
ME: Lord Kinkirk, are you asking me out on a date?
WILLIAM: That depends if you’re going to say no.
ME: My answer depends on if you’re asking me out or not.
WILLIAM: Fuck.
ME: Ha.
WILLIAM: Yes, I’m asking you out on a date. Lunch or dinner, your choice.