Page 32 of Crimson Kingdom
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Ifled the meeting the very first chance I got, refusing to so much as look at Evander before grabbing Theo’s hand and leading him out the door.
We got all the way to my mother’s favorite tree by the lake before I finally turned to him. His hazel eyes were burning with emerald fire, more tumultuous than I usually saw them.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t feel like I had a choice but to consider it.”
He ran a hand through his pale blond hair. “Areyou considering it then, in truth?”
I took a deep breath, trying to make the world stop spinning around me.
“I...don’t know. I need to at least hear the council out, when I’m the one who got my people into this mess.” I looked up at him hesitantly, the reality of the situation dawning on me. “It isn’t fair of me to ask you to just sit here while I decide, though. I would understand if you wanted to go.”
“No.” He shook his head adamantly. “You didn’t get yourself into this mess. My family did. And I won’t abandon you now just because things are getting complicated.” He paused. “Unless…”
Theo held my gaze for a long moment, a line creasing in his brow.
“Unless what?” I prodded him, a sinking feeling in my gut.
“Unless you want me to.” His tone was quiet. Sad, even.
“Why would I want that?” My voice came out a whisper.
He blew out a slow breath. “I’ve never asked you about the rumors, and I never will, Rowan. But I can’t pretend it hasn’t crossed my mind that there’s more than one reason he’s here.”
The rumors that Mila had mentioned at the cabin, he meant. The fact that literally all of Socair knew I slept in Evander’s rooms.
“It wasn’t like that,” I insisted. But I realized I owed him far more honesty than that, especially if he was willing to sit by while I considered another man’s proposal. “I mean, we did...kiss. One time.”
Theo squeezed his eyes shut, and I rushed to explain.
“It was after you ended our betrothal,” I said hurriedly. “Right before I left, in fact. And we had both been…”Laughing. Playing. Staring at each other in the sauna.“Drinking. We both acknowledged that it was a mistake, so that has nothing to do with why he’s here.”
Theo opened his eyes, looking at me with an expression I couldn’t begin to decipher.
“I don’t want you to go,” I told him sincerely.
With Theo, I knew where I stood. I knew we could make a real marriage work. And if I was being honest with myself, I knew he wasn’t going to break me.
Crossing the distance between us, I leaned against him until he wrapped his solid arms around me.
“Then I’ll stay.” He spoke the words into my hair. “It’s only one week. How bad could it be?”
It could be very bad, as it turned out.
Or at least, horrendously awkward, if the first day was anything to go by.
My family had taken it upon themselves to invite both Theo and Evander literally everywhere we went. Even our weekly family dinners were apparently no longer sacred.
They used to be a reprieve from endless days of court dinners and functions, but now my family had made sure that was not so.
And by my family, I mostly meant my mother.
“I respect whatever choice you make,” Mamá said, placing baby Ellie in Da’s lap and handing her a bread roll. “But if what he says about the merits of the alliance is true…” She trailed off, waiting for me to confirm or deny it.
“It is,” I admitted.
“Then I think it’s worth at least considering.”