Page 5 of Crimson Kingdom
Sometimes, the good ones haunted me more.
CHAPTERTWO
The low, excited chatter of the arriving lairds and ladies drifted in through the open balcony door. My younger sisters watched from the edge, commentating back and forth on the gowns, the hairstyles, and generally commiserating over the unfairness of not yet being out in society.
“It’s ridiculous! It doesn’t make any sense that we have to be a certain age to dance in our own castle,” Bronwyn whined, sinking down on my chaise lounge and blowing a wavy strand of red hair from where it had fallen in her eyes.
I knew she was speaking aloud for my benefit, since the twins were fully capable of communicating without speaking, courtesy of their fae blood. I shook my head, wishing for all the world that I didn’t have to go either.
“It’s only a few more years,” I told her. “And then you’ll go to so many balls you’ll be bored of them.”
Or just despise them, like I was beginning to. I picked up my glass of whiskey for a fortifying sip, examining my features in the mirror.
The twins had artfully arranged my mass of crimson curls, weaving the strands around a golden tiara embedded with sparkling amethysts. They applied light layers of kohl around my eyes, and my lips were a soft shade of berry.
It was amazing how much I had missed the small things. How much I had missed my sisters.
“Yes, I’m sure you’re soooo bored dancing with all of the handsome lairds,” Blair chimed in from where she was helping herself to my cosmetics. “Or maybe you’re just upset because you miss your piece of man-meat?”
I choked on my drink, sending whiskey spraying all over Bronwyn.
“Where did you hear that?” I asked.
“From Davin,” the twins intoned together.
“Of course you did…” I muttered with a chuckle.
Bronwyn laughed, wiping the stray drops of whiskey from her dress.
I was picking at a cheese tray Taisiya had brought up when Blair spoke again.
“Have you written him back?” she asked, holding up a letter from where it sat on my vanity.
It was the one from Theo, the request to visit to discuss a potential betrothal.
“Are you going to marry him?” Bronwyn added, her tone more subdued than it had been a moment ago.
Stalling to answer, I drained the contents of my whiskey glass. It was a loaded question. With everything going on at court, Mamá had said there was no rush for me to marry, and Socair was a long way away.
Still, I knew that wasn’t what was holding me back, not entirely.
“I…don’t know,” I said finally.
Blair nodded sagely, setting the letter back down on the vanity and moving to sit next to her twin.
Taisiya saved me from further response when she emerged from my closet with the evening’s ballgown.
“I’m glad you went with the purple one,” Bronwyn commented, critically eyeing the lace spilling from the sleeves of the navy dress still hanging on the door to my closet. “You’d probably just dip that one into your food.”
I feigned offense, but the way my life was going, she really wasn’t wrong.
With a sigh, I dutifully stepped into the gown Taisiya was holding out, or rather, theplat’ye,as she had informed me. Perhaps because she, too, knew that Theo had written me, she had kept up with my Socairan lessons.
And I hadn’t stopped her, because,Stars, with the way things were going, Socair was going to be a part of my life again sooner rather than later.
Whether it was through marriage or war.
CHAPTERTHREE