Page 107 of Hollow Court

Then I remembered the ice in her eyes when she told me she was leaving to marry someone else, her words last night. The entire time I had known her, it had felt like she was a bird, perched on the edge of a rooftop, half a wrong move away from taking flight.

Yes, that’s what I want.

Maybe she wasn’t lying. Maybe I was only hearing what I wanted to.

“I have to be,” I finally said.

THIRTY-FIVE

Galina

Five weeks.

The words repeated like a mantra in my head, a countdown I couldn’t ignore. Five weeks until the vote, then another month until my charade with Davin was over.

Until I married someone else and saw him in passing at functions and pretended… What was it he had said?

Pretended we had never watched each other come undone.

Der’mo.

On the other hand, perhaps my uncle would come to cart me back to Socair. Then I could see Davin at the Socairan court while I stood silently at the side of a man who relished the sight of his hand imprinted on my skin.

Since I had stopped going to the rooftop for obvious reasons, I had plenty of time to think of the many potential scenarios every night.

During the day, I worked in a frenzy to win over the ladies of the court, and through them, their husbands. Only two ladies were directly on the Assembly themselves: Lady Fenella…and, to my eternal dismay, Lady Fiona.

When I wasn’t hosting teas or making appearances on Davin’s arm at other estates for grand balls and parties, I was helping out in the village, dropping comments about Davin’s initiatives—which were very real—and trying to show the people that I wasn’t something entirelyother.

It wasn’t unthinkable that Davin could earn the vote. The people were sympathetic toward him, and slowly, me. The ladies loved him, and not just in the obvious way. He seemed to have more actual friends at court than he realized.

But I saw other things, too. The jealousy over everything Davin had and the power his family held. The resentment of giving one of their own royals to Socair, rather than retaliating.

A low murmur of conversation pulled me back to the present, and I graciously accepted another compliment on my ring. Today’s tea was at Lady Fiona’s estate, which was less than a day’s ride away.

It was nice that she was so close.

And not only was she strikingly beautiful, but she was also the sole owner of her holdings. A single woman in possession of an estate and vast fortune.

No wonder she was the envy of the court.

She didn’t need to marry. Her future was already secure.

Vaguely, I considered whether or not I was envious of that life. Perhaps I would have been before I met Davin, but what I wanted couldn’t be obtained through the freedom or the wealth of owning my own estate.

The grating voice of the woman in question pulled me back into the present.

“Lady Galina, you’ve been so tight-lipped about the wedding, one might think you weren’t planning to marry at all,” Lady Fiona said, stirring a lump of sugar into her tea.

Gwyn stiffened next to me, her delicate china teacup frozen just in front of her lips at the thinly veiled jab, but I gave a polite laugh.

Fiona Shaw was one of the few ladies I had not yet been able to win over.

She didn’t seem to have any particular attachment to Davin as much as she had an attachment to being the center of attention.

I played into that.

“There’s hardly been time to plan around the social season, and of course, Davin would be devastated if we couldn’t marry in his family home, but as soon as we have plans, you’ll be the first to know,” I said conspiratorially to the small group of ladies at my table.