Page 24 of Hollow Court
It wasn’t my concern.
Instead of being relieved at my indifference, Davin took a deep, irritable breath through his nose. “Indeed. Well then, dinner and a bath should be sent up shortly.”
Though I was desperate for both, especially the latter, I knew we weren’t done here yet. He started to walk away before I stopped him.
“We probably should talk first.”
He turned back, raising an eyebrow when I stepped aside and gestured for him to join me.
Wordlessly, he followed me into my room, shutting the door behind him.
The room was luxurious but small to the point of being claustrophobic when Davin was standing this close to me. Taking several steps back, I put as much distance between us as I could, until I could no longer smell the faint scent of his shaving balm.
Sitting down at the small breakfast table near the window, I sifted through the list of questions I’d thought of in the carriage, narrowing them down and selecting the most important ones to ask.
“Tell me what we’re walking into in Lochlann. I don’t want to go in blind.”Again, I wanted to add, but we both knew the word was implied. “What is this vote you have coming up, and why is it so important that you look stable for it?”
I nearly leapt out of my skin when the heavy oak door pushed open before he could answer. My heart galloped and raced in my chest even after the twins walked in, looking very distinctly unlike Alexei.
“No need to worry about knocking, Gwyn,” Davin sighed.
“I wasn’t going to, since it’s my room,” she responded with a saccharine smile, plopping down on the bed.
“To answer your question…” Davin turned back to me. “My right to own Lithlinglau is being contested, and there’s a vote in a few months that will wind up being more political than factual.”
Something niggled at my memory, a conversation where he had mentioned that his mother was married to someone who was not his father at the time of his birth.
“An entire council is getting together to decide whether or not you’re a bastard?” I delivered the words evenly, but Gallagher snorted out a laugh anyway.
A muscle twitched in Davin’s jaw.
“More or less,” he intoned.
I mulled that over. “What happens if they vote against you?”
He pursed his lips. “I lose Lithlinglau.”
“So you’d have no holdings?”
“Well, no. Just…differentholdings,” he corrected.
I fought down a rare surge in my temper, already frayed by the very real danger I was in each day we weren’t safely out of Socair while Davin apparently had all the stress of losing his favorite holdings to other, slightly less desirable holdings.
“That sounds like a real catastrophe,” I deadpanned. “Truly, it’s a difficult life you lead.”
Davin massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, but it was Gallagher who responded.
“The problem isn’t Davin keeping the title or the estate,” he began gently. “It’s that—”
“The Andersons are arseholes,” Gwyndolyn supplied.
Gallagher shrugged. “Pretty much, that.”
I couldn’t help but glance at Davin who was already preemptively glaring.
“Yes, Galina,” he said. “Before you ask, I am quite certain I’m not related to them by blood.”
“More importantly,” Gallagher interrupted, “the Assembly is quite certain of that.”