Page 5 of Hollow Court
Because the courtiers here remind me of someone I never want to think about again.
At least it didn’t look like Galinawould be here.
I would go this entire trip without seeing her at all. Which was for the best, obviously.
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than a servant announced the approaching of a new carriage. I bit back a curse.
Like I had summoned her with my thoughts, I knew who it was going to be before Rowan even opened her mouth to say, “Oh, that must be Galina.”
Her tone was light and airy, like she wasn’t actively making my life worse with her proclamation. Of course, Rowan didn’t know about my history with the darling of Clan Ram. No one did.
Any humor I had found in my cousins’ banter dissipated, my stomach dropping like an anvil.
“Isn’t it a bit late for anyone to be coming for the ball?” I asked in the most casual voice I could manage, gesturing around the crowded room.
Since the Obsidian Palace was a solid day’s ride from the nearest estate, everyone else had arrived earlier today or even last night.
“She got caught up with wedding plans,” Rowan said distractedly, breaking off when her husband subtly waved her over to his conversation with the duke of Clan Lynx.
Right.Galina’s upcoming nuptials.
Her wedding had been the talk of the court since we got here, and I had tried like hell every day to ignore it.
Gallagher eyed me, his features just a hair too innocent. “Didn’t you two know each other from your time at Clan Ram?”
And Elk, but I wasn’t about to clarify that for him.
This was my most discerning cousin’s favorite game. Thelightly comment on something until he got information out of yougame. It worked best with his accomplice, and here she came, of course, ready to back him up.
“Well, they must have, Twinsy. He was held as a captive guest at her estate for, what was it?” She pretended to ponder. “Six weeks?”
“Three,” I corrected, nearly admitting there had been another five in Elk before forcibly clamping my lips shut.
Their twin smirks grew even more devious. I had known better than to play into them.
“So three weeks in the same court with her. I suppose you will at least have been…friendly?” Gal baited.
“You know how the courtiers here are,” I hedged.
“Not as well as you do, apparently,” Gwyn muttered, taking a long sip of her sparkling beet juice before wincing.
I resolved to ignore them more effectively after that.
Fortunately, Rowan showed up to take the conversation elsewhere. Unfortunately, she appeared to be ushering us away from our chosen corner.
Instead of allowing us to converse with the other punctual courtiers, she guided us toward the main doors to greet her newly arrived guests.
With a sigh, I followed her to the door, wondering if Galina was half as unhappy about seeing me again as I was her. Did she regret the way things had ended, now that she knew who I was?
She must have put it together by now.
Galina was many things, but stupid was never one of them.
For all that I spent the entire walk to the front doors steeling myself to face her presence, I was still not prepared when she glided into the Great Hall.
I wasn’t sure what I had expected. That she would look different, somehow, in light of everything that had happened between us.
Perhaps she did, at that.