Page 146 of Onyx Cage: Volume II

We still had a long way to go before I could expect this sort of mutual respect to stick. But for now, at least, it was a start.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

By the time we left the sparring room, there was a small part of me that felt—if not hopeful—at least slightly less tense about moving forward with this plan.

Though there had still been a handful of soldiers who balked at training with her, most of them fell in line and were even curious to take on my feral princess themselves.

After cleaning up, I left Rowan in our rooms to do the same, and headed to first assess my father’s headspace before meeting with the castle steward to discuss my plan for dispensing some of my wife’s dowry to the villages. From there, I had an afternoon of meetings with some of my least favorite lords to look forward to.

A far cry from the way I had spent my previous afternoons, and much less enjoyable.

After a week with her at my side, it was more difficult than I expected to leave Rowan behind. Or rather, to send her off to luncheon with the ladies of court.

Kirill was with her, of course, working his new assignment as her personal guard. Mila would be at the lunch as well. In her short time at Bear, she had already ingratiated herself with theladies, something I was hoping she would be able to assist my wife with.

Still, it was a relief when I finally made my way back to my rooms before dinner to find her half-dressed at her vanity, looking no worse for wear after her afternoon excursions.

She tucked a rogue curl behind her ear, applying a small bit of rouge to her lips as her eyes met mine in the mirror.

“Lady Stenvall,” I greeted her.

“Lord Stenvall,” she returned, but there was less warmth in her tone than I expected.

“How was your afternoon?” I asked, making my way to the small bar against the wall.

There would be drinks at dinner, but after an entire hour of Lord Bolshoi’s grating voice, I had been looking forward to a dram of the whiskey Davin had sent as my wedding gift.

“It was interesting,” she responded bitterly.

I furrowed my brows, waiting for her to continue as I poured myself a healthier serving than I had originally planned.

“I especially enjoyed meeting Lady Katerina,” she added with a heavy dose of sarcasm, and I froze.

Der’mo.

“A warning would have been nice,” she tacked on in a far more serious tone.

I swallowed, my gaze sliding up to meet hers. She was no longer facing the mirror. Instead, I met the full force of her glare. Her jaw was set, her lips pursed in anger as she studied me.

Der’mo, indeed.

“It was a long time ago, Lemmikki,” I said flatly, not bothering to remind her that I’d been forced to hear about her exploits from other people, see them firsthand, or that she had thrown them in my face on more than one occasion.

“And when exactly was I supposed to bring that up? Did you want me to casually mention it this morning on the way to the sparring ring, or perhaps while we were in the bath?”

Her skin flushed a deep shade of scarlet, and she stood from her dressing chair.

“At literally any point before I had to figure it out at this luncheon would have been preferable,” she fired back. “Honestly, how would you have felt in Lochlann if you had been sitting down to cards with the lairds and happened upon the realization that the one sitting next to you had bedded your wife?”

My grip on the whiskey bottle tightened, my jaw clenching as I imagined severing the imagined man’s head from his neck.

While I hadn’t always appreciated my wife’s forthrightness in flaunting her former trysts, at least I hadn’t been caught off guard by them. And I knew now that they hadn’t quite gone to the extent that my own…liaisons had.

“Fair point,” I acknowledged, and she sighed.

“I’m not complaining that you have a past, Evander. But in the future, perhaps you could just...let me know what I’m walking into.”

It was a reasonable request, though that didn’t necessarily make it a simple one. It wasn’t that I wanted to keep my handful of former lovers a secret from her, but more that after a lifetime of playing my cards close to my chest, it wasn’t going to be easy to just change that now.