“No.”
“Yes.”
Kane and I answer at the same time, my excited cooperation smothering his surly retort. I swing my gaze up to him. “That would be lovely.” I smile at him but speak directly to Marion.
Decision made and battle won, I step away from Kane’s looming presence and out into the hall.
“Hannah…” Kane’s voice is a command, a plea. His hand closes around my wrist with a firmness laced with something darker, something desperate.
I ignore the way his touch makes me shiver and theway my name on his tongue makes me hunger to feel it lick every inch of my skin. It feels like a drug, like power to know I’m the one wanted and not the only one wanting.
“Lord Ashwood,” I murmur, wide-eyed and innocent, my mouth curving into a sinful smile as I bite my lower lip. “You wouldn’t wish me to keep Lady Highgate waiting, now, would you?”
His gaze meets mine, intense and molten, and I half expect it to burn a hole right through his eye patch.
“Do not worry, Lord Ashwood.” A grin plumps the apples of Marion’s cheeks. “I shall have your wife back to you in time to ready yourselves for dinner.”
Kane doesn’t look at her. Instead, his single-eyed gaze wraps itself around me as he lifts my hand to his lips and presses a kiss to my palm. “I will be here. Waiting.” His words are a promise, a threat, heavy with an anticipation that sends a trail of fire down my spine.
It takes everything in me to not lift my hands to my lips, consume his kiss, and forget who I am and what I want in favor of losing myself beneath him.
“Until then, Lord Ashwood.” I curtsy, my knees so weak and soft that I nearly fold like a beach chair.
Marion speaks, but I can’t make out what she’s saying through the thrum of my pulse between my ears. I follow her down the hall, retracing the steps Kane and I made when McDougall first took us to our room. Kane’s gaze presses hot against my back, and I’m only able to sip shallow breaths to calm my racing heart until I hear the door close behind me and the lock click.
As if Marion was waiting for the same, the moment he disappears back inside the room and we’re left in thesilence of the corridor, she turns to me. “I don’t believe anyone has ever looked at me that way.”
No one has ever looked at me the way Kane does either. I shrug away the shiver that rolls down the back of my neck. “Lord Ashwood is quite…intense.”
“I can see that.” Marion’s laughter bursts through the hall, brushing away the poorly constructed armor I put on to protect myself from all things Kane. “So, Lady Ashwood, where would you like to go first?”
“First, please call me Hannah. I’ve barely been here an hour, and I’m already over being ‘my lady-ed.’”
“They’re less formal in your kingdom?” My ridiculous mistake sends ice water surging through my veins. Luckily, before I have a chance to put my foot further into my mouth, Marion continues. “I should like that, I think. However, I will only call you ‘Hannah’ if you call me ‘Marion.’”
“Done,” I say and let out a relieved exhale. “As far as what I’d like to see first, I’ve heard about the Hall of Crystal Wings and that it has the most beautiful dragonflies. Is it far from here?”
“A bit. It’s on the other side of the palace, but I know just the path to take.”
I follow Marion, our footsteps muffled by the thick carpet as we head downstairs, that haunting clock still ticking in the background.
“I know you haven’t been here long, but I hope you’ve found our palace to your liking,” Marion says.
“It’sreally nice,” I reply, my gaze brushing over the vaulted ceiling, fresh flowers, and sumptuous fabrics. If this is how Pentacles decorates a hallway, I can only imagine what’s behind some of these doors. “I’ve neverseen anything like it.” I clear my throat, catching my mistake before it can spawn questions. “I mean, the palace in Cups is different. Grand and beautiful, but different.”
“And you’ve only seen a small piece of Pentacles. You’ve yet to see my favorite space, which, of course, will be the highlight of our tour.” Marion’s smile is so much like Jade’s that I want to hug her.
We turn an unfamiliar corner, and light pours in through arched windows. I catch a glimpse of the rolling hills beyond, green and bright against the gold, dark wood and scarlet of the palace’s interior.
“Have you lived here long?” I ask, trying to make small talk that won’t give away any of the secrets I have to keep.
“Since I was a girl, really.” Her lips thin, and she hikes her shoulders. Somehow, she makes a simple shrug look elegant and endearing. “I’ve been here since my debut, when the queen chose me to join her ladies-in-waiting. Lord Highgate has an estate in the country, but we haven’t left to visit it for some time. The queen has needed me, while her son, the king, has needed my husband. It’s a great honor, and as you’ve seen, the palace is magnificent. Spending most of my life here, I know its every corner—every hidden corridor.”
“Hidden corridors? That sounds exciting.”
“Oh yes. They come in quite handy when meeting with a lover.” Marion’s eyes crease with a mischievous grin. “Or avoiding one.”
“I feel like there’s a story in there somewhere, Marion.”
