She blinked her huge brown eyes in surprise and grasped my fingers delicately as she bowed her head a fraction. “I’m Lady Eleanor.” When she raised her head again, the look of betrayal she flashed Bastian told me everything I needed to know. He had a history with this lovely creature.
This lovely, fragile, meek creature who couldn’t have been more different from me.Thiswas what he’d chosen?
Or had he been given no more choice in that relationship than this one?
“Oh heavens,” Eleanor exclaimed, jerking her fingers back from mine in surprise. “We must get you some gloves, Princess. How awful it must be to be touched by hands so coarse.”
Oh.My berserker rumbled quietly.She’s chosen violence.
Bastian went rigid beside me, silently imploring us to disengage.
I didn’t even try to keep a straight face. I could seduce his pretty little wench while he sat there panicking. “You prefer the soft touch of a woman, then, Lady Eleanor?”
Eleanor blanched. “Of course not! I only meant it must be awful for Prince Bastian, who’s more accustomed to the soft touch of aSaxonlady.”
Of course not?I’d have to add liking women in my bed to the long list of ways I was unacceptable to the Saxons. Hel, likinganythingin bed was offensive to them since I was a woman.
I nodded and leaned closer like we were in on a secret together. “And you know how he likes to be touched?”
Color rose to Eleanor’s cheeks. “I’m an unmarried lady. Of course I have no knowledge of such things.” Eleanor’s chin dipped as she backed down, more worried about offending than she was about conceding.
Bastian’s hand landed on my thigh under the table. His grip practically begged me to leave Eleanor alone. He wanted to protect her, which only made me want to attack her harder because if she was willing to pick a fight with me, she didn’t need to be protected—she needed to be unleashed. She was a Valkyrie who’d been convinced she was a fragile flower…and Bastian had been complicit in telling her that lie. He wasstillcomplicit, trying to shield her from a fight she’d charged in and asked for.
“A pity,” I said softly, waiting until she looked me in the eye to continue. “For a moment there, I thought you might actually be interesting.”
I see you. See yourself.
Her chin dropped again, and I could’ve roared at the whole lot of them. Even if I hadn’t been duty bound to bring this kingdom down for the sake of Axel’s trapped spirit,thiswas why I had to destroy it.
But not yet.
I brushed Bastian’s hand away from my thigh and daintily replaced it with my napkin as I’d seen the other women do. As servers brought each course, I studied the people around us, parsing the threads of tension and connection between them all. For one, the lord across from us kept eyeing his mistress, who was focused on her own husband as though she were perfectly devoted—but for one smoldering look in her lover’s direction.
All around me, wives fussed over their husbands, summoning servers to refill his drink or bring another piece of meat or retrieve his napkin. They performed their duties with aplomb, but in too many of them, I sensed a simmering hatred for the very man they were attentive to.
Fascinating…
Before he could object, I slid Bastian’s plate in front of me and cut his meat like he was a child. His ears turned bright red, but he didn’t dare stop me.
“We can’t have the prince taxing himself. Let me take care of it, darling.” I frowned lovingly, then picked up my napkin to dab at the side of his mouth—his mouth that had tightened into a line of irritation. How fun it was to wind him tighter and tighter, just waiting for him to snap.
He leaned closer and whispered, “Enough of this game, Sigrid.”
I fluttered my lashes at him. “Do you enjoy games, my lord? You must tell me which ones so I may learn them. I’m afraid I don’t know any Saxon games.”
But I’m learning how to play.
Eleanor sat forward. “Prince Bastian enjoys Castles. Never loses.”
“Then you’ll have to teach it to me this afternoon, Lady Eleanor.”
The muscles in Bastian’s jaw worked furiously.
I dropped my polite mask a fraction to return his glare.
He looked away and shook his head like he was giving up.
When the meal was over,people began to move around the room more, socializing and posturing.
