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“Yes, sir.”
This wasn’t the type of person I wanted to be, but I had to become him anyway.
I waited there, trying to calm myself.
Trying to turn off the anger and return to just Gale. It was harder than I thought it would be. But finally, I found the will to begin walking back to the car, where Elling was waiting. Meaning Vaughan had gone to handle Sabina.
Sitting in the back seat in absolute silence for the short drive back, I wondered if this was one of the reasons we had so many secret tunnels on our estates. When I was a kid, I thought they led to secret treasures. Now, as an adult, it was clear to me that they had importance, but for not any good reason. Either we used it to escape, or we used it to have meetings we didn’t want to have.
“Welcome back, sir.” The footmen of the estate said to me when he opened the door.
“Thank you.” I nodded, stepping up and staring at the centuries-old gray castle. Our family castle flag was blowing in the wind.
“It’s still a good enough day for a hunt, sir,” he said to me.
“Maybe next time. We have to be up early in the morning,” I said to him before stepping aside, glancing around the stairs. “Do you know where the queen is?”
“She took a tour of the grounds, spoke to some of the staff here before retiring to her rooms—ah…no, it seems she may have gone to the piano room,” he said when he began to hear the music that filled the house.
I followed the music, hoping to catch her before she stopped. But the closer I got to her, the heavier the playing began…like she was slamming her hands on the keys, the sound thundering. By the time I got to the door, it had softened again. I didn’t know the song she was playing, but she was very passionate about it.
Leaning on the door frame, I watched her as she sat at the black piano by the windows, alone. Her face was emotionless…not at all how she was during her normal playing. But nevertheless, when the song came to an end, I lifted my hands and began to clap.
She looked up at me, and for the first time, her stare looked void of anything. Her eyes weren’t shining, she wasn’t smiling, she sat there with her hands upon the keys nearly lifelessly. Without a word to me, she focused her gaze back on the keys.
“Are you all right?” I frowned, stepping farther into the room. But she didn’t answer. So again, I asked, “Odette? Are you ignoring me? Or am I having a bad dream?”
It was my attempt at a joke, but the way she looked at me, one would think I had spat in her hair. It threw me off when she looked like that.
“How was Sabina?” she asked gently. The moment she said it, I wanted to groan. But I at least knew what her attitude was about.
“How did you find out?” I asked, reaching to touch her, but she smacked my hand away.
“Does it matter how I found out? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it’s not important—”
She slammed her hands down before balling them into fists. “You fly your ex-girlfriend out to secretly meet you during our trip and say nothing about it despite that I asked you twice! Once on the train, I asked you what you all had discussed then right before you left. If it were nothing important, why couldn’t it wait, and why couldn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to upset you—”
“Congrats! You failed. I am upset! Very upset! And I can’t scream because everyone here is listening. Everyone is watching!” she sneered, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.
“Odette, I swear it was nothing like you are thinking. I called her here to find out why she was doing it and to warn her—”
“I don’t care!” She stood up, facing me. “I don’t care what you said to her. I care that you went at all.”
“How am I to stop her if I—”
“Did seeing her stop her? What made you think she’s just going to agree? She wanted to see you. Prove you cared enough to see her. You gave her what she wanted. Your attention. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you lied to me in the process.”
“I wasn’t trying to lie to you!”
“Not telling the truth is just the same as lying!”
“So now if I don’t tell you everything that happens, I am lying to you? Do I have to inform you what happens when I speak to the prime minister, too?”
“That’s not the same!” she hollered back at me.
