AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I laughed, pitying my friend. “Beatrice doesn’t hate.”
“Hate. Her last words to me were ‘I hate you’,” he growled. “And dammit, what were you talking about with her?”
“When?”
“Outside, before you went off to punch up half the village.”
“Just saying hello. Why? Are you jealous, m’dear?” I smirked at his stormy countenance. His scent spiked. He was… aroused? “You—”
“Yes,” he growled. “I am on the back foot with her, with you…”
“My lord and Colonel! I am so excited for this dinner. Fish! Orley agreed to try fish for the first time, and I can’t wait to see how much he loves it.”
We sat our hostess and found our own places. I looked further down the table to Beatrice, who sat glaring at me. I did not look away. Let her see my swollen eye and my split lip. I wished to be closer, to allow my refined accent to slip and call her my bonnie lassie as I had when we’d known each other better.
“How is this a meal?” Mrs Hartwell glared at the plate put before her. I did not blame her. Greens and some poached white fish. And no wine at table.
“Oh, Mama, fear not. You shall love everything Cook makes. I promise I hardly miss meat.”
To my right, Mrs Markham muttered under her breath that they’d had a delicious rabbit pie for luncheon. I chuckled.
Viola heard the sound and turned her attention towards me.
“Now, tell us a story, Colonel.” Viola practically bounced in her chair. “Something heroic.”
A blindman would have seen her look towards Beatrice, who was maintaining a stony silence when she should have been making conversation with her mother.
“Heroic, you say?” I cast my mind about for some tale that might fit her expectations. “I remember a fellow officer calling me out. Threatened to shoot me in the officer’s mess.”
“What was the offence?”
“I dared to call his boot maker a heel for swindling him.”
“Surely no alpha would find that so offensive. Merely a joke…”
“Oh, the general was never in a good mood before noon.”
“The general? Which general?” Pax asked.
Beside him, Beatrice snorted. “You’ve a strange notion of heroic, Colonel.”
“Aye. Then again, heroism isn’t the sole helpmate of the battlefield. She spreads her love about. But someone needed to tell him about the boots.”
The silence didn’t last long as the table began to laugh—even Trix had her lips pressed together in an attempt not to smile. Only the stoney faced Mrs Hartwell found no humour in the story.
I turned my attention back to the fish, which was indeed quite excellent.
Beatrice
“Come ladies!”Viola stood up, waving to me and Mrs Markham. “Omegas only.”
She waggled her eyebrows at the alphas, and Orley groaned.
I hastened to my sister’s side and slipped her arm through mine as we made our way out of the dining room. “Explain that sister. When have you ever wanted to leave the table? To separate dynamics like that?”
“Bea. This might be the only opportunity I have to question you about Paxton and Fordom!” She smirked as if the alphas couldn’t hear us. My cheeks grew hot and the feeling of eyes hard on my back had me focusing all my energy on not turning around and glaring at the two alphas who were the bane of my existence. Nay, not two. All of them. Acting aloof and not telling us to sit and join them in drinking their port.
“Sit.” Mrs Markham pointed to the chaise by the fire. Knowing I’d be unable to avoid this conversation, I sat and slumped back, spreading my legs open like a man, and prepared to hate what was about to take place.
