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And with each new course, I grew increasingly aware that Jack’s attention was fixated on Beatrice. Their eyes would meet and bounce away but each glance was longer. Half way through the meal, clearly conscious of his regard, she scowled at the poached fish before looking up at him. I watched, fascinated by what happened next. He speared a boiled potato and bit into it, which seemed to provoke a laugh but she covered her mouth so swiftly with her napkin I wondered if it was my imagination.
“Shall we?” the duchess stood, a smile gracing her features. She was so unlike her sister. One was direct, unafraid but crafty. The other, the one who belonged to me, played games but in such an unaffected way that she oftentimes found herself backed into a corner—choosing to flee rather than face the consequences for baiting alphas.
With the so-called weaker dynamic and Hero gone, the rest of us once again found ourselves around the table with a bottle of port. Stimpson was about as welcome as a slug on lettuces—but it was Mrs Hartwell who was the odd one out. The previous night she’d wanted to speak to Orley about his holdings and any number of things that cut the rest of us out. Tonight was much the same. Orley, the consummate host, pushed the conversation back into a more general direction only for her to talk politics.
The tension peaked when he refused to engage in a conversation about his thoughts on the Seditious Meetings Act, which limited the number of people who could gather in a single place.
“Ma’am, your interest is clear. Perhaps if you ran for office yourself, you could help shape the legislation?”
Mrs Hartwell looked like she’d been forced to eat a crate of lemons, and after a moment’s contemplation of her glass of port declared she had the headache and would be retiring for the evening. Not one of the remaining alphas acknowledged it, nor did she seem to mind.
“What are your thoughts of Hero?” Stimpson asked when she’d left.
“She is young and is a wealthy heiress.” Orley said with a firm frown. “But young, most of all.”
Stimpson flushed. “I’m aware of that.”
“Oh? And you know how her fortune stands?” Orley pressed. I liked the duke and his easy assumption of alpha guardian to Hero when none could reasonably stand for her.
“I do, Your Grace.”
“Then you should watch yourself, boy, and not sniff around a girl not yet out and not ready to become a wife.”
“I am worthy of Hero! So what if our fortunes are not equal? That should not stand in the way of true love.”
Why his words sounded so false in my ears, I did not know. Perhaps the way he had watched Viola all dinner or how he fingered the fish knife, weighing, twirling it with a dexterity that seemed incongruous to what I knew of him. I suppressed a snarl. I didn’t like how my friends were even giving this man the time of day. He was undeserving of a girl like Hero Markham. More than the Hartwell sisters she reminded me of Veronica and Mary—their same wide eyed trust and clever little minds. How their quiet exteriors had masked an budding independence. My sisters had ascribed to the belief that wheedling for forgiveness was better than asking for permission. And Hero Markham, who meant nothing to me, reminded me of them so vividly it hurt.
Orley rose without ceremony. “Let’s join the ladies. You might like your port, but I’d kill a man for a cup of tea.”
I grabbed Jack’s sleeve before he could follow our host.
“How can you?” I asked him. “Stimpson isn’t to be trusted.”
“What do you have against him except that he jumped down to greet you first? Is it his lack of fortune?”
“What? What does it matter what his fortune is? She’s more than enough for the both of them, and from what was said over dinner it seems like her trustees and guardians wouldn’t let him spend her money. No. I don’t like it. I don’t like that some alpha, one so young, just decided that he was going to marry a beta. It ain’t normal. And that is nothing against the chit. She is certainly beautiful and not without intelligence or charm. But she is not an omega. We both know the power an omega wields. If his first decision on arriving was to greet some stranger rather than care for her? No. I don’t like it. If she were an omega then he would have been carrying her inside himself.”
“Just because he doesn’t act like you…”
“Sirs?”
We turned to where Beatrice stood in the doorway. “Are you coming in for tea or will you continue to hold congress in a dark hall like a pair of knaves?”
“Not now, Trix.” Jack bit out.
“Trix?” I looked at him. I tried to remember if I’d heard him call her that before. Certainly he had never spoken to her in that tone before.
“You’ve no right to that name.” She said stiffly. “If you don’t want your tea,Tod, then I suggest you stop loitering and find something else to amuse.”
“Tod?” I looked at her.
“My lord. You must know that Jack and I are childhood friends. He’s been my alpha, if you will, since I first presented as an omega.” The light from the drawing room caught her smirk. “Thankfully, I’ve shed all alphas and shall continue to do so until I am in my grave.”
In the context, the ferocity of Jack’s growl was remarkable. I felt my own hackles rising in response, ready to call out the alpha for threatening the omega before us. More surprising, though, was her answering omega growl.
Their gazes clashed. They spoke, using the silent and infinite language of long acquaintance. I knew I might begin to learn, but there would never be the same subtlety. I would never have that fluency. It grated. It fascinated. It perplexed me. I wondered why he had not mated her. Why had he chosen another when she so clearly drew him and attracted him near to distraction? Why hadn’t she presented herself to him when she had just admitted to… to what? Calling him her alpha when they’d been young. For that is what she had said.He’s been my alpha, and he had not denied it. They should be mates, yet they had each chosen another. The desire to question them overwhelmed me even while they participated in this silent argument. Their eyes flashed as loudly as if they’d shouted.
“I’ll not have you speak to me like that,” she said at last.
