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Jay poured a glass of fizz and handed it to me, then poured one for himself. We clinked out drinks together and both took a sip. The bubbles went up my nose, clear, tart liquid over my tongue. I would soon start to relax.
“How’s life in the Cornell house then?” Jay asked.
I shrugged. “Awkward, weird.”
“Is he treating you right?”
Automatically, my hand went to cover my opposite wrist. The red ring had faded and was barely noticeable, but I still felt the force of his fingers wrapping around my skin.
“As well as can be expected.”
Jay took a sip of his drink. “Word on the street is that someone screwed over the Cornells last night.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know exactly. Something to do with a drop-off that went wrong. One of their contacts had his face smashed in.”
“Jesus.” I remembered the mood Tam had been in when he’d come home in the early hours. That must have been what he was dealing with. No wonder he was in a bad mood. I thought of something. “We didn’t have anything to do with it, did we?”
“Are you kidding? As much as I’d like to fuck over the Cornells, Dad would kill me if I tried anything. He thinks we need them. Why else would he ask you to marry someone as old as Tam Cornell?”
“He’s not really that old,” I said. “He’s only in his thirties. It’s hardly geriatric.”
Jay snorted. “Seems old to me.”
“That’s ’cause you’re not even twenty yet.”
“It’s not far away. Only a couple of months, and then I’ll nearly be as old as you.”
I sighed. “At least you know you’re not going to get married off like we still live in the Regency period.”
Jay regarded me blankly.
“The eighteen hundreds,” I filled in for him.
“Oh, right. No, he’s not going to do that. Dad has some crazy idea that I’m going to fill his shoes when he’s no longer around.”
“Aren’t you? Isn’t that the whole point in all of this?”
Jay sighed and dragged his hand through his hair. “Like you, I probably won’t be given much of a choice. I don’t want to be stuck in London my whole life, though. Haven’t you ever wanted to do something different, just break free from what it means to be a Wynter and just go and be yourself? I’d love to do a gap year and head off to Southeast Asia backpacking and go under a different name so nobody had any idea who I was.”
Jayden wasn’t as free as I’d thought. We both had our father’s expectations weighing down on us.
“You might still be able to do that,” I said.
Jay rolled his eyes. “Yeah, fat chance. Dad would send his fucking bodyguards to stalk me the whole time.”
I grimaced. “You’re probably right.”
There was another thing that came into play as well. We both lived off Wynter money, and neither of us had worked outside of our family business. If we were to attempt to get a regular job, whoever was doing the employing would most likely be forced into it with a gun to their head. It felt as though doing anything free of who we were was impossible.
Jay switched the subject. “Tam Cornell is a hard arse, but I feel so sorry for the poor bastard, seeing his brother killed like that.”
“I couldn’t imagine if the same thing happened to you.” Tears filled my eyes at the thought, and typical of Jay, he punched me in the arm.
“It’s not going to happen to me. I have no intention of getting married for one.”
I swiped away at the tears. “You’re a total twat sometimes.”
