Page 109 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

I could vomit.

“Lord Rahk, may I present Lady Vandermore,” says Agatha.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Rahk straightens and releases Bridget’s hand.

“Likewise,” says Bridget.

“Please, be seated and make yourself comfortable.” Agatha gestures to the bench drawn up near the empty fireplace. “I’ve rung for tea, so you must stay as we discuss the terms of the marriage.”

Rahk clears his throat. “I do not intend to stay long. I came to—”

“But you must stay! Sit at once. We have much to discuss that cannot be delayed.”

Rahk subtly glances my way in irritation, and either his glance is so short or my playacting at not being utterly panicked is excellent, because he doesn’t give a second glance of concern at my expression. He sits, hiding his annoyance under a silent, blank mask.

I hang against the back of the room where I desperately pray neither Bridget nor Agatha notices me. My hands and feet have turned ice cold.

“I’ve drawn up the papers for the bride price,” says Agatha as Mary enters with a tea tray. She must have heard the news that I am here, for she does not look at me a single time but focuses on pouring each cup of tea with grace and efficiency.

Meanwhile, it takes everything inside me not to gape in shock.Bride price?We don’t do bride prices—we have dowries. The husbands get paid to marry us, not the other way around. There hasn’t been a custom of bride price in this kingdom for hundreds of years.

I stare, utterly dumbfounded. They’re trying to hoodwink Rahk because he does not know our customs. They’re trying to benefit from my fortune, which gave me influence, and thus made me a prize for Rahk—and then they won’t give him any. They will steal his money in return.

I cannot even listen to the conversation as it plays out before me. Do they intend to have Bridget marry him under the guise of my name?

Suddenly, something hits me with such clarity, my knees almost buckle.

Somehow—in a way I cannot know or understand—my marrying Lord Boreham came as a benefit to my stepfamily. There’s no other reason Agatha would work so hard to make that marriage come about. Perhaps there is an agreement that Lord Boreham would pay some of my fortune to them if they persuaded me to marry him before my twenty-first birthday. And if that is the case . . .

Agatha is trying to kill two birds with one stone. She is trying to farm my fortune from me by Lord Boreham’s payment, and by fooling Rahk into paying a bride price.

I cannot let her do this.

Iwill notlet her do this.

“As you can see, this is a very reasonable bride price for a woman of such standing as my stepdaughter.” Agatha passes the papers to Rahk, who shows not a shred of emotion on his placid face.

He takes the papers and reads them. “Twelve thousand crowns?”

My jaw falls open. I shove off the wall and slip out of the room. I hear the shift in Rahk’s seat as he glances at me, but he does not stop me as I leave. Heart pounding, I rush out to the carriage, where I pace for the count of thirty, trying to bide enough time to fool my stepfamily.

“Kat!” Mary hisses, her voice cracking as she rushes to meet me. “What are youdoinghere?”

“They’re trying to trick Rahk—Lord Rahk! They’re charging him a bride price! I’m going to go back in one moment and tell Lord Rahk that a missive came with urgent business. Once we are gone, I will explain the situation to him.”

“Explainwhatsituation?” Mary demands, a single strand of red hair standing out of place. “The situation about your identity? The situation that you are a woman? The situation that you are—”

The Ivy Mask.

“No, just that they’re trying to fool him because he doesn’t know any better.”

Mary clicks her tongue, a sound of disapproval at the back of her throat. “You’ve got to be careful. This isyour lifeon the line. So what if Agatha tricks the fae out of a significant portion of his wealth?”

I grind my teeth. I cannot explain this to her. So I only grab her hand and squeeze. “I’ll be careful.”

Then I run back into the house, my leg throbbing, and I don’t even have to pretend to be breathless when I barge into the parlor. I drop to my knee beside Rahk’s bench. His attention swivels to me at once.

“What is it?” he asks.

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