Page 151 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

Because we are standing in front of Vandermore Manor, with its vibrant green lawn and the shrubs trimmed into a rearing stallion, and every familiar door and window.

I turn in confusion to Rahk. “What are we doing here? Are we meeting with Agatha?”

If we are, I didnotmentally prepare myself. What a nasty surprise that would be!

“She isn’t here,” Rahk replies evenly as he marches toward the door.

I keep pace with him. “Is she out calling? Are we here to see Bridget and Edith? Bridget often calls on her friends in the morning, so it will probably only be Edith.”

“None of them are here.”

I stop in front of the door. Charles hurries to open it, and I barely remember to send him a warm smile in my confusion. “Then why? I don’t understand.”

“We are here,” Rahk announces as we cross the threshold, “because this is your house now.”

My feet root to the spot. My mind rejects every attempt at understanding this statement.

“It’s part of your inheritance.”

I turn incredulous eyes up at him as realization dawns. “Are you saying that you kicked Agatha, Bridget, and Edith out of this house?”

He is standing with his legs braced wide, arms crossed over his chest, surveying the parlor where my identity was discovered. “It wasn’t their house.”

A loud, unladylike chortle bursts from my throat. I stare at this man—this fae—in utter astonishment. “You—” Nothing coherent emerges from my mouth. I shake my head and try again. “But—but I don’t need this house! I’m living with you.”

“They didn’t need it either,” he replies. “They had more than enough money from your bride price to purchase their own living.”

I should feel terrible. I should insist that the money Rahk gave them should be put toward Bridget and Edith’s dowries. Instead, I start laughing and I cannot stop. Tears leak from my eyes as I whack his arm soundly. “You are utterly wicked!”

He cocks one eyebrow at me. “Iama Nothril prince.”

“When did you do this?” I demand, going to Agatha’s favorite sitting room. Everything is in its place. Even the harpsichord Edith abused so soundly sits in its corner. The sheet music, however, is all gone.

“A week ago.” He goes to the mantel and drags his finger along the wood. His nose wrinkles slightly, and I don’t know if it’s because of the dust that comes away on his fingers, or whatever his keen fae nose smells. “Your stepmother was shocked.”

“Am I a terrible person for wishing I had seen that?” I reply, wandering to the next room.

“No.”

I come to the dining room where I ate so many meals with my stepfamily. Something about it pricks my heart, leaving a pulsing ache behind. I sigh and close the door, continuing down the hallway toward the spiral staircase to the second floor. “Sometimes I don’t know what to think of them. They were never kind enough for me to be glad for their family joining mine. They were also never cruel enough for me to truly hate them.”

“They sold Bartholomew,” Rahk reminds me. “On purpose. Knowing it would hurt you.”

“That’s just what it seems like. Maybe she didn’t mean—”

“I got her to admit it. When we discussed the house. Lady Duxbury Vandermore knew exactly what she was doing.”

That hits me harder than I thought it would. I sit down on the stairs. My chest burns.

Rahk leans against the railing. “She threatened to beat you. She tried to break your mother’s glass slippers. She tried to trick you into a marriage with her son. You’re allowed to hate her.”

“Those things were cruel,” I admit. “But growing up, when I was a child, she didn’t treat me like that. There were even some years that Edith and Bridget and I enjoyed spending time together. Not as sisters, perhaps, but as friends. Sometimes I think that my fortune is what ruined everything. If I had been like them, if Father had split the fortune among all of us, maybe we could have been a family together.”

Rahk’s mouth thins. “Your fortune did not create your stepmother’s greed. It only brought it into the light.”

“But it makes me feel like a fraud! An imposter! I did nothing to deserve this fortune.” I gesture at the house. “I don’t need two houses! Shall I live here by myself while you stay at your estate?”

“If that is what you desire.”

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