Page 126 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

“Fine,” I say. “But hurry!”

We take breakfast outside on the patio, sitting on the steps that lead into the manicured lawn, me with a plate in my lap and Mary with her mending work.

“You’re going to have to pretendyoudiscovered this and that you’re telling me it because I can’t have anyone knowing that I snuck into Agatha’s study last night.”

“Kat!” Mary hisses. “You didwhat?”

“Never mind that. The important thing is—”

“Katherine Vandermore, you are going to get yourself in such trouble one of these days! And if it’s with the fae—”

“Justlisten, alright? You can flog me later. But right now, let me tell you what I found.”

I go on to explain the letters, and I pull the one I stole from my pocket and slide it to her. She arranges her mending mostly on top of the note so she can read it. Her jaw clenches as she reads, her cheeks turning the color of a ripened summer tomato.

“If I get my hands on any of those women, or this worthless Boreham fellow, I will make them wish they’d never been born,” Mary seethes. She turns to me and her expression softens at once. “Oh Kat, I’m so sorry.”

I set down my plate and draw my knees up to my chest. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine! This is a serious deception! If you could prove it, they could be ostracized from society.”

“That isn’t even the worst part!” I fling my legs back down the steps, stretching them out as I gesture with my hands. “You see it, don’t you? She wanted to claim my fortunetwice over! Once, by deceiving me and forcing me into a marriage with her secret son—and then again by deceiving Rahk into marrying Bridget and paying that ungodly sum in a bride price! And she succeeded on one of those counts!”

“Kat,” Mary hisses suddenly.

I turn around to see Rahk standing next to the door, his arms crossed over his chest, and at first I think he’s too far away to have heard us, despite the two furrows between his eyes and his intense study of me. Then I remember fae hearing and bite the inside of my cheek.

“Mary,” says Rahk, pushing off the wall and striding toward us. “Kindly clear Lady Katherine’s dishes to the kitchen.”

“At once, Master.” She gathers up the mending but manages to slip the letter back to me as she collects my dishes on their tray and leaves me alone in the sunshine.

With Rahk.

I cast one last forlorn glance after her disappearing form.

Rahk lets out a sigh as he sits on the step next to me, where Mary was a moment ago. His long legs stretch out in front of him, his hands clasped together before he turns his black-eyed scrutiny upon me once more. “Explain to me what you were just discussing with Mary.”

My mouth goes dry. I sit there awkwardly, not knowing what to say. “How much did you hear?” I finally ask, so I can know how many lies I am obligated to tell.

“I came out as you were exclaiming about someone wanting your fortune. I assume you speak of your stepmother. Lady Duxbury Vandermore.”

I hand him the condemning letter. “Mary found this last night and brought it to me. Lord Malcolm Boreham was the man Agatha was determined to force me to wed.”

He reads the letter quietly and gives no indication of his thoughts as Mary did. Once he’s finished, he returns it to me. “What was the manner of her attempt at forcing you into this marriage?”

I rip at the grass growing between the crevices of bricked stairs. “She sold my horse.”

“A horse that meant something to you?”

“My father gave me that horse when he was still alive.” Already, a lump grows in my throat.Curse it all. I’m not going to let myself cry in front of Rahk. Especially not now that we’remarried. I pull myself together, only to find that my voice still trembles. “She and I grew up together. She’s an old thing now, and the morning after a ball, while I was still asleep, she ordered our manservant to sell her. I found out several hours later after it was too late. Agatha promised that an effort would be made to recover the horse . . . but onlyifI married Lord Boreham. I’m not even sure she’s still alive at this point. She’s old enough that most people wouldn’t want to buy such a horse.”

The typical panic when I think of Bartholomew clenches my lungs tight, making it hard to breathe. I shove it away and shift my thoughts.

“Agatha also found my mother’s wedding slippers. They’re very unusual, made of glass, and the most exquisite glasswork you’ve ever seen. When she saw that I wanted them back, she threatened to sell them if I didn’t accept the proposal.”

“These slippers meant a great deal to you.”

I fidget with the lowest button on my shirt. “Yes. Mary managed to get them back to me, but not before . . .” I trail off, my mind returning to that moment when Rahk left, and Agatha tried to destroy the slippers. He looks at me expectantly, so I swallow and continue. “She was furious that I’d run away. She tried to destroy them.”

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