Page 43 of The Fiancée Farce
Gemma nodded at their outfits, all black save for Brooks, who wore an emerald-green dinner jacket with what looked like diamond cuff links. “You’re all dressed in your funerary finest, so I figured someone must’ve kicked the bucket.”
Teddy coughed, a wasted effort to disguise his snort of laughter.
Bitsie looked like she’d bitten into a bad clam. “I hardly find that joke appropriate, given your grandfather’s recent passing.Technically, we’re all still in our mourning period.”
Mourning period?Gemma rolled her eyes. If this were the nineteenth century, maybe. “Tansy, this is my aunt Bitsie, my uncles Sterling and Brooks, and my father, Victor. Everyone, this is my fiancée, Tansy. And you’ve already met my friends.”
“Gemma,” Victor said, voice full of censure, ignoring Tansy entirely. “You’ve forgotten your cousin.”
Tucker leered. “Tansy’s already had the pleasure.”
Except for the soft pink blush spreading across her face and the slight tremble in her hand as she tucked her hair behind her ear, Tansy didn’t react. Gemma only noticed because she was studying her so closely. Good for her, not giving Tucker the satisfaction of seeing her so much as flinch.Fucker.
“Ow.” Tucker jerked, jumping slightly and shaking out one leg as he turned to glare at Madison. “What was that for?”
“Sorry,” Madison said, not sounding sorry in the slightest. “I had a twitch.”
“Ahem.” Bitsie looked between her dog and Gemma pointedly.
“Oh. Right.” Gemma bit the side of her cheek to keep from laughing. “How could I have forgotten? The dog is Prudence.” She looked at Tansy, struggling to keep a straight face. “Bitsie breeds bichons frises.”
“I see.” To her credit, Tansy appeared remarkably poised. A little stiff, her smile verging on rictus, but no shaking or signs thatshe was about to bolt from the room or upchuck all over the floor. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
“Is it?” Victor asked.
Tansy’s throat bobbed. “You tell me.”
Victor actually laughed. “Gemma’s told us so little about you. Tell us about yourself, Pansy.”
Pansy.Gemma rolled her eyes and opened her mouth—
“It’s Tansy, actually,” Tansy corrected him softly, beating Gemma to the punch. Good for her.
Victor frowned. “Excuse me?”
“My name.” Tansy straightened, voice gaining strength. “It’s Tansy. Not Pansy.”
“Tansy.” Victor tested her name out like it was foreign in his mouth. “What is that?”
“It’s a weed.” Tansy’s stepsister snickered behind her glass. “You know those yellow plants that grow along the freeway? Those are tansies. And they’re toxic.”
Tansy frowned, lashes beating against her cheek with every rapid blink. Tansy wassweet. Not for the first time, Gemma worried she was maybe a little too sweet. If given the opportunity, Gemma’s family—her father—would chew her up, spit her out, and leave nothing left.
“Your parents named you after a weed?” Victor’s brows furrowed. “Curious.”
How her father managed to make a single word sound so dismissive was an art form, truly. She’d have been impressed had her blood not been boiling.
It was one thing for him to condescend to her; it was another thing entirely for him to condescend to herfiancée.
“I believe Tansy’s stepsister is confusing tansies, orTanacetum vulgare, with tansy ragwort, also known asSenecio jacobaea. Tansieshave been used medicinally and in cooking for centuries,” Gemma said, recalling what she’d gleaned from a fall down a wiki–rabbit hole. “The name meansimmortalityin Greek, and as a flower, they symbolize health and protection.” She turned, staring Victor dead in the eye. “Conversely, in some cultures, presenting someone with a tansy is an unofficial declaration of war.”
A declaration, a threat, a warning. Victor could do with that fact whatever he wanted, interpret Gemma’s words however he saw most fit.
His chin rose, the subtle flare of his nostrils belying his air of practiced indifference.
Gemma smiled at him benignly. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.
“Hello, hello, hello again, everyone!” Tansy’s stepmother came scuttling over. “Tansy! I was beginning to worry you weren’t going to show.”
