Page 61 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Harlan tensed, unsure of what to expect. When he’d been that young, he’d regularly received a beating for any perceived mischievous behavior. Instead, Ezekiel put a hand on his son’s raucous curls and mussed them. “I know you want to keep playing, but it’s important that young men greet guests upon their entrance to a room. I expect you to be courteous to anyone who walks into this parlor no matter how you might feel about the situation.” He squatted next to the boy. “Now, please introduce yourself properly to our guest.”
The boy’s nostrils flared, but with an elbow from his twin, he grabbed Harlan’s hand and muttered. “Sullivan.”
“Thank you,” Ezekiel said as he rose. He held his sons with a firm gaze for a moment longer before smiling at someone else who’d just entered the room behind Harlan. “Now, you go on and get to bed, you wild sprogs.”
Both groaned, but at a look from their father, they relented and filed out the door with someone Harlan assumed to be their nanny. Ezekiel turned back to him, grabbing his shoulder once more and leading him to the two women.
“Sorry about that. Manners are something we’ve yet to master, but I was even more of a terror when I was that age, if you can believe it.”
“No matter,” Harlan gave him a small smile. “I’ve been greeted with much worse.”
The twinkle in his friend’s eye told him he recalled one of the patients who’d spat in Harlan’s face when he’d attempted totriage him after one particularly nasty skirmish a few months back.
The blond woman stood and held out her hand as Ezekiel said, “This is my wife, Lady Rose. Rose, this is Lieutenant Colonel Harlan Shackley.”
Harlan gave the woman a soft peck on her hand and let it drop. “A pleasure, my lady.”
Ezekiel gestured to the other woman in the chair, the one he’d been arguing with upon their arrival. She had a book in her lap and hadn’t bothered to look up at all during the previous commotion.
“And this is my sister, Lady Celeste—” He sighed. “Lessie, look, I know you’re mad at me, but you don’t have to pull out the book.”
“I’m unsure of what you’re referring to,” the woman replied as she turned the page with an air of superiority only a queen could hope to achieve. “If you believe me so incapable of running the estate myself, then of course, I could not possibly possess the skills to host a dinner party, let alone greet a guest.”
Ezekiel’s charming demeanor melted at last. He retrieved his drink and took a measured sip before whispering harshly to his sister.
Rose hid a smile behind her hand as she nodded to the servant in the corner of the room. “May we offer you a drink, Master Shackley?”
Harlan cleared his throat. “Brandy will be fine.”
“Of course,” she said, gesturing to the highbacked wing chair beside her. “Please, do have a seat. I have been eager to meet you after hearing so much about you from Ezekiel.”
Harlan took the round glass from the manservant with a small nod of thanks. He took a sip before responding, “I don’t know if I would trust everything he says about me.”
He hadn’t meant it as a joke necessarily, but Rose’s laugh rang like a bell. Some of the tension in his shoulders eased.
“My husband does like to embellish,” she whispered conspiratorially before taking a sip of her martini. “To hear him talk, you’d think we’d invited the Rubikan Queen to dinner tonight.”
“She would have appreciated the invitation, I’m sure.” Harlan said dryly. From what he knew, the woman had recently come into power upon the death of her uncle, who had no children of his own. However, the dowager Queen-Consort had a few children from a previous marriage. Supposedly, the eldest son planned to wage a query in the courts over succession rights.
Whether or not Lady Rose was aware of the political climate, she laughed all the same. “Wouldn’t that be a turn.”
That reaction caught the attention of Ezekiel and the woman—Celeste, he’d put together, though she still had yet to be properly introduced—whose furious whispered argument hushed for a moment as they searched for the source of the interruption. Harlan met the woman’s eyes, and the hand with his brandy glass paused on the way to his lips.
Her large eyes were the color of dusk. He thought they might’ve sparkled like the night sky had she been laughing, but at that moment, her glare could have swallowed the stars. Long, thin fingers played with the chain of a Zuprium locket hanging from her neck. Her face was framed by the same unruly dark curls as her brother, though hers were arranged in the latest fashion, pulled back from her face in a loose knot, a deep blue ribbon tied around it and fluttering to her shoulder. The style only accentuated her high cheekbones. Her rosy lips were pursed, but she’d finally closed the book, which sat on her lap. He couldn’t see the title.
“So you’re the famous Harlan Shackley,” Celeste said. She didn’t bother with his rank or even his title as a gentleman ofthe realm. She simply raised a dark eyebrow and turned away, cracking her book back open. “Absolutely not.”
Harlan’s face flushed, but whether it was embarrassment or the prelude to losing his temper, he didn’t know. How could she dismiss him so quickly? He ran a hand over his mustache. Aurelia had been wrong. Though he was unsure why he even cared. Marriage toanyonewasn’t in the plan, much less marriage to a shrew. He’d walked in here knowing his friend was playing matchmaker, but to be dismissed within seconds of meeting the woman in question? It was a little insulting.
“Pardon me?” Harlan rested the brandy on his knee.
Ezekiel ran a hand down his face before turning back to his sister. “It’s my duty as your guardian to see you taken care of, yet you are bent on running off any potential suitor. Why?”
“I’m twenty-seven. I need no guardian.”
“Father wished to see you settled.”
“Father’s wishes are no longer relevant, are they?” The woman’s nostrils flared, but she turned her waspish glare back to Harlan once her brother turned away, draining his glass of alcohol, all illusions of propriety apparently dismissed. “Let me ask you, Harlan Shackley. Would you allow your unwed sister to manage the estate you do not have any plans on ever returning to? Seeing as she is both willing and capable and has requested to do so repeatedly over the past five years?
