Page 125 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

Someone cleared their throat behind Archer, and when I looked past him, I was greeted by a man who was the spitting image of the boy in front of me. He was older, though. His face was hard, and he didn’t look amused in the slightest, while the woman who must be Archer’s mother looked rather surprised.

“Mum, Dad, this is Dorothee. She’s Archer’s friend. Isn’t she pretty?” Elsie could talk a lot at a very concerning speed. She seemed like the total opposite of her brother.

Archer’s mother smiled at me, which looked like it took a slight bit of effort. “Very pretty, indeed.” She held out her hand, and I took it. “I’m Bridget Kingstone. It’s lovely to meet you, Dorothee.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too, Mrs Kingstone.”

She laughed softly, “Oh, please, any friends of my son can call me Bridget.”

I let go of her hand, expecting to take his father’s next, but he made no effort to hold his out or take mine. “Is footwear old-fashioned these days, or what’s the reason behind attending a ball barefoot?” He asked instead.

Looking at Elsie standing beside her father, who gave me a pleading look, and down at my bare feet, I thought about a reasonable lie when suddenly I was reminded that I was still holding Elsie’s broken shoes in the hand that was hidden by Archer.

I held them out to him and showed the heel that hung loose on the delicate shoe. “It’s such a shame I’m so clumsy. I was just about to find my room and return with some new shoes when Istumbled upon your daughter, who so kindly tried to help me fix my shoe. Sadly, I’m afraid, no fixing could save them now.”

Father Kingstone eyed his daughter’s shoes in my hand, and I prayed he didn’t notice that it was Elsie who came to the ball in these exact shoes since the ones I gave her and these looked really similar.

“My daughter’s too kind. A woman should be able to walk properly in such footwear by your age. Clumsiness is only an excuse for failure, but I’m not your father, so who am I to judge.” Now I know why Elsie’s eyes had filled with tears when she kneeled on the floor with her broken shoe.

I gave him a sugar-sweet smile. “And I’m gladly not your daughter, so who am I to feel judged,” I repeated his words to him, and from the scowl on his face, I assumed he didn’t expect nor like that.

Perhaps it was the wrong thing to say. I intended to spend the rest of my life with their son; making them dislike me won’t do us any favours. But at the same time, his father was insulting me in the first place, and I wouldn’t let some old man I didn’t know run his mouth about me. Not when I knew he would have probably lashed out worse if it was his daughter walking up to him barefoot.

Archer’s mother muffled a polite laugh, “You remind me of his friend Naomi. May I ask how you two met?”

Yeah, I’m sure that Naomi wouldn’t let Father Kingstone talk badly about her either.

“Dorothee is Mai’s roommate and transferred at the beginning of October of last year. She knew no one here, and we invited her to spend some time with us. Who would have guessed that she’d be the missing piece in our circle?” Archer answered his mother, taking a step away from me. I turned my head in Kane’s direction, feeling his eyes burning into us. It was better for tonight.

“How lovely,” Bridget looked between me and her son, almost as if she were searching for something to let her know we were more than friends. Elsie certainly sounded like her mother hoped for Archer to find some sort of significant other. “What was your surname, love?”

“De Loughrey,” I answered, silently pleading with the stars for his parents to not have a personal hatred against my mother.

“The De Loughrey’s and Kingstone’s stand under a bad star, girl. I hope you haven’t made up some delusional scenario about you and my son,” his father added to the conversation, causing his wife to inspect the bottom of her glass of liquor.

“The De Loughrey’s are an honourable family, though,” Bridget told her husband, looking from him to me. “You’re Cordelia’s daughter, right, love?”

I nodded, making her eyes light up. “Isn’t that lovely, Griffin?”

She’s apparently very fond of the word lovely.

Archer’s father Griffin cleared his throat. “My uncle lost his life because he loved a De Loughrey. We wouldn’t want that happening to our dear son, would we, Bridget?”

She narrowed her gaze, “Of course not, love. But Dorothee seems like such a lovely girl, she could do our Archer good, it’s a mother’s intuition.”

I swallowed hard, feeling uncomfortable with his parents discussing us as if we weren’t really here, and the worst part was that Archer didn’t say a single thing. He just let them.

“Archer is promised to alovelygirl already. While I respect the De Loughrey Dynasty, I wouldn’t want my heir to waste his position on someone that’ll bring us no advantage.” My heart beat wildly in my chest at Griffin’s words.

Promised…?

My gaze searched for Archer’s, but he didn’t look at me.

Why wouldn’t he look at me?

Why didn’t he look surprised?

Why wasn’t he saying anything?

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