Page 91 of Steel Rain

I looked down at my hands, wincing at the callouses. I don’t think I could play a note now.

She led me to a room that was at the end of the hall. The walls were cream and gold. The desks, the four poster bed, and the crown molding was intricately carved with roses and vines, painted white and pink.

“This is your room,” Malinda said.

“It’s a good room to get ready in,” I said, smiling as I ran my fingers over the vanity with a large oval mirror perched in a frame. More roses and thorns were carved on it in a lightly stained wood.

“No, Miss, this isyourroom,” she said with a tilt of her head. “Eoghan had it made years ago after you disappeared. He made you this room, so that you always had a place to go in case you didn’t want to be with your father.” Her hands were clasped in front of her sheath black dress. “Eoghan said he wanted you to always have a space of your own in his home.”

It always bothered me that in a world where everyone scurried around and called Eoghan “Mr. Green”, Malinda was the one who called him by his first name. She said it so often. Almost as if shewantedto say his name. I think she was a little in love with him.

“I also found this,” Malinda went to the bed, to a translucent fabric that had been draped over the pillows. A small, diamond tiara comb was attached to it. “This was in Isla Green’s things. I saw it when I was helping Sibby get ready. I thought you’d like it.”

“I … it’s lovely,” I whispered as my fingers traced the draping fabric. “Where is Sibby?”

Malinda clamped her mouth shut as she took my dress from me.

“You should be getting ready now, Miss,” she said.

Her Irish accent was also strange to me. It was soft, and pleasant. But I sometimes wondered if it was real. She had been born in America, just like me. But she spoke like she had just stepped off the ship from Galway.

Either way, I did get ready. She helped me pin on the veil, and even had some makeup for me. There’s not much I could do with short hair other than to give it a little curl, but with the tiara attached to the veil, I looked the part. As though this day had been planned, and I had painstakingly chosen every item.

If I had a chance to plan my wedding, I think I would have ended up looking just like this. Wearing Isla Green’s veil, and a dress of white lace.

I was admiring myself in the mirror, running my hands down the dress when there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” I said, hoping it was Ajax. God, I wanted him to see like this. I think he’d like it.

But no such luck.

“Sibby doesn’t want to come out of her room,” Eoghan said. “I spoke to her through the door.”

“A little bit of social anxiety,” Dairo came in behind him. “I spoke to herinher room.”

He smirked at his cousin, as Eoghan threw his hands out to his side.

“She let you in?” Eoghan almost seemed offended.

“Yes, she did. I think … she has problems with crowds.”

“She never had that before,” Eoghan’s hands clenched into fists. “What happened?”

“That, I couldn’t pry from her. But she does want to go home after the reception.” Alastair looked at Sinead. “Her bags are packed, and she’s ready for you to come get her. Though, she says she’s a bit scared of your groom.”

“What did he do?” My eyes widened. No one was ever scared of Ajax. No one that wasn’t on his bad side, at least.

“She just doesn’t know the old chap,” Dairo said in that crisp British accent. “I’m sure she’ll be fine, once she learns to trust him.”

The two of them turned to me at the same time. Like the twins from “The Shining”, they were moving as one. It was an eerie thing they sometimes did, and I rationalized that it was because they had grown up together and naturally picked up one another’s tendencies as if they were brothers.

“You look nice,” Eoghan said, almost reluctantly as he finally saw the dress. “Is that my mum’s veil?”

Shit. Was he mad? Did he not want me to wear it?

I looked to Malinda, who looked back at me, a note of fear in her eyes.

“It looks good,” Eoghan casually said, as if the two of us weren’t about to go into an insane panic. “She would have wanted you to wear it.”

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