Page 44 of Lord of the Hollow Court
“Good.” His body moved closer until there was no longer mist between them, until his lips were at her jaw, below her ear, beneath her hairline—oh, and down her neck. She’d loved when he did that before. “Because I have so much more to teach you,” he added, voice low and rough and masculine, and somehow also gentle—soft as his lips upon her skin.
I’m the happiest woman in the world,Katty thought.
In that moment, she was sure that nothing—not her parents, not her mother’s harsh words, not the easy life of Katrina de Vries she’d envied for so long—could change the way she felt right now. Nothing would come between her and this man. And as he arched over her, mouth tracing every line of her body, lower and lower until she gasped with surprise, nothing did.
Chapter Twenty
Fae Dancing
The scarlet leaves of the woods were dark as pitch when Katty stumbled out with Braam, drunk with bliss and newly awakened from a doze. A pair of cherubic fae children waited by the colonnade of Hollow Hall—one quite literally cherubic, in that his wings resembled that of a white bird.
“They’re coming!” she shouted, batting her wings until her bare feet skimmed the tile. “The Lord and his Lady are about to arrive!”
The other, wingless child stood, round face beaming.
By the time they’d reached the threshold, Rineke and Bibi were waiting for them, red-faced, while Misman pressed coins into the palms of both the children. He winked at Katty as she entered, already reaching for Adrianus’s cloak. Rineke stepped forward for Katty’s mantle, which was speckled with loam. As she unfastened the silver shield on the clasp, Rineke leaned close.
“Did you have a good ceremony?” Rineke asked, barely containing a laugh.
Immediately, Katty went rigid. “It was fine.”
A guffaw slipped through Rineke’s lips, the air from which blew directly into Katty’s face. “Good thing you scrub floors better than you lie,” Rineke teased.
Katty lifted her chin. “I don’t have to do that anymore.”
There was a note of warning in her voice—one which Rineke registered with furrowed brows, then quickly shrugged off. The last thing Katty wanted was to be thought of as a servant right now, on her first night as a Court’s Lady. She needed to look the part, to have everyone believe it—not this reminder of how she’d begun her tenure here at Hollow Hall. And though Lord Braam had proposed to her over a sponge and a bucket of sudsy water, painful insecurity coiled inside Katty as she wondered whether he’d heard their exchange.
“You never do know, with a geas,” Rineke said. “At least I’ll have my room back to myself. No more holding your hand across the parapet.”
Katty remained wooden, her eyes burning with the same humiliation that crept up her neck in a telltale crimson flush. Rineke’s eyes widened when she saw it.
“I’m just teasing!” The faerie girl shoved her lightly. “Doesn’t anyone ever tease you?”
Katty’s face contorted, caught between a frown and a flickering grief that took her by surprise. “I’m a Lady now. You shouldn’t tease me.”
“Court’s Ladies need to be able to take teasing most of all,” Rineke replied, narrowing her eyes. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.” But Katty felt it. Her entire body had tightened like a spring.
Rineke rolled her eyes. “Brides,” she said, nudging Bibi.
Bibi fluttered behind Katty, picking grass and leaf debris from Katty’s dress and hair before they proceeded. Next to them, Misman did the same for Lord Braam.
“Don’t take it personal, milady,” Bibi whispered. “Rineke was a seamstress before she took up a lower position here at the court. She saw all manner of fussy and foul brides.”
Katty shifted uneasily. She hadn’t known that about Rineke—hadn’t thought of her as working anywhere but at Hollow Hall. “I’m not fussy or foul,” Katty said, “am I?”
Bibi tittered nervously. “Sometimes, milady.”
Stomach tightening, Katty took Lord Braam’s proffered arm and led the bridal party out of the foyer. Katty and Bibi had been so good to her. Was she really so awful to them?
The weight of Katty’s new position fell around her all at once. If she couldn’t be kind to those who helped her when she was nothing—whom she’d begun to count as friends as they scrubbed floors and walls and gathered debris together, combing out each other’s hair when the day ended, plaster dust or worse woven into it rather than ribbons—if Katty could not do that, how would she ever care for an entire Court? And how big was Lord Braam’s realm anyway?
It struck Katty again that they’d been too hasty. All the goodness of their time together in the Grove crumbled and slipped through her fingers. She scrambled for just a touch of that joy as the roar of the party reached her ears. The moment they appeared in the doorway, a horned fae bellowed to announce their presence, and the noise became deafening.
You can’t do this. You wouldn’t know how.There were so many people here. How many more fae did Braam rule over? How would Katty handle so many people in this ballroom? Did they know she’d been stripping slime from the pillars just yesterday? Could they smell it on her?You aren’t fit to be their lady.
Katty’s limbs went numb. Her hair wasn’t right—her dress wasn’t straight enough, hinting at what they’d just done. She hadn’t seen her face in a mirror, and was sure it was wrong somehow. She was going to embarrass herself. Everyone would whisper about her—even if she never heard it, they’d say unkind things surely enough. Sharp eyes were always watching, which is why she needed to be perfect. And she wasn’t.You should’ve remained a maid. You don’t know what you’re doing. You never will.
