Page 40 of Forbidden Noble
Clara was the exact opposite. “My doors are open. I miss having my friend around.”
Rossie said fast, “I’ll text when I figure out how soon I can be there.”
Translation: Rossie needed to grab her husband and the car keys. Clara already felt her spirits lift. “Great.”
“Clara?” Rossie sounded like she'd stopped whatever she was doing.
Oh no. She knew. Clara’s skin had goosebumps as she asked, “Yeah?”
“What’s wrong?”
Her mind raced to cover and put off answering. “How do…” But her friend knew her. Her shoulders slumped. “Since coming here, life isn’t what I expected.”
Rossie asked, “What were you thinking it would be?”
Good question. She recalled how she'd tried to get Rossie to slow down in her rush to marry and fall in love with a total stranger. But of course life worked out for Rossie as it always did.
That wasn’t true for Clara, even if she’d thought her days of being unfortunate were over. She paced the room. “I like that there are things for me to do around here so I won’t be useless, but I’ve never been very good at family drama stuff.”
“That’s because your grandmother was awful.”
Even the ends of her hair felt super sensitive right now. Clara backed up to the wall and leaned back. “She wasn’t… she didn’t like me but she wasn’t awful. She let me stay with her. She just never cared.”
Rossie made a dismissive sound and followed it with, “Look, if someone went after me, you'd have my back, right?”
“Yes, of course,” Clara answered--no one would hurt her friend on her watch.
Rossie was the only one who’d ever even tried to look out for her, like when she'd tried to give her that successful wedding business she’d built a few weeks ago.
“Then treat Astorre and his family the same. You're his wife now and a good person. Don’t stress about drama because you have a heart that’s worth its weight in gold. Now tell me specifics, like what happened?”
Rossie always figured everything out. Clara trusted her and honestly she was the one with her head on straight right now. Clara glanced behind her like she’d be caught gossiping, which was silly. “Astorre’s sister had a baby.”
“Why is that bad?”
Her cheeks heated. If she ever had a baby she wouldn't want to be judged either so she said, “It’s not. It’s just she didn’t tell either the father of the child, or her brother, about her daughter.”
Rossie observed, “That must have been hard on Astorre. Do you need anything?”
How to reach her husband, she thought, but asking seemed wrong. She shrugged. “No, I just wish I knew what to do.”
“Listen to your heart,” Rossie said. “And don’t think no one cares because of your Grandmother May. She was wrong to ignore you.”
Yes. Right as always but that was why people trusted her implicitly. Rossie was in touch with her feelings in a way Clara was not. Tension stung her neck. “Thank you. See you soon, okay?”
Rossie said, “Absolutely. Bye.”
She hung up and paced the bedroom. Rossie had been right about listening to her heart, probably, but that only worked if her adrenaline wasn’t in the way. She needed to be calm.
She rubbed the goosebumps on her arm, wondering what she’d done to Astorre for him to pull away.
Why did her heart, mind, and body seem so out of whack?
The door opened and she stopped moving--cold sweat rose on her back. She wasn't ready to argue or fight. She wasn’t ready to lose him. She perked up anyhow as Astorre’s arm and then his handsome face appeared. “Clara, there you are.”
But he'd sent her away because he didn't want to see her. Her insides trembled but she hoped outside she was calm. “Where else would I go? I don’t know the castle very well yet and I wanted to give you space.”
He closed the door behind him. “You shouldn’t lock yourself away. It’s better to learn for yourself all the nooks and crannies of the old castle.”
