Page 122 of Bound By Crimson
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Dinner for Two
Something was off. The air, the light—everything felt wrong after what Lyric had seen.
Still reeling from what she’d just witnessed, Lyric stood stiffly at the bottom of the stairs. She was trying to breathe past the lump in her throat, trying to erase the memory of Mrs. Thornwick’s hand on Kai’s face—the way her body had leaned just a little too close, the way her eyes had locked onto his like a woman in love.
Lyric had never felt so invisible. Or so humiliated.
She was still frozen there when Mrs. Thornwick’s voice floated across the hall, rich and honeyed.
“Darling,” she cooed to Kai, “I thought perhaps tonight, just for one evening, we might have dinner together. Just us. Like old times.”
She didn’t even look at Lyric.
Kai hesitated, glancing back with a faint, apologetic smile.
“Would you mind?”
Lyric’s mouth was dry. She shook her head automatically.
“No. Of course not,” she said, though the words tasted like dust.
Mrs. Thornwick brushed Kai’s coat sleeve possessively.
“Perfect. I’ll have them prepare the dining room,” she said, already sweeping away down the corridor, her heels ticking like a clock counting down.
Kai turned toward his room. Lyric followed a few steps behind, silent at first, but her pulse thundered in her throat.
He glanced back at her.
“Let me get changed. We’ll go for a walk in the garden, yeah?”
Normally, that suggestion would have sparked joy.
Tonight, she barely managed a nod.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
Her chest ached—not in a physical way, but in that twisted, pressure-cooker way, where it felt like her ribs couldn’t expand all the way. Words sat behind her teeth like thunder.
She waited by the stairs, pacing. Twenty minutes dragged past before he returned, dressed in his usual button-down and coat.
They walked side by side into the gardens, the crisp air cooling her burning skin.
They walked in silence for a few steps before she finally said,
“I need to talk to you.”
He looked over, calm and unaware.
“Sure. What’s up?”
She stopped walking.
“It’s about the nursery.”
He sighed lightly.
