Page 129 of The Nightmare Bride
“Yes.” Amryssa squared her shoulders. “Harlowe needs cheering up. I’d like to spend some...what do you call it? Girl time?”
He blinked at her. “Girl time.”
“Yes.”
He sat motionless, his face like a granite slab.
Amryssa’s courage dried up. She aimed a pleading glance at me, as if I had a say in any of this.
“I’ll have her home by ten?” I offered.
Olivian deployed another glare, but this one contained a glimmer of the same thing I’d caught in the great hall a few weeks ago.
Compassion. Bruised-up, maybe—buried deep, shackled by bitterness, but that was compassion, nonetheless. Somewhere in the depths of his stony heart, the seneschal felt sorry for me. Probably because he’d lost someone he loved, too.
He sighed. “Fine. But you’re taking Merron with you.”
“Merron?” I arced a brow. “Why him?”
He shot me a glare. “Because you saw fit to give away Zephyrine’s dagger, and now you’re of little use to me, beyond the keeping of the keys.” He opened a desk drawer and rummaged around, then slid a sheathed dagger across the desk. “You can take this, but it isn’t anything like the last one, so you’ll have to take the head steward with you. Just in case.”
I took the weapon and fastened it to my belt. “In casewhat?”
“You see Vick again.” He gave me a hard stare. “We don’t know what he plans on doing with Zephyrine’s dagger.”
“Feed people, I imagine.” That was really all that man had wanted. To play savior to a broken people. “Or maybe change his hair to a less offensive color.”
Olivian lowered his brows, unamused. “The point is, you’ll need someone capable.”
I slitted my gaze. “A man, you mean?”
“Yes, a man. And Merron happens to be one. Take it or leave it.”
“We’ll take it,” Amryssa said quickly.
Olivian resumed shuffling his papers. “And be back by nine, not ten. We haven’t had a nightmare in weeks, and I don’t trust the weather not to turn. I want all of you back here before it can become a problem.”
Amryssa nodded and swept out before her father could change his mind. I swallowed the burn in my chest and followed, but Olivian grumbled my name.
I turned back. “What?”
“I...” He cleared his throat and looked down, as if the papers in his hands had offered up brand-new information in the last two seconds. “...just wanted to say...I was perhaps...a bit hasty, when I banished your husband.”
My feet turned leaden. I couldn’t have moved if I’d tried. “Kai. His name’s Kai.”
“Right. Kai. I...”
I waited, my breath held.
“Look. You can write to this Kai of yours. Let him know he can come back, if he likes.”
My stomach somersaulted. This was...unprecedented. By a long shot.
My silence seemed to fluster him. He grabbed a pen and tapped it against his papers. “Hewasremarkably useful when it came to chopping wood.”
I gave a slow nod. “That’s...probably the kindest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Kindness has nothing to do with it. He was useful.”
