Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Emmet led Hallie across the entryway and into the room on the other side, which was a large sitting room furnished with groups of comfortable chairs and contained fewer people than the dining room.
Despite the available chairs, most people were standing in clusters, and the group nearest the door contained Cotovatre, Girard, and Girard’s parents, Verain and Gaenor Abbott.
Girard’s mother smiled as she saw Hallie. “Miss Talbot. It is so good to see you again.”
“And you, ma’am,” Hallie answered, and meant it.
Gaenor Abbott was full of warmth and one of the kindest people Hallie had ever met.
She had the same sandy-coloured hair as her son, but hers was sleek and currently fell below her shoulders in loose waves, her blue eyes bright and reflecting the sapphires she wore around her neck.
“Miss Talbot, good evening,” Verain said, taking Hallie by surprise.
If she hadn’t seen the whole family gathered before now, Hallie would not have said there was a great resemblance between Girard and his father.
Verain Abbott was tall and solidly built, his face carrying a stern, defined bone structure, with dark eyes and dark hair.
Her impressions of him were that he was someone used to getting his own way, and one who rarely showed his true feelings.
And now he had decided to be polite, almost friendly to her. That set her on her guard.
“Good evening, sir,” Hallie answered. She became aware that Girard had not-very-subtly shifted his weight to be closer to her, so that they were facing his parents together.
If she hadn’t already been wary, that simple move would have put her on high alert.
His father had not wanted Girard to have anything more to do with her.
Girard had defied the order. Hallie wasn’t sure what the consequences of that had been but knew there must have been repercussions.
Verain Abbott would not have tolerated being defied and certainly not by his younger son.
“Verain was just telling me how pleased he is that you and Girard are getting along so well,” Cotovatre said, shocking Hallie into staring at her with an open mouth.
Then Hallie’s mind caught up with her ears and she registered that the lady had spoken in a light voice that most likely hadn’t fooled anyone.
Taking a closer look at her ancestor, Hallie realised that the lady was holding onto her temper with some difficulty.
Prompted by that, and her own instincts that something was wrong, Hallie took another look at Gaenor and Verain and saw that Girard’s mother seemed more than a little embarrassed.
It was much harder to read Verain, but Hallie didn’t think he was as calm as he appeared.
“Is that so?” Hallie asked, not having to pretend surprise.
It seemed that Verain had forgotten, or perhaps more accurately chosen to overlook, that he’d more or less thrown Hallie out of his house on their first meeting.
And Hallie couldn’t work out what had happened to make the change.
Then she looked back at Cotovatre and understood exactly what had prompted the change in Verain’s attitude.
Hallie was no longer a karlen skip tracer from low city, far beneath the notice of even a younger son of the Abbott family.
Well, most of that was still true, but she wasn’t just that.
She was now recognised not only as fully hochlen but also Cotovatre’s acknowledged heir.
Hallie felt a chill cross her skin. She remembered what Girard had said to her, at Vertiger, when she had been acknowledged as the heir.
You will find that a younger son isn’t considered much.
Letting her know that their social standing had changed and, as Cotovatre’s heir, she was now higher in hochlen ranks than he was.
It had seemed a stupid and artificial distinction.
She hadn’t cared then, and didn’t care now.
And whatever inbuilt hesitation Girard might have had when they had first met, he treated her as an equal.
Neither of them paid much attention to their supposed social status. But Verain Abbott cared.
“Really, my lady, this hardly seems the time or place,” Verain said, brows lowering as he looked at Cotovatre. He sounded quite self-assured and calm, but the message was clear. He was scolding Cotovatre in her own house.
Hallie saw Cotovatre’s eyes light with temper.
She had no doubt that Verain Abbott would deserve whatever fury the lady was about to unleash on him.
Hallie had a temper of her own, too, and it was warming up at the idea that she had been discussed between the lady and Girard’s father.
So she levelled a cool look at Verain. “I do not understand what you mean, sir.”
“Is this what passes for manners amongst the young these days?” Verain asked, a chilly edge to his voice as his dark eyes examined Hallie’s face. “To question your elders.”
“As you well know, I wasn’t raised among the elite,” Hallie answered, feeling her back stiffen and holding herself perfectly still. “So, if you expect me to behave better in your eyes, or follow your social manners, you will need to explain why.”
A deep crease appeared between Verain’s brows.
“I think that’s enough,” Gaenor said softly, tucking her arm through her husband’s. “This is the lady’s house, not ours.”
“And I still don’t understand what’s going on,” Hallie said, and looked to Cotovatre and then to Girard, seeing his tight jaw and the flush of temper on his face. Very few things made Girard that angry. In fact, the only times she’d really seen him angry was when someone had insulted her.
“My father was proposing that Cotovatre consider me as a suitor,” Girard said, each word carefully and precisely spoken.
Hallie blinked, flushing with heat and then cold, humiliation prickling her skin before a flood of temper washed away the embarrassment.
She looked around the group, seeing the fury on Cotovatre’s and Girard’s faces and the embarrassment on Gaenor’s.
Before she dealt with the others, she looked back at Girard and met his eyes, seeing her own embarrassment among the fury there.
She pitched her voice quiet enough that she hoped the others would pretend not to hear. “Not your idea, I take it?”
“I don’t think that whatever may be between us or whatever our futures may hold is any of my father’s business,” Girard said, matching her volume. “It is ours and ours alone.”
“So true,” Hallie said to him, and wished they were alone so she could rest her head on his shoulder and stand in his arms. But they were most definitely not alone.
She turned to Verain and reverted to a normal speaking voice, even if there was a razor edge to her tone.
“What makes you think you get to decide anything for me?”
“It’s a matter for the head of house to decide,” Verain told her, calm and quite sure of himself. Then he went on, “As you were not brought up in our ways, I expect you were not aware of that.”
Hallie realised she was holding onto the glass hard enough that it was in danger of breaking. She couldn’t think of anything polite or measured to say to Verain. She stared down into the cloudy liquid as if trying to draw some of its coolness into her.
“I was explaining to Verain that this house does not operate in that old-fashioned and out-dated manner,” Cotovatre said. There was a savage edge to her tone. “And I will not make any decisions about your future for you.”
“Thank you,” Hallie said, throat closing.
She hadn’t expected anything else from her ancestor, but it deeply affected her to hear the words spoken aloud, and let her temper recede enough for her to have some semblance of calm when she looked back at Verain.
“I will make my own decisions about my life, sir. You do not get to make them for me.”
“Or me,” Girard put in. His embarrassment had faded, and his anger had banked a little so that it was simmering just below the surface of his even tone. “You do not control me, sir.”
“You are my son,” Verain said, a hint of colour appearing in his cheeks.
“I am, yes, and my mother’s son also,” Girard said, his voice softer as he looked at Gaenor. “I honour you both, but you do not get to make this decision for me, either.”
“From my own observations, it’s clear that you care for each other,” Verain said, a hint of exasperation in his voice now. “Why resist making it official?”
“That is not for you to decide,” Girard said, with forced calm. “Not least the consequences for Hallie.”
The words rang around Hallie’s mind and she stared at Girard.
Consequences. In her brief imaginings about a future for her and Girard it had been on equal terms, hopefully involving some more travel and catching criminals.
But that was just thinking about the two of them, and not the very different worlds that they came from or what hochlen society would demand of them.
And her temper spiked again as she realised just what Verain was getting at in pushing for making her relationship with Girard official.
“Let me understand this,” Hallie said, setting her glass aside so she was not tempted to throw its contents over Verain. “And let me be plain to make sure it is understood. You were proposing that Girard and I get married, yes?”
“Yes,” Verain said, as if it was obvious. Which it probably had been to everyone apart from Hallie.
“And with me being Cotovatre’s heir, what that would mean is that Girard would become the head of our house and therefore take my place as heir?
Because feeble women can’t possibly be expected to manage our own affairs, can we?
” Hallie asked, and clamped her mouth shut before her temper ran away from her even more.