Chapter 38 Maneuverings #2
So, I waved a hand towards Gil as if shooing him off.
“I did tell you that my life was complicated. There are more pressures on my time and intentions than you know, Lord Hanson.” He frowned, but I pressed on.
“I have been considering your proposal, however. Seriously considering it. Attempting to… work out details. But as you can see, I am not alone in my time and purpose.” I fixed him with an intense gaze of my own and lowered my voice as if it were an intimacy.
“I’ve been looking for you all day—where did you go? I needed to speak with you.”
“And now I am here. What did you wish to say?”
I took a deep breath as if bracing for his disapproval. “I need more time.”
Hanson didn’t even meet my eyes, just continued staring over the ballroom. “Impossible. I already told you.”
“You can’t stay just one or two more days beyond the end of the festival?”
“My partner has a plan and his timeline is… determined by other responsibilities. If I’m to change the plan and release him, I have to do so before the morning after the festival ends.”
I let him see the frustration on my face. “Is it truly about that bastard, or are you just using him because he’s convenient?” I hissed. “I’m telling you, you can’t trust him!”
“I do not,” Hanson said abruptly. “And yet, I need him if I don’t have you. The world cannot cease to turn because you juggle too many men, Brennan.”
“I am not juggling.” I gave a small stamp of my foot, letting my very real frustration with men and their assumptions show. “And this isn’t a game. It’s my life. I need more time!”
Hanson turned to face me then, his expression blank, but his eyes flashed.
“Tell me what you need. Name it. I will help you. Do these pressures require money? I have it. Dragons? I have those also. There is no obstacle which we cannot hurdle should you decide to align with me, Brennan. If it’s protection you need, you’ll have it. ”
I let myself inhale sharply. “Why?” I whispered, as if I were trying to cover the conversation. “Why would you do that for me?”
He took a sip before he answered. “Because you intrigue me. You impress me. And I no longer trust my partner not to screw me harder than you ever could,” he snapped.
I raised an eyebrow to cover the internal flinch.
To my surprise, Hanson’s lips thinned and he shook his head, looking chastened.
“I apologize for being uncouth, but you seem as if you aren’t so easy to rattle as the other Ladies.
Still, I am sorry if I offended you. And as for the rest…
If you want out, if you’ll come with me, I will help.
But I am not a toy for you to bat and pounce upon, Brennan. It is a partnership, or nothing.”
I turned to scan the ballroom, frowning, as if I considered what he’d said. “I have to convince Benji. He thinks your dragons don’t like him because they weren’t open with him the way ours are. The males in particular.”
Hanson shrugged, apparently unconcerned. “We’ll take the boy with us tomorrow as you suggested. On your dragon, yes?”
“Yes. But only if you assure me Ruin won’t be there. Benji can’t speak to them if the dragon they’re afraid of is there to tell them not to.”
“Ruin has meetings in the city tomorrow. He will be gone all morning—returning in time for the final Banquet, of course.”
“Of course.”
He’s expecting a message. Instructions. That’s why the next morning is a deadline. It is Ruin setting this timing.
We both stood there silently for a time, Hanson watching me, me pretending to think about what he’d said. Then I looked at him and let him see my wariness.
“If I meet you in the morning it will be daylight. If anyone were to pursue us…”
“I will ensure that we have plenty of muscle to retain your freedom if required. Your brother… he is Donavyn’s lackey?”
I thinned my lips as if I didn’t want to answer. “We can meet at the stable in the morning—after breakfast, not lunch. I have to make a decision and I will need the time after to… make the appropriate moves. If we do this, I will need every moment of the day left to us.”
Hanson smiled for the first time, only a small curl at one side of his mouth. “We will meet. And you will see. You need not worry,” he said with the quiet assurance of a man accustomed to getting what he wanted.
I thought I’d move away then. I started to turn, to put my glass on the table behind us—but Hanson stepped up and took my elbow again, his breath short as he leaned over me.
“If the boy can reach the dragons and find our way forward without others, I want you reassured that you will enjoy your time with me, Lady Brennan.”
I looked him straight in the eye and didn’t let my expression change.
His gaze was avid. Intense. “I will not hurt you. I will make you want me. You may say no until you do,” he hushed.
“I’ve always enjoyed a challenge.” Then, moving to position his broad shoulders between me and Gil, he lifted one finger to trace the shell of my ear, then down my neck, never dropping my gaze as he touched me.
Goosebumps rose on my skin—in revulsion, though he assumed it was arousal—and he smiled with both sides of his mouth this time.
“Yes, we will be very good together,” he graveled.
“Tomorrow morning, at the breakfast bell.”
I nodded once, leaving my expression blank, but tapping my chin with three fingers as if I were thinking.
Hanson leaned in again, as if to reassure me—just as a jolt reached me from Donavyn, who must have finally returned to the castle, and I startled.
“Brennan, what—”
“Sister, you look pale. You need to rest.” Gil appeared from nowhere, looming at my side, ignoring Hanson completely
A moment later, Hanson bowed and offered a tight farewell as I was ushered from the ballroom by my brother.
The moment we made it away from prying ears, as our progress out the door was slowed by waiting for a gaggle of noblewomen on their way to the powder room, Gil looked at me from the side. “What’s wrong?”
“Donavyn. I don’t know. But something happened.”
Gil glanced over his shoulder. I looked back, following his gaze, to find him locked on Ruin, an awful, menacing light in his eyes.
“Gil, stop.” I put a hand on his arm and Ruin caught the touch, locked in on it.
Gil turned away from Ruin as the women finally stumbled into the hallway ahead of us and I picked up my pace.
“I need to get back to my room. Now.”