Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
“This is Mrs. Gable, the housekeeper, and Mr. Harris, the butler,” Nathaniel said, his deep voice carrying clearly across the cavernous marble entryway.
He did not offer his hand to help Euphemia remove her traveling cloak, leaving that task to a waiting housemaid.
“They will oversee your settling in. If you require anything for your personal comfort, you are to direct your requests through them.”
Euphemia stood perfectly still beneath the towering, vaulted ceiling of the grand hall, trying to suppress the sudden urge to shudder.
The interior of Greymoor was spectacular, built from cool, pale limestone with imperial staircases that curved upward into the upper gallery.
It looked exactly like the sprawling, symmetric floor plans published in the architectural folios Leonora so fiercely studied.
Yet, for all its structural perfection, the house felt entirely frozen. There were no fresh flowers in the urns, no warmth in the hearths, and the air carried the faint, crisp scent of bees wax. It was a massive fortress built to keep the world out.
The household staff stood in two perfectly straight lines, their faces entirely unreadable. Mrs. Gable, was dressed in immaculate black silk, offered a low, stiff curtsy that felt more like an obligation than a welcome. Beside her, Mr. Harris bowed but kept his face straight.
“Welcome to Greymoor, Your Grace,” Mr. Harris said. “Your wing has been prepared, and the footmen are currently unloading your trunks.”
“My wing?” Euphemia asked.
“Carter,” Nathaniel interrupted, stopping before a young woman with good posture. “Your maid. Her references are sound.”
The lady curtsied. “Your Grace. Mary Carter. At your service.”
“I am glad to meet you,” Euphemia said, and Mary’s expression shifted very slightly.
Nathaniel gave a brief, dismissive nod. “See to it that her belongings are arranged immediately. She should require a quiet afternoon to recover from the journey.”
Without waiting for a response from her, or even glancing back to see if she was following, Nathaniel turned on his heel and began walking toward the grand staircase, clearly intending to vanish into his private quarters.
“Your Grace,” Euphemia called out, her echoing against the marble walls.
Nathaniel stopped instantly, his tall frame tensing before he slowly turned around to face her from the first step. “Yes?”
“You have introduced me to the butler, the housekeeper, and the remainder of your staff,” Euphemia said, clasping her hands loosely in front of her gown as she took a step forward. “But you seem to have omitted two very important members of this household. Won’t you introduce me to your daughters?”
Nathaniel’s eyes cooled instantly. He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he just turned his full body to look down at her, lifting his chin slightly as his gaze swept over her.
“I do not think that will be necessary,” he said. “It is best that you stay away from them. They are my responsibility, and mine alone.”
Euphemia tilted her head to the side, her eyes squinting slightly as she tried to process the sheer absurdity of the words. A weird, tight feeling began to bloom in her chest. “What exactly do you mean, stay away from them?”
“The twins are a bit troublesome,” Nathaniel explained, resting a hand casually on the mahogany banister.
“I do not want any unnecessary issues. Let us be entirely frank, Euphemia. Our marriage is not a real marriage after all. It is an arrangement born of absolute convenience to stop a scandal from ruining both of our reputations. That is why I agreed to it. But you do not need to concern yourself with my children. As I said, it is best you stay away. Greymoor is a very large manor. You will find you do not have to cross paths with them so easily.”
Euphemia stood completely rooted to the floor, thoroughly shocked. For a moment, the breath was knocked clean out of her. It was one thing to marry an absolute stranger, but to be told she was to live like a ghost in a fortress was another matter entirely.
Since she learned about Nathaniel on the morning of her wedding day, she had convinced herself that a husband who left her alone would be a luxury.
She had foolishly convinced herself that a business-minded husband who ignored her would be nice.
She had thought it would be convenient to live with a man so engrossed in his work that she wouldn’t have to be at his beck and call.
But it was entirely different to stand here and realize he was purposely, actively icing her out of the entire household before she had even taken off her traveling cloak.
Recovering her speech, she took a sharp step forward, slowly closing the physical gap between them at the base of the stairs.
“That is completely absurd,” she said, her voice rising just enough to cut through the silence of the hall.
“How can I possibly live in the same house with two young children and actively avoid them? Stay away from them? You are asking me to act as though they do not exist, which makes absolutely no sense at all.”
Nathaniel sighed, a flicker of irritation crossing his handsome face.
He looked down at her as if she were a particularly dense clerk struggling with a basic ledger.
“I do not know what you are failing to understand, Euphemia. I am telling you that you may live your life exactly as you please, so long as you do not bother me or my daughters. I have given you my name. I have put an end to the scandal. You will have your own entirely separate wing in this house, and I shall have mine. My children are well provided for. They have a governess, maids, and a full staff watching over them. They do not require your attention.”
Hearing him lay out his terms so coldly, Euphemia realized she was no longer just shocked. She was full-on angry.
The heat of her temper rushed to her cheeks, her eyes flashing with a dangerous light as she stared up at him.
He stood two steps above her on the grand staircase, his physical height matching the cold superiority of his tone. He was looking down at her, perfectly composed, while her chest heaved with a breath she could barely contain.
“So, what exactly do you expect me to do now?” she demanded, her voice cutting through the heavy silence of the hall.
“Am I supposed to hide from your daughters whenever I see them? Am I not supposed to interact with them at all? Please, do enlighten me on the protocol, Your Grace. What are the rules here? Where exactly is the line?”
Nathaniel did not answer, his brow twitching slightly at her tone, but Euphemia was far too angry to stop.
“Should I avert my eyes if they happen to look at me?” she pressed, taking a fierce step closer to the base of the stairs.
“Should I run out of the corridor if they smile at me? Perhaps I should vanish through a servant’s door if they walk into the same room!
I am a monster after all, that they need to stay away from.
Are we never to have meals together? Is that it?
Why? Why do you think that is a proper way to live? ”
She didn’t give him a chance to speak. The sheer absurdity of it, the absolute humiliation of being brought to his manor only to be placed in a cage, made her blood boil.
“Is it because you are embarrassed of making me your wife?” she asked, the words bitter as they left her tongue.
She let out a dry, humorless laugh, turning away from him to pace a short, agitated line across the marble floor.
“Of course. I should have known. I should have seen right through it. No wonder you were so incredibly quick to offer marriage to me. You had this entire plan mapped out from the very beginning.”
She spun back around, her skirts whipping against her ankles as she marched right back to the edge of the stairs, glaring straight up into his face.
“Or is it something else?” she challenged.
“Are you afraid that I will be a bad influence on your precious daughters? Is that your fear? Are you worried that poor Euphemia will corrupt them? Poor Euphemia who was jilted at the altar. Poor Euphemia, the laughingstock of London, the lady with the absolute worst luck in the capital. Is that what you think of me?”
She stopped right in front of him, her chin tilted up, her chest rising and falling as she glared into his eyes, waiting for him to respond.
Nathaniel simply stood there, looking down at her with an expression that caught her entirely off guard.
The relentless, unnerving intensity he had maintained during the wedding ceremony was gone.
In its place was a profound puzzlement. He looked genuinely taken aback, his lips slightly parted as if he were staring at a creature he had absolutely no idea how to classify.
As the silence stretched too thin, Nathaniel finally shifted his gaze. He looked past her shoulder, his eyes sweeping over the double line of household staff who were still standing there.
“Everyone is excused,” Nathaniel commanded. “Leave us. Immediately.”
Mr. Harris and Mrs. Gable did not need to be told twice. Swiftly, the servants melted into the side corridors and closed the heavy oak doors behind them, leaving Euphemia and her new husband entirely alone in the massive, echoing hall.