16. Nora
16
Nora
A fter an hour of repeating myself through incessant interrogation, Kenzie finally relented. Eucinda sat in her chair, embroidery hoop in hand, the usual scowl plastered upon her otherwise pretty face as she dissected every word.
My palms had become slick from having to admit the onslaught of blunders I’d committed, and her silence only added to my nerves. She was the only other one to know what depended on securing the prince.
“What happens next?” Melody asked her mother, hugging her arms, back propped against the doorframe.
Eucinda paused her stitch and rested her hands on her lap. She inhaled, and I braced for ridicule. “The counselor announced a series of events. My guess is they’ll announce the next one after the other luncheons.” Her lips twisted, wrinkles creasing the skin, but I didn’t dare ask what thoughts darkened that mind of hers.
“I have to go get ready for my shift,” I announced, too eager to flee.
Her sharp gaze sliced like a dagger, a flicker of warning that I could afford zero mistakes when it came to Caine. To keep my blunders today a secret. I dipped my chin, the gesture so subtle that I doubted my sisters would notice, before I stepped past Melody. Placing my hand on her elbow, I squeezed gently and offered a tight smile before making my way upstairs to change.
The bar became irritatingly busy even before my shift began. After a day of daughters and sisters vying for the Prince of Highcrest’s hand, the men in their families decided to celebrate the possibility of ascertaining access to the royal bounty. Round after round clinked together, foam cresting over mugs in waves, spilling onto the floor faster than I could keep up.
I’d been so focused on the rush that when a hand gripped my shoulder, spun me around, and I found Caine grinning at me, my mouth floundered. “I-Sir, I…I didn’t expect you in this evening,” I finally managed to string a coherent sentence together. Hopefully my face hid the fact that his unexpected presence was less so a surprise and more a horror.
“Once you finish with that mess, come have a chat with me.” The smooth purr of his invitation only added to my unease. His smile remained cocked to one side before he turned away.
Judging from his tone, this wouldn’t have anything to do with shift chores. The situation was already murky and daunting, at best. Anything else he’d have to say on the matter wouldn’t leave me feeling hopeful, of that I was sure.
Once I tackled the spill, ignoring the other three that had been made in the process, I rolled my mop and bucket to the bar and leaned it against the wall. Helena cut me a glare that warned me not to slack off. I pointed my thumb, gesturing to the back office where Caine spent most of the evenings.
She nodded, returning to tend the line up of men shouting their orders for more pitchers. My knuckles rapped on the open door, and Caine’s slimy stare slid up to me. A serpentine smile carved his cheeks, and he motioned with his fingers for me to join. I brought myself to sit in the chair opposite him, hating the privacy and humidity in this wood-paneled room.
“So.” He laced his fingers over his stomach, reclining in his brown leather chair as the material groaned. The twinkle in his eye was eerily out of place. Usually cold anger poured out of those brown irises. “Today was the luncheon.”
“It was.” Simplicity was my best option.
“And how did it go?”
“Fine.”
The twinkle faded, and my stomach dropped. He took a more serious, probing tone this time. “You have three chances to win over the prince out of hundreds of swooning chits. Was fine the level of effort you put into that today?”
His emphasis only made the task seem increasingly insurmountable. He was right. There would be hundreds of candidates, some from well-established, wealthy families who had been schooled in formality. Such as not spilling fruit juice on the future king. “No, sir.”
A shadow fell from the increasingly bulging vein along his temple. “Tell me what happened.” An order, not a request.
Simplicity was clearly not working in my favor. “The castle sent carriages into the market and we took one up. We were prompt and in the early group. Once we arrived, we waited in line for our designated five minutes with Prince Nicholas. He engaged in conversation with my sisters, then we were excused to dine at the congregation of tables. They served handheld foods and desserts—”
“Why didn’t you engage him in conversation?” he cut me off.
“Pardon?” I had when I called him out for being inauthentic in his greetings, but I possessed no desire to share that.
“You said for the five minutes he spoke with your sisters. Did you stand there, like you’d lost your tongue?” His fist clenched on the desk as he tried to rein in his vitriol.
My feet twitched, an urge to run pricking my toes. “No. The five minutes were for the attendees. I joined as a chaperone. I’ve aged out of the running.” Either this would help my defense or—
“You what ?” His eyes bulged, the whites of them circling his irises. That vein started to throb with a vicious beat. The room suddenly became suffocatingly humid, and I fought against shifting in place from the discomfort of his widened stare.
Yep, made it worse.
“I-” Anything I said to defend myself would only irritate him further. Wisely, I decided to clamp my lips together instead.
He slammed his flat palm against the wood, and I jumped despite trying to keep myself calm. “You know what happens if your family doesn’t acquire the prince’s hand?”
I gulped. “Yes.”
“At the next event you attend, you will throw yourself at the prince. You and your sisters. It will take more than ‘fine’ to claw your ways to the top of the running.”
I would rather live on the streets . The way the prince’s charm and good looks had gotten to me today was a warning of how dangerous close proximity to him was—especially with the local connections I had been making. I wouldn’t let him disarm my anger for what he’d done to my people. More so, what he hadn’t done.
“I am no competition to my sisters, believe me. They hold the grace and the charm to woo Prince Nicholas. I did speak with him during the luncheon, and I assure you, he does not see me fit to contend for queen.” Not after I’d voiced my blatant rejection of participation in his search.
“You and your sisters will do everything to make him see you fit.” His gaze was unwavering, the darkness in his eyes growing until he was menace personified. “You will lie, cheat, and steal to win the attention of the prince if you have to. I won’t have you lose. He may be a prince, but he’s still a man. Coat your lashes and lips and eye-fuck him like a whore and he’ll forget all about the age restriction.”
Simply conversing with the prince painted me a traitor to my morals. But to butter up the man whom I despised? To cross that threshold further and bury myself so deep no bath could ever wash away the stain? Absolutely abhorrent. Melody could play the prince like a fiddle with her effervescence and wit and stood more of a chance than anyone in our village, especially me.
Caine held the deed to our house. Why did he care so badly if we failed? Either way, he’d have his money. I wouldn’t bend to his will for this. I’d been forced to work under his thumb for years because of my father’s debt—which I still didn’t understand how that’d come to be. I wouldn’t let him control another facet of my life, especially to go against every moral fiber I still clung to.
Not that I’d let him ever suspect such a thing. I nodded.
His fingers danced around each other while he continued to stare me down. He sucked on his teeth before he said, “Get back to work.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I was out of his office before he could blink.