Chapter 11
“I was thinking about inviting Kayden for supper,” Mya said a few days later.
Lottie, who was sitting in front of a mostly empty canvas painted with a few strokes of green, turned around in her chair, eyebrows lifted. “Were you, then?”
He had become something of a fixture in the house since the day after the ball, though he had restricted his visits to proper calling hours.
Which was beginning to frustrate Mya a little; she wouldn't have actually minded having him in her bed again, and she was half convinced that he was doing it on purpose to make her come out and say so.
She was very near just giving in and letting him have the satisfaction of it.
“It might be nice,” she said to Lottie, lifting one shoulder in a shrug and letting it fall. “Unless you have some objection to it?”
“No objection at all.” Lottie glanced back at her canvas, head tilted thoughtfully.
“Though I might take some care in the matter, if I were you. I have heard rumors that someone else is maneuvering for his affections. Do not take it for granted that you are the only one he is speaking with, if you are not officially courting.”
“What?” Mya's fingers curled, crumpling the piece of sewing she was holding. “Who? Why would he not tell me?” She cleared her throat. “I mean, how have you heard? Who is it?”
“I could not say for certain. There are no concrete facts in the matter, though I could make a few guesses. My feeling is he has not told you because he does not consider it particularly important, but there is always a chance that he is playing both ends against the middle and seeing what comes of it. I would not expect it of him, but I have been surprised before.”
“So you think he is speaking with me and all the while stringing someone else along?”
“I think that you should ask him what is going on, if you wish to know, and that inviting him to supper is an excellent idea.” She stroked the brush over the piece in front of her, gradually shaping a grassy hill.
“Though do make sure you give him notice enough. He may want a new suit before he attends.”
“A new suit?” Mya laughed a little. “I hardly planned on it being some great formal affair. In fact, the reason I wish to invite him here is so that we do not have to observe all the formalities we might have to in public. I would like to simply talk with him. Actually get to know him beneath the exterior of etiquette that he shows everyone else.”
“Then tell him he does not need a new suit,” Lottie said, sounding a little as though she had just swallowed back the urge to laugh. “It is your supper. Have it as you wish.”
“I will, thank you.” She watched for a moment longer as Lottie began dotting flowers across her landscape, then turned and started down the hall toward her own room.
Mya could not have said what it was that so dissatisfied her about the rules.
Perhaps if she could remember having learned them young, they would seem a more natural part of life, but she could not, and so they seemed largely superfluous.
Meant to control behavior that did not need such tight concern.
Or maybe she had just been spoiled by Eleanor and Lottie’s lax approach to following the more obscure ones.
She did, however, write him an invitation, rather than simply asking him to his face. It was not, perhaps, a masterpiece of art, but she was rather proud of it, considering =she barely remembered her past and yet she knew how to write.
Kayden’s answering note came back quickly, and Mya set about preparing the supper itself.
***
The day of the supper she had planned dawned clear and bright, and Mya felt as though it was a sign that she was on the right path.
Or at least a good omen for the rest of the day.
She hummed to herself as she dressed and did her hair, and then went to the kitchen to check on the progress of the meal, which was going exactly as planned.
If he was seeing anyone else, she thought a little smugly, he wasn’t going to be after supper.
Lottie and Eleanora had elected not to attend dinner with her and Kayden, citing at the last minute some engagement elsewhere that Mya did not entirely believe existed.
They were likely just giving her space, but she was hardly going to complain about that.
Time alone with Kayden was not exactly a chore.
When he arrived, the sun was just beginning to set. Mya was waiting in the sitting room when the maid let him in, and they walked together into the dining room, her hand on his arm.
“You are not wearing a new suit,” she commented as they crossed the threshold.
“No,” he said. “I was not given time to have one made.”
“That was the point of it.” Mya smiled. “I am tired of silly rules, and I wished to have you here sooner, rather than later.”
“I see, however, that you are wearing a new gown.” Kayden's eyes moved slowly over her as she took her seat, and Mya smoothed the blue silk of the skirts back into place with a laugh.
“Yes,” she said. “But I did not have it made specifically for this dinner.”
“It is spectacular.” Kayden sat down, his eyes still on her.
Those lingering looks were exactly the reaction she had wanted. Mya hid her smile with a dip of her head, and wondered if he would manage to drag his eyes away from the décolletage revealed by the low neckline of the dress any time soon. “You are too kind.”
He laughed at that, obviously amused by her demure response.
The maid stepped into the room with the first course of the meal, setting a tureen on the table and ladling stew into their bowls.
Kayden took a bite and paused, eyebrows drawing together. “What is this?”
“Rabbit stew,” Mya answered, a little uncertain. She ought to have made sure he liked it before she had put it on the menu. What if he hated rabbit, or something?
“It is very good.” He paused a moment, as though not sure whether he ought to continue or not. “Did you choose it for any particular reason?”
Mya shook her head. “It just felt... right. I've had it once before and quite enjoyed it. I hoped you would as well.”
“I do,” Kayden said. “I was just surprised to find it on your table, I think. Though I'm not sure why.”
“I have that feeling sometimes. Where you aren't expecting something, and then it happens and you realize that maybe you were expecting it after all. And it feels so...”
“Strangely familiar?”
“And somehow as though it was exactly what should have happened all along.”
“Yes,” Kayden said. “That is it exactly.”
He took another bite of the stew, and she saw that same frown flicker across his face before it was gone again. A look like he was trying to remember something that he couldn't quite grasp.
“So,” she said when they had both finished their bowls and were waiting for the next course. “You know that I have no idea who my family is. But I would love to know of yours.”
Kayden paused in the middle of setting his bowl to the side. “I am afraid there is not much to talk about.”
“You do not have to lay out every moment of your life with them,” Mya said, laughing a little.
“But I think we have been spending a great deal of time together, and it is likely proper that I at least know something of them. That is all.” She smiled.
“And, I admit, I would like to know the people who raised a man like you.”
She had expected Kayden to laugh too, to ask if that was meant to be a compliment or an insult. But he didn't laugh. He said nothing at all, staring down at the plate of food the maid had just brought out instead of looking at her. Mya frowned.
“Kayden? Did I say something wrong?”
He looked up, then, slowly, like he was reluctant to meet her eyes. “No,” he said. “You did not.”
“Then why will you not answer my—”
“Why will you not let it alone?” he demanded, cutting her off.
“I think I have made it clear that it is not a subject I wish to talk on, and yet you continue to push as though you have any right to know. We have spent how many days together? Three? And before that you treated me as though you could not stand me. So I do not see why you thought it would be proper to ask about them.”
Startled by the sudden tirade, Mya straightened up in her seat, glaring across the table at Kayden. “They are hardly national secrets, surely. Is it not expected that one would ask after family? Even with the barest acquaintance, it is a topic that is safe to discuss.”
“And yet, I think, if the barest acquaintance asked you to drop the subject, you would do so. Is it only me that you will not respect?”
“With someone I hardly knew, I would not feel shut out,” Mya said, trying to drop the discussion back to a more reasonable tone. “I care for you, Kayden. We have been more intimate together than I have ever in my memory been with anyone else. Does it matter that it has only been days?”
Kayden laid his fork down. “That I have been to bed with you does not make you privy to things about my life I do not wish to share,” he said, voice cool. “It affords you no special privileges, Miss Boyle.”
Mya stood up so quickly she nearly knocked her chair over. “Get out.”
He seemed to realize, in that moment, what he had said. His eyes widened.
Mya was not going to let him sit there as though someone else had spoken the words, however. They had quite clearly come out of his mouth. “Out, I said.”
“Mya…” He reached across the table for her hand, and she yanked it back.
“If I am not afforded any ‘special privileges,’ Lord McGregor, then neither are you. Go eat dinner in your own manor. I do not wish to look at your face any longer.”
For a moment, she thought he would try to protest further, but he did not say whatever was on the tip of his tongue, only turned and walked out without a word.
Mya sank back into her chair and dropped her face into her hands, wondering how a night that was supposed to be magical had gone so terribly wrong.