Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
But I’d heard stories of homes. I had mental concepts.
This was what I pictured when I heard about wealth. Endless stone floors, an abundance of windows, a hearth nearly as wide as the room itself, thick materials on the walls, furniture, and floor.
It was all lacking color, though. Just cold gray stone, black and gray and white fabric. Nothing vibrant, nothing of nature.
It was a fortress.
A place for a cold man with a frigid heart.
Almost as if I’d conjured him, a man appeared in front of me in dark gray formal attire.
He was tall and thin with gray hair, inky eyes, and a beak-like nose that he looked down at me as I was tossed at his feet.
This must have been the man who told the others to come and get me. To prepare me.
“Make her look at me,” he demanded, snapping at the redheaded fae, who was all too happy to grab a handful of my dark hair and yank it backward until the pain forced me to lift my chin to ease the ache on my scalp.
The man’s head tilted to the side, examining me for what felt like hours.
“Yes, yes, I think she will do. She has the look of my daughter. Passing enough, certainly, for those who have never laid eyes on her. And the veil will work in our favor here.”
“Really?” a feminine voice called, striding into the room. “You think that looks like me?”
The daughter then.
She looked much like her father: tall, lithe, dark-eyed, with the same distinct nose. Her hair was long and dark, but thin and straight, unlike my thick, unruly waves. My eyes were the blue of my lake. My nose was tipped up ever so slightly at the end. And I had slightly more curve than this woman did.
But the father was right. At a distance, there was a chance we could be mistaken for each other.
“From afar, my love,” the father said, voice placating. “No one could ever mistake your beauty up close.”
“It’s an insult. They could have done better.”
“We were pressed for time, my dear. This alliance was forced upon us. I did the best I could do with so short notice. Or have you changed your mind? Would you like to marry the prince after all?”
“Absolutely not.”
“You could not do better.”
“Have you heard the stories of the prince?” the daughter asked.
“All young men are… spirited. A good woman has a way of softening them.”
“Maybe I would consider the prince if the rumors about the king—”
“Do not,” her father cut her off, “speak of the king.” There was warning in his voice, and the daughter looked immediately chastened.
“Well, as things are,” the daughter said, “I will not be joining that family. We certainly don’t need the coin or status.”
“No, but you may miss the social standing. You will not be able to attend the balls, parties, or gatherings you are accustomed to.”
“I have my plans. You know this. Besides, should circumstances change, I can claim my rightful place. And you can… toss that into whatever hole you dragged it from.”
In my mind, I could hear the song of my lake calling me home.
I’ll do everything I can, I sang back to it, but I wasn’t sure how well it could hear me, how far away I was.
“Lake, actually,” the redheaded fae supplied.
“Lake?” the daughter asked, face scrunching.
“Is it a naiad?”
“Don’t think so,” the redhead said. “Maybe just a Daughter of the Lake.”
The daughter sniffed at that.
“Well, you better have the servants get started on it if you want it to be passable to the Unseelie prince.”
With that, she slithered off much the way she came, leaving me once again alone with all three men.
The father regarded me for a long moment, his lips pursed. “Is she dim-witted?” he asked. “Why doesn’t she speak?”
“She screams well enough,” Vrad said, getting a whack from the redheaded fae.
“She’s probably just in shock, Mr. Grimwood,” he said, anxious to smooth over the other fae’s faux pas. “Besides, isn’t silent what the event requires?” he asked. “The bride, after all, doesn’t need to agree to any vows.”
“True. True. Very well. Bring her back into the servant’s quarters. They are waiting for her.”
I was too stunned by their words to resist when I was yanked back upward and swung between the two men as they carried me down a long, wide hallway.
Bride.
I was to be a bride?
A stand-in bride?
To the Unseelie prince?
How… why… there were too many questions and no one to provide answers.
The men dropped me on the floor in a large room lined with beds.
Two women stood beside a large tub with drab gray gowns and aprons and matching pinched, unpleasant faces.
“Well, leave, will you? This is not for men,” the older woman declared, waving at the men with a slate-colored rag in her hand.