The Camp (Chateau Book 2)

by Penelope Sky

  “I didn’t think it would matter to you. I didn’t realize your feelings were so profound until now.”

  He rubbed his hands together as he looked at me, serious but not angry. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter. That woman is mine, and I will have her so no one else ever can. Whether she truly wants me or not, it doesn’t change what I want. Together, we will make strong sons and beautiful daughters. She will be the woman in my bed every night, and every man who sees her on my arm will wish he were me. She serves a purpose, and she does that very well.”

  “If this is what you want, I’m happy for you.”

  He reached for his glass and held it at the top, his fingers resting down over the rim. “Maybe she did only return to me because she wanted something from me. I was foolish not to see it. But she fucks me so good that I really don’t give a damn.”

  Twenty-Seven

  Where You Go, I Go

  I decided not to tell Raven.

  If I told her this was the last time she would be in the camp, waiting for the week to pass would be excruciating. It would give her hope, and that would make every day at the clearing and every night in that small cabin all the more unbearable.

  I also didn’t want to tell her Melanie was marrying my brother.

  I knew she wouldn’t be happy about that.

  I failed to understand my brother’s fascination with that woman. I could understand the physical lust for a few months, but a relationship for a lifetime? That simply baffled me. Would you want to spend your life with a woman with no brains and no courage? Yes, their children would be beautiful, but they would also be idiots.

  Raven’s and my relationship was different when we were in the camp. Our connection was just as strong as ever, but there was definitely a lower level of joy to our interactions. As if a shadow passed over the sky and blocked out the sun, we were subdued and miserable. We were withdrawn from each other, not having deep conversations, just necessary words. We both seemed to count down the time until we got to leave.

  Once the day arrived, we took the wagons with two other men and made it to the edge of the forest. Even on the seven-hour journey, she didn’t say much. With melancholy in her veins, she just wasn’t herself. Now that I knew a whole different side of her, it was hard to be in the presence of her sadness when there was a much better version of her.

  When we got to the car, I drove down the country roads and headed toward Paris.

  She immediately went to sleep.

  I made the journey alone with the radio for company. I thought about my conversation with Fender and his intention to marry Melanie. I never asked when this wedding was taking place or if there would be a wedding at all. Would it just be a bunch of papers to sign? Or would there be an actual ceremony? I didn’t ask any of those questions because it had still seemed unreal at the time.

  Hours later, we arrived in Paris.

  She woke up and looked out the window, staring at the city near to her heart. She was instantly more relaxed, like she was on vacation. The corners of her lips lifted slightly, and she took in the lights of the city.

  I pulled into the garage, and we went upstairs.

  She made her way into the living room and immediately stripped off her clothes, as if they were chains that bound her body to that camp. She let them sit on the floor, even taking off her underwear and bra because she didn’t want anything touching her skin. “You said you have other residences.” She pulled her hair out of her ponytail and let the strands fall around her shoulders as she looked at me.

  Even on her worst day, I found her beauty exceptional. “Yes.”

  “And is Rose at one of those residences?”

  I’d kept my promise even when she’d betrayed me. “Yes.”

  Her eyes lit up like the moon on a clear night. “Can we visit her soon?”

  We could do whatever she wanted, and she knew that. “Sure.”

  She bent down and picked up her clothes before she went upstairs and threw them in the hamper. Then she got into bed and lay under the sheets, ready to go straight to sleep after a long day of traveling.

  I showered before I got into bed beside her.

  I stared at the ceiling in the dark, thinking about how different my life would be very soon. I was happy that Raven would stay here while I was away, but I was also disappointed that I would be there for a month without her. I hadn’t wanted to share my space with her initially, but now I couldn’t imagine how that cabin would feel without her in it. I didn’t know how I would sleep in that small bed without her on top of me. She was my only joy in that camp. And now I didn’t know what to do without it.

  When we woke up the next morning, she wanted to go out.

  We walked to her favorite coffee shop, and she picked out a couple muffins. “I’ll take a blueberry and a poppy seed.” Raven watched the barista grab them from the glass case and put them into bags on the counter.

  I already had my black coffee in hand. “I’m not hungry.”

  She turned to me and gave me a somewhat awkward expression. “They’re both for me.”

  She was already completely different than she was yesterday at the camp. And I couldn’t stop the smile from entering my lips. “Sorry. Should’ve assumed.”

  When she got her coffee and her muffins, she took a seat at one of the round tables on the patio and stuck her hand into the bag to pull off chunks to place in her mouth. Crumbs got everywhere, but she didn’t care.

  I enjoyed my coffee while watching her, seeing her appreciate the little things in life that were irrelevant to my brother. To her, happiness was as simple as a cup of coffee and a muffin, and sunshine on your face.

  After she ate one, she moved on to the other. “I don’t know how to choose a favorite. They’re both good.” When she was done, she wiped up the mess on her fingers and mouth with a napkin. “You want to go to the bookstore? I read all the books I took with me to the camp. I need something new.”

  “We can go wherever you want.”

  Her eyes softened slightly before she stood up and threw her bag away. She walked beside me with her coffee in hand, wearing a nice green dress Miranda had picked out for her. Her hair was in curls and over one shoulder, and when she did her makeup, her eyes really sparkled.

  After we spent some time in the bookstore, we went window-shopping and then had lunch. She’d eaten two muffins just a few hours ago, but she had an appetite all over again.

  In the late afternoon, we walked back to my apartment in the park and set our bags on the counter in the kitchen. She’d bought five books and a couple tops, and I’d brought home leftovers to have for dinner. The stress was gone from her shoulders, and she smiled to herself when she was happy, living in this dream with me.

  But it wasn’t a dream at all. It was real—and it would stay that way.

  She flipped through each of her books as she stood there, like she wanted to smell the pages all over again. When she noticed my stare, she glanced at me to meet my gaze, as if I wanted something. But when I didn’t speak or turn away, she knew I was looking at her for a different reason. Her smile faded, and she put the books on the counter.

  I could get her attention with just my silence. That was how well she knew me. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “Alright…”

  “Fender has released you.”

  When she didn’t speak, it was obvious she was struggling to understand the words I’d said. Her face tightened in a reaction, but she still failed to grasp the truth I’d spoken.

  “You’re free.”

  She bent her body farther toward me and crossed her arms over her chest. Instead of being happy, she was confused. “What…”

  “You don’t have to go back. You can stay here.” I left out the part about her sister because it would just chase away her victory. “You’ll never have to see Alix again. You’ll never have to witness any of that ever again.”

  She shook her head slightly, in disbelief. “What about you?
”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Will you still go to the camp?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “And I’ll just…stay here? Alone?”

  Why wasn’t she more thrilled about this? “I can leave you money, and you can go to the bookstore every day, get your coffee and muffins, do whatever you want. If you wanna go back to school, you can do that too. You can have any life that you want.” I’d assumed her freedom wouldn’t change our relationship, but maybe it would. Maybe she would want to be with someone else, someone who didn’t do the terrible things I did. But I would never stop her from leaving, if that was her choice. “You could go back to America too…if you want.”

  Her eyes narrowed farther at my words.

  I hadn’t even given her the bad news yet, and she was acting like I already had. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now. I just told you that you never have to go back, and you’re looking at me like that’s not what you want.”

  She dropped her gaze for a moment and tightened her arms over her chest. “You’re gone for a whole month every time you leave.”

  “And then I’ll return for two weeks.”

  She shook her head. “That’s not gonna work…”

  I didn’t understand what she was insinuating. Now that she was free, did our relationship not make sense anymore? I thought what we had was deeper than that, deep enough to survive being apart. “Then leave.”

  Now she turned angry. “That’s not what I meant—”

  “You talk about us like this shit is forever, and then I tell you this, and the first thing you wanna do is leave? What the fuck is that?”

  She marched up to me and shoved me in the chest. “No, asshole. I’m saying I’d rather go with you than be here without you.” The anger on her face slowly faded to a look of hurt. “You expect me just to be here by myself for a month while you’re gone? What’s the point of being here if I’m not with you? How am I supposed to sleep when you aren’t beside me? How am I supposed to be happy in Paris when you’re miserable in a camp in the middle of fucking nowhere?” She stepped back and tucked her hair behind her ears, shaking her head as she released a deep sigh, as if my reaction were a knife to her heart. She moved back to the counter and placed one hand on the surface, the other hand on her hip. She looked down at her fingers for a while until she brought herself back to peace. “Where you go…I go.”

  Instead of being embarrassed for making the wrong assumption, I felt warmth in my chest at her commitment to me. She’d rather go back to that camp, the place of her nightmares, instead of being in paradise without me. It was a kind of loyalty you couldn’t buy. It was a kind of connection between two people that couldn’t be severed.

  She pulled her hand away from the counter and looked at me. She was calm now, only a tinge of anger in her eyes.

  “It makes more sense for you to stay here. You can go back to university and finish your education. You can continue the life that was taken from you. You can even see Melanie. If you go back to that camp, you’ll just be working all day in terrible conditions. You’ll be much happier here.” I didn’t want to be apart, but I would never put my selfish interests before hers.

  She straightened and crossed her arms over her chest. “Where you go, I go. That’s final.”

  Now, I looked at her with new eyes, seeing the same woman I looked at every day somehow look different. Did I want to go back to the camp without her? No. But I would never be selfish and ask her to stay with me. She was stuck to me like glue. A lot of people said shit they didn’t mean, made promises they couldn’t keep, said they would be there, knowing they wouldn’t show up, but not Raven.

  She was different.

  When she said something, she meant it.

  It was easy for Melanie to go back to Fender because he gave her pretty things, gave her a life she could only dream of. It was easy to look the other way and ignore his crimes against humanity. But Raven voluntarily joined me in hell, walked away from her freedom to remain a prisoner with me.

  Because it was real.

  We were real.

  We drove into the countryside and approached the iron gate between two tall trees with a brick wall that surrounded the property.

  I rolled down the window and entered my code in the keypad.

  The doors slowly swung inward.

  I drove through and saw the gate close behind me in my rearview mirror. There was a large pond in front of the lawn of my home, filled with floating lily pads and fallen flowers. I drove down the path toward the two-story French estate and then pulled up to the front of the house.

  She looked out the window and admired the two statues in front of the pillars, the traditional French architecture, the history of a place that had been around for centuries. “It’s beautiful…”

  It wasn’t as large as Fender’s, but it was still too big for one person. I bought it for seclusion when I needed a break from the city. Sometimes tourism was so rampant in the summer that I needed a place to retreat until they returned to wherever the fuck they came from.

  We got out of the car and walked to the front door.

  My butler greeted us with two glasses of wine, along with the perfect pairing of cheese. “Great to have you back, sir.”

  I took the glass off the tray and took a drink. “Thank you, Ramon. How have things been?” I spoke English so Raven could understand us.

  “The house has been doing well. The stables—”

  “I meant with you.”

  “Oh.” He chuckled and placed his hand over his chest. “I’ve been doing quite well. Thank you for asking.” He turned to Raven. “Lovely to meet you, mademoiselle. Please let me know if you need anything.” He headed toward the doors. “I’ll take care of the luggage.”

  Raven finished chewing her cheese as she watched him go. “He’s nice. He just lives here all the time?”

  “Yes.” We moved forward and entered the large kitchen and sitting room. The back window showed the acres of land and the horses grazing in the pasture. “With an estate this size, it requires constant upkeep.”

  When she noticed the horses, she moved to the window and placed her hand against the pane. “Oh my god, I think I see her…”

  I turned my gaze and watched her press her nose to the glass, watched her look at the horse that had carried her to the safety of my chateau. She had a connection with many things, whether it was humans or animals, because her heart was pure.

  She turned to me. “Can we go say hi?”

  When did I ever tell her no? “Sure.”

  We opened the gate to the pasture and walked across the grass to where the horses stood. Most of them were spread out and grazing, eating the fresh grass below their hooves. I kept horses as a hobby even though I rarely rode.

  Raven walked out in front of me and cupped her hands around her mouth to shout across the field. “Rose!” She waved her arms in the air to get her attention. “Girl, it’s me.”

  I didn’t expect the horse to recognize her since their interaction had been so short. But I watched Rose lift her head and turn our way, looking at the two people who had entered her world. Her ears twitched a little bit, and she flicked her tail. Then she turned our way and came toward us.

  Raven looked at me, bursting with emotion. “I think she recognizes me.” She faced forward again. “Rose, I’m so happy to see you!”

  Rose started to run, crossing the grass and coming close to Raven. She released a loud neigh as she approached. Then she dropped her neck so her nose could rub up against Raven’s face.

  I almost couldn’t believe it.

  Raven wrapped her arms around the horse and hugged her, chuckling but also crying in her emotional state. “You remember me…” She rubbed her behind the ears and moved her hand down the bridge of the horse’s nose before she placed a kiss there. “You look so good. Have you been eating a lot of oats?” She laughed, like it was an inside joke between the two of them. “I wish I could bring y
ou inside to sleep with me, but we both know how mad Magnus will get.” She moved into the horse’s chest and wrapped her arms around her neck, standing underneath her while rubbing her hands over her muscular shoulders. “Girl, I missed you…” She stood there with Rose, hugging her horse like she’d been the one to take care of her for years. There was a bond so strong that the horse could still recognize her even after months of no contact.

  I’d never seen anything like it.

  I watched their tender exchange and felt like I was in the presence of something truly special. It wasn’t the relationship. It wasn’t the horse.

  It was Raven.

  She was the special one.

  After dinner, we took a walk outside across the estate, moving down the path between the flowers and bushes until we came back around and stopped at the pool.

  “This thing is huge.” She stood at the edge and looked down at the water. “Is this an Olympic-size pool?”

  I shrugged.

  “Do you wanna go for a swim?” She kicked off her sandal and stuck her toe inside to feel the temperature. “It feels really nice.”

  “You don’t have a suit.” It was something I hadn’t mentioned to Miranda. I didn’t know we would take a trip up here, and even if I had, I hadn’t expected her to want to take a late-night swim.

  “So?” She unzipped the back of her dress and let it come loose. “Don’t the French like nude beaches?” She wiggled out of her dress until she was in just her strapless bra and thong.

  “Ramon is probably in the kitchen right now…”

  She dropped the rest of her clothing until she was in the nude. “He brings me wine and cheese…he can look all he wants.” She jumped into the pool and disappeared under the water.

  My gaze moved up to the windows to see if Ramon was looking.

  He was.

  Ashamed that he’d been caught, he quickly looked away.

  I chuckled then looked down at the water again.