by Ivy Hayes
I open the door and beam at her. She shows a flash of a smile, but before I blink, it is replaced by the scowl that has been on her face all morning.
She pushes past me and enters her room, yelling back at me, “Shut the door on your way out.”
She is still upset, but at least she is talking to me, so I will take that as a small victory. Before I shut the door, I say, “See you tonight, Gwen,” then make my way back to my room.
I have high hopes for our conversation tonight, but I would be a fool if I wasn’t worried. Gwen has a temper, I have seen it, and it won’t take much to set her off, especially with how hurt she is. Mending the bridge with her might be impossible and I am terrified I will say all the wrong things when we talk.
I wish the conversation with Gwen was the worst of my worries, but before I will get the chance to talk to her tonight, I need to deal with Theo’s appearance. My father obviously sent him, and I need to discover why. I am curious if my father shared my letter with him, or if he is ignorant of it, running off with lies my father filled his head with.
If I was lucky, it would be the latter and I can set him straight, but from what I know about Theo, it is more than likely the first. Theo has always been the worst kind of bully, one that is a hothead and not as smart as he thinks he is. He has always idolized my father and taken everything he has said as the fact.
We have never been close. He made is feeling towards me very clear when we were growing up, as he was one of the first to volunteer to punish me for my father. I try to bite back the sudden rage I feel, but it is impossible. Theo is the son my father wished he had, and I hate that I will never be good enough for him. What I fear is my father shared my letter with him, but neither of them cared about my pleading and he is here to complete my part of the mission for me.
One thing is obvious, Theo is a problem.
SEVENTEEN – GWEN
At least Parker did something smart, he woke me up early, giving me plenty of time to prepare for the day. I have about an hour left and most of that time will be bringing me back to the land of the living from the death I feel pounding in my head. I have a splitting headache that is accompanied by nausea with every slight movement.
It’s not my first hangover, but they are so infrequent, I forgot how awful they could feel. I know lots of water is the best way to combat the symptoms, but I am having a hard time choking some down. My stomach is turning, and the water tastes terrible in my mouth, like it usually does when you have the aftertaste of wine souring each sip.
I impatiently wait for Rose to bring the bathwater up, eager to bathe and wash off the stink of the night. She finally arrives, I wash fast and throw on a simple green dress, one of the few I have that isn’t formfitting and stiff. I couldn’t manage being stuck in a confining dress today, I need to be comfortable and able to breathe.
Now that I am ready, I make my way out of the house as fast as possible. I don’t want to see anyone right now, hell, I don’t even want to think about any of them right now, so instead of heading to breakfast, I walk out the front door and will just get something to eat at the bakery.
On my walk into town I try and remember bits from last night, but most of it is foggy. I drank too much, too fast and it caught up with me suddenly. At least I can be sure nothing bad happened, it wouldn’t have with Nash keeping an eye on me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything embarrassing though, so I will have to head in this afternoon and apologize to both him and Paige.
I have no idea how Parker found me, but I am grateful that he did.
At least I can say he was a gentleman. He did not take advantage of me in my exposed state. That fact alone is enough to lessen my anger, but it is not enough for me to forgive him. I most definitely can’t forgive my family. I will not let any of them off the hook for this. They all plotted my future and lied to my face about it.
My father arranged a marriage for me, my brothers supported him and didn’t warn me, but Parker was the worst. He played with me. I see now, it was all a plan to make me easier to control and convince. He fed me lies, claiming to be developing feelings for me, but I know that can’t be true. If he cared about me, even a little, he would have told me the truth about our parent’s plans.
Instead, he made me fall for him. To feel more excited and aroused than I had ever been. To finally feel comfortable and connected with a man.
He hurt me the worst. And god, I am ashamed by how I acted around him. Was he laughing at his conquest? Was he excited that he made me like him, whilst it was all a game to him?
The heartache is worse than the hangover, but together I feel absolutely miserable, I am sure that this is all showing on my face when I walk into the bakery. Sami looks at me with slightly worried eyes.
“Good morning, Gwen. Uh, are you doing okay?”
“Not particularly. I have a terrible hangover.” And some other things but I do not feel like talking about those, even with a friend.
She makes a grimace, “Ick, but I have just the thing to fix that.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. It won’t taste good, but my father swears by this cure and believe me he drinks enough to need a good one.”
I grimace but say, “I’ll give it a try. Frankly, I would ingest anything right now, if you promised it would make me feel better. I am about to be surrounded by talkative girls, I can’t be around them with this headache.”
She laughs, “Give me a second and I will whip it up. Please don’t hate me when you taste it.”
“As long as it helps, I will praise you.”
I watch her behind the counter and see her toss a bunch of seemingly random things into a bowl. First, she cracks two eggs, then adds what looks like spicy sauce. Next comes a slew of spices and pickle juice. Just when I think it can’t get any weirder, she adds tomato juice. What she hands me is a red, lumpy drink.
I swallow, then reach for it. She smiles encouragingly as I take a drink.
“God, that is disgusting.”
“If you hold your nose, it will taste better going down.”
Taking her advice, I plug my nose then drink the concoction as fast as I can. Once I am done, I bite back the sudden nausea that swells up, but Sami is prepared for that and already has a glass of apple cider ready for me to wash the taste away. I chug that down as well then place the cup back on the counter, feeling much better.
“Wow.”
“I take that as you feel better?”
“Much, that is amazing.” We share a grin, “I am so glad I came in here today, I owe you one, Sami.”
She busied herself with wiping down the table, “That is what friends are for. Do you want something to eat as well?”
“That would be great, though I am not very hungry, maybe just a biscuit.”
“Easy,” she reached into the case a pulled out a cheesy biscuit, then placed in on the oven to warm. “So, why did you drink so much last night?”
“Because I am reckless when I am angry. I found out something last night that basically proved everyone I care about has been lying to me and I didn’t handle it well.”
“That’s a pretty good reason, at least.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t really help. Instead of just being angry today, I am also hungover, and my thoughts are muddled.”
“That will burn off soon and you will be back to normal.” She turns to retrieve my biscuit and I hope she is right.
Sami places it in a small bag and passes it my direction. I pick it up, “I should be off, Sami, my class will be staring soon. Thank you so much, I feel worlds better than I did when I walked in here.”
“Don’t mention it. Come back by later if you want to talk, I can take the afternoon off if I need to.”
I don’t think I will do that, I don’t want anyone else knowing that my father arranged a marriage for me. It is embarrassing and degrading.
“That’s a nice offer but even if I wanted to, I don’t have time this afternoon.”
“Well
, it’s true for anytime. Us girls have got to stick together.” She puffs up her chest, looking fiercer than she is and we both laugh.
“Thanks. I really have to run though, I will see you later.”
“Goodbye, Gwen!” She hollers at me as I make my way outside.
“Goodbye, Sami.” I give a wave from the door and hurry off in the direction of the school.
When I get my first sight of the school and the girls waiting for me out front, a sudden panic washes over me. How could I be so stupid? I was in such a hurry to leave the house this morning, I completely forgot all my books and lesson plans. I have nothing with me to teach them today and I am so foggy from the night, I doubt I can come up with anything worthwhile on the spot.
I need to at least try. When we are all in the room, I start the lesson the normal way and ask them what they have noticed recently. I let the conversations swell more than I usually do, hoping they will spend more time gossiping and use more of the morning. It partly works, but once that is done, they look at me expectedly. Panicking, I say the first thing that comes to my mind.
“Let’s practice creative writing. Write me a short story about a young woman forced into an arranged marriage.” As soon as the words are out of mouth I regret them, knowing these stories will be painful to hear.
“Can she be a princess?” Sara asks.
“She can be whatever you want her to be. Try and think outside of the box.”
“Okay!”
They all start writing with earnest and I watch them in silence, kicking myself again for being hungover and having slow thoughts today.
The stories are about as gut wrenching as I thought they would be. Each girl wrote the young woman falling in love with the man she was forced to marry, and I almost puked just from the thoughts it arose inside of me. At the normal end of the class, I told the girls that I wasn’t feeling well so I couldn’t stay late today. A few of them were obviously disappointed, but they didn’t say anything, knowing I wouldn’t say this unless I meant it.
We all walked out together, and I made my way back towards town and home. What I see when I enter the main square stops me in my tracks, across the way is Tyler, the man from the tavern last night. He doesn’t notice me right away, so I have a second to look him over and he looks wretched. His face is covered in bruises and has a busted lip.
Parker couldn’t have done this on his own, could he? He didn’t seem to have a scratch on him this morning.
But wow, if that was his, I find it impossibly alluring. Tyler is not a small man and the idea of Parker handling him effortlessly makes me nearly breathless with passion. He did this to another man to protect me and he carried me all the way home after.
I stop myself, I can’t afford to let my thoughts wander to my attracted for him.
Tyler looks up and sees me staring at him. His faces flushes with anger, but instead of stalking towards me, he turns his head down and goes his way. Thank goodness, I am embarrassed by how things went last night and having a confrontation with him would have only made it worse.
I turn my gaze away from his departing form then make my way to Nash’s, to apologize.
EIGHTEEN – PARKER
I tried to find Theo before breakfast, but somehow, he eluded me. He wasn’t in his room or anywhere I could find outside, I worry about what he was up to. I finally gave up and headed into breakfast, he came in the dining room and few minutes after me and smirked in my direction then sat down on the opposite side of the table.
“Good morning, cousin.”
“Where were you this morning?”
“Oh,” he looks smug, “just out for a walk.”
I am stopped from responding and demanding more of an answer when Grant walks in the door.
“Hi guys, how was your first night, Theo?”
“It was very comfortable, I need to thank your mother for putting me up.” His entire appearance changed with Grant, damn he is a great actor.
“She would like that,” Grant says.
Theo nods, then adds, “So what are you planning on doing today, Grant?”
“Not much. This afternoon I am working with some of the local men, teaching them how to defend themselves.”
At this, Theo smirks at me, as if this is all the proof he needs that Cliffden is planning an attack. I have been with Grant on these training sessions and I am more than confident these farmers will be doing nothing other than defending themselves, if they can even do that correctly. They are not a militia, not even close. Something I will have to make clear to Theo.
“Have you let them touch real swords yet?” I ask.
Grant laughs out loud, “No, they are nowhere near that, they would more than likely impale themselves.”
My turn to smirk at Theo. Proof they are not creating an army. Instead of looking irritated, he seems amused at Grant’s statement.
The conversation dies down as we all dig into our breakfast. I shove food in my mouth as fast as I can, getting myself ready to leave as soon as Theo stands up. He will not slip away from me this time.
Turns out my hurry was unnecessary, Theo took forever to eat, and I finally got fed up with it, “Theo, do you mind if I steal you this morning? I have some things I want to talk to you about.”
“I don’t see why not.” His smugness is infuriating.
“Good. We can go for a ride.”
“Yeah, okay.” He stands up and wipes his mouth with the napkin then tosses it on the table. “Ready?” He adds.
I mimic his rise, “See you later, Grant. Sorry I can’t go with you today.”
“No big deal,” he smiles at me, “I’ll see you both this afternoon.”
“Yeah,” I say as I follow Theo out of the room. He wasn’t waiting around for me to say goodbye and I don’t want him too far out of my sight.
We are in the stables preparing our horses for the ride and I am struck with how different this feels than when I was in here yesterday with Gwen. This is tense and cold whereas yesterday was full of heat and excitement. We head out and when we are far enough away from the manor, I don’t have to worry about anyone overhearing us, I start talking with the first of many questions I have for him.
“Why did you come?”
He ignores my question, “Gwen is quite lovely, is she not?”
I frown, “Yes, she is.”
“I didn’t expect that. Have you had any fun with her yet?”
I anger at this but keep my expression steady. I can’t let him sense that I have feelings for her, “What are you trying to get at?”
“Oh nothing, just curious. I was thinking of having a go at her, if you haven’t made any moves yet, that is.”
“You will do no such thing,” I growl.
“Why not? It’s not like you have a claim on her, your ‘engagement’ is only a ploy.” He makes air quotes around engagement, to emphasize his exaggeration.
“It may be a ploy, but that does not mean I want the girl hurt in any way.” I stare at him, daring him to test me on this.
He laughs, “Of course I would hurt her, you will too when she finds out about the attack. We might as well let her have some fun before then.”
“Just leave her alone, Theo. Any attentions by you can only make the plan messy.”
Inside I am panicking, if Theo decides he wants to play with her, there is no telling what he would do. I am confident Gwen will not develop any feelings for him, or seek out his company, but that does not mean he would leave her alone. Especially if he knew the depths of my affection for her.
“You are already messing things up on your own, don’t worry about that.”
I sigh, “Is that why you are here?”
“Your father is not pleased with the lack of results you have presented. He sent me to gather the information you seem incapable of sharing.”
“It is not that I am not sharing it,” I say, exasperated, “there is just nothing to report. They are not preparing for an attack.”
“There is
plenty to report. Like the fact Cliffden does not have any real defenders, just a bunch of hopeless farmers.”
I blanch, “That doesn’t matter. They are not planning to attack Westhaven, so we have no need to start this battle.”
“No need? It is obvious that this is a perfect opportunity to wipe them off the map.”
“Dammit, no. They are a peaceful ally, we don’t need a useless battle that will kill men from our town as well as theirs.”
Theo stops his horse and says, “Your father is right, you are weak and unable to grasp the big picture.”
Fuming, I lead Powder in a circle around his halted horse and say through clenched teeth, “The big picture? What do you think I am doing? I want a future where Westhaven is a part of a strong coalition of villages, ones that help defend and support each other. I want peace, not having to worry about the constant threat of battle as we get older and raise our own families. I want to save the lives of the young men from our village, not sending them to their deaths for a useless reason. What could be more of a big picture than that?”
“Instead of a coalition, we could rule the surrounding villages, we could take over and force them to submit to us. Now is the time to strike, Cliffden is our biggest adversary right now and we are so much stronger than them.”
“First of all, they would never submit to us, Theo. Do you forget your place? Need I remind you that I am the heir? Westhaven is not yours, Gwen is not yours, hell, this horse you are sitting on is not even yours and it never will be.”
I shouldn’t have said that, but I let my anger take over. Theo needed to be reminded of his place, but not in this way, not when I was trying to get information from him. I can tell by the look of fury in his eyes that any hope of us reaching some sort of agreement was just destroyed. I try and think of something to say that will ease the tension. I stop my horse when I am beside his, though facing different direction, as though we were travelers meeting for a brief second on the road.
