“You’re not hearing me,” James bitched. “She didn’t whimper or stir, not once.”
“She was plastered and passed out,” Jaxon argued.
“Or it’s hard to settle and relax fully when the person you’re sleeping with changes and she never knows who she’ll be waking up with.”
“I sleep an hour at most,” Kristof said, making me realize the dining hall was packed and everyone already there. “You want me to lie there awake staring at the ceiling for hours with her just so she knows I will be the one she wakes with?”
Wow. That was… Wow. I wasn’t shocked when several people gave him looks like he was a douche for saying that, much less thinking it.
“Look, we can discuss this later,” Jaxon interrupted whatever James might have said. “We need to talk about this weekend.”
“What about it?” Hope asked, probably thinking there was a scheduling change.
“Inez doesn’t want to do it.”
I didn’t say anything, drinking my water. This wasn’t a conversation to have around so many people, friendlies or not, they were guests, and some of the people in the group weren’t friends at all.
“Of course she doesn’t,” Nora said easily. I turned in time to see her glancing between my nobles who had shocked expressions on their faces. “You’re all idiots. Nothing about Inez says this is something she would want to do. Have you met the woman you all love?”
“What does it matter if she wants to or not?” Henry, Cerdic’s dad, asked, sounding bored and looking down his nose at me as he had every moment spent near me. “She is the princess of this coven and needs to take her responsibilities seriously. These alliances will help make up for all she is lacking and what’s best, along with making the right statements the coven should. Her feelings don’t matter.”
Ass. Hole.
I shot Matilda a look that I wasn’t in the mood and wouldn’t be nice if he opened his mouth with more of that. She nodded, looking annoyed as well.
“We care what she wants, Father,” Cerdic snapped.
“And I would advise you not speaking so assuredly on what a princess must and mustn’t do when you are not one, and there are four here that would gladly advise her, should the grown woman ask,” Nora added, her tone icy in a way I’d not heard, but would scare the shit out of a smart person.
“And she lacks nothing, Henry,” Kristof said dangerously. “I’d remember that going forward as your coven relies on her for much, and while she won’t be petty and ignore your digs, we won’t.”
“Really?” he pushed. “So, she hasn’t forgiven Olivia, Dennis, Ceawlin, and anyone else who speaks ill of her and lets everyone walk all over her? What have you done about any of that?”
I shocked everyone by bursting out laughing. He was such a hypocrite and didn’t even get it. I didn’t address him though, looking at Nora who seemed as frostily amused. “So, apparently my feelings do matter if it’s pride. How very… Childish.” I shook my head and made a plate for myself from the sideboard.
“Clearly, this isn’t a conversation for mixed company,” Nora said before anyone else could jump in.
“Agreed,” I said as I headed for coffee next. I flinched when Darius moved next to me holding a large bunch of lavender. I had no idea what to do with that so I simply stared at him.
He cleared his throat. “May I put these in your room?”
A light breeze could have pushed me over. “You’re giving me flowers?”
“I looked for yellow roses but couldn’t find them. I thought about lavender since you have trouble sleeping.”
“Yellow roses mean someone’s apologizing,” Lara filled in for me.
I nodded, not sure what else to say.
He leaned in and kissed my hair. “I love you, Inez.”
I closed my eyes, swallowing loudly before turning to focus on coffee. I didn’t know what else to do and I wasn’t sure I had it in me to try. There was so much else going on that I just couldn’t right then and especially not with all the eyes. I brought my breakfast over by my female knights and sat down.
“May we speak after breakfast?” Jaxon asked me quietly as he stood behind my chair.
“We talked enough last night,” I answered. “And I can’t. I have to get ready. There’s a salon fixed in Salt Lake City and Nora figured it out with Maggie so we’ve got someone who does hair and nails and all the girly stuff I’ve never done. I’m getting my first intentional haircut and ready for the parties. I’ve got the ghosts then and—I’ll see you at the rehearsal dinner.”
“That’s it?” he pushed.
I sighed. “Is there something you want me to hear right now?”
“I guess it can wait,” he grumbled before walking off. He must have turned around because a moment later he leaned in as I was cutting into my waffles and kissed my temple. “I love you, my wife.”
“I love you too,” I whispered, not sure why he was saying it like that. Did he think I didn’t love him anymore? No, I said I did, just not as I had. People evolved and changed, and it made sense that loved did too.
It just changed in a way I hadn’t wanted it to.
And it really made me want to break down sobbing that I was going to subject myself to that twice more. How stupid was I?
11
“Want to talk about it?” Hope asked after we were at the salon.
“Not even a little bit,” I sighed,
