Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
“You mean Lady Aspeth Honori? She’s a holder’s daughter, not a merchant’s.”
I shake my head. “No, this is a merchant’s daughter.”
“Mmm.” He doesn’t look convinced. I tell him the criteria and his expression doesn’t change. “I’ve sold a great deal of books on Old Prell to Lord Corin Honori up in the mountains. His heir is his daughter, Aspeth. Pretty girl? Tall with nice tits? Spectacles?”
Spectacles? I shake my head. “That’s not her.”
“Probably not. That one’s fond of cats, too. Has this great orange beast she carries everywhere with her.” He chuckles. “You haven’t seen a creature shed until you’ve seen that one. I swear it has a new coat every week.”
I grin, but inside, I’m ice. Nothing but ice. We converse for a bit longer and I leave my contact information, telling him to send a runner if he gets the information I’m seeking. I know he won’t, of course. Because I know now that my wife, my Aspeth, was lying to me.
She’s not a merchant’s daughter looking for adventure.
She’s a holder’s daughter. And that means trouble.
* * *
And so I storm the tunnels to retrieve my lying wife. The fledglings have found a body, which makes it easy to pull them out of the Everbelow. It takes everything I have to keep calm when all I really want to do is grab Aspeth and hold her close until the truth falls out. Or just hold her close.
It’s impossible to think straight with the rut almost upon me.
Aspeth does her best to seem composed as we return to Magpie’s nest, but she won’t speak to me for most of the day. I can tell she’s nervous. It’s in the little twitches she makes, the constant adjusting of her sleeves and fussing with her cloak. The way she bites her cuticles.
She’s right to be nervous. I’m furious with her for her lies, and for putting everyone in this dorm at risk. Holder business is bad business. Holders trample over everyone to get their way, and people let them. Holders live in a different reality than the rest of us—we’re all underlings to them. We’re nothing to them.
Maybe that’s what pisses me off the most—that Aspeth as my wife felt attainable. Real. And now I’m realizing it was all a lie. That she never intended to be my partner. That she’s using me for her own ends, because holders always use and don’t give a second thought to the discarded pieces.
Aspeth doesn’t respond to my accusations immediately. Instead, she charges into our quarters, and when I follow her, she’s on the floor with her cat, stroking the fat beast. Tufts of fur float in the air as she affectionately snuggles the animal, oblivious to the shedding. “I missed you, Squeaker,” she tells it, pressing a kiss on the orange head. “Maybe we can get you a leash and you can come with us in the future.”
“The Everbelow is barely safe for humans. You don’t want a cat down there,” I tell her, voice gruff.
“No?” She looks wistful, rubbing the cat’s ears. “I just hate to leave her side. She misses me when I’m gone.”
“Then perhaps this isn’t the job for you.”
She winces at my harsh tone, burying her face against the cat’s fur once more.
Her reaction makes me feel like an unreasonable bully. Like I’m the one at fault here. I need to remember that she’s lied to me constantly every step of the way, putting my livelihood—and Magpie’s—in danger. Aspeth’s actions are selfish, which is to be expected from a holder’s daughter. So I move to one of the dressers and open it, pulling out the spectacles I found after retrieving her from the inn. I thought they belonged to a former lover, but now I know the truth. “You might as well put these on. No sense in pretending any longer.”
Aspeth hesitates, and then takes them from me. She laces the ear hooks in place with practiced motions, and then blinks up at me with eyes made owlish by the lenses. “I didn’t want anyone to realize who I was because I had expensive spectacles.”
“No, far better to just fumble around half-blind,” I say caustically. I think of all the times she’s squinted at me and I mistook it for concentration. How have I been unable to see this for so long? It’s downright insulting. “Is this all a joke to you?”
Aspeth straightens, frowning up at me as she continues to pet her cat. “Why would it be a joke?”
I gesture at her, at a loss for words. When she tilts her head at me, I realize she truly has no idea of the magnitude of this. “You’re a holder’s daughter. A holder’s heir. And you’re pretending to be a guild fledgling?” My magical hand clenches into a fist. “You’re sabotaging the chances of the others with your lies. You fucking married me, Aspeth.”