“Hello.” She gave a jaunty wave and tilted her head, sending several pale curls falling over her shoulder. “I’m—”
“I know who you are,” my father stated.
Blinking, I snapped out of my stupor. “Where in the fuck have you been, and how did you get in here?”
Millicent’s ruby-red lips parted.
I turned to my father. “And how do you know who she is?”
“She’s the Queen’s sister,” he answered blandly. “And it’s obvious. She looks like her.”
He was right.
And also wrong.
Millicent did share Poppy’s heart-shaped face, pointy chin, and cheekbones. The shape of their eyes was the same, but Poppy’s nose was thinner, and her mouth was smaller. Millicent was leaner and had a face full of freckles that were only visible now that the damn paint was absent from her face, but Millicent…
She was a dead ringer for her grandmother.
“Answer my question,” I demanded.
Crossing her arms, she met my stare. “How did I get in here? Or where have I been? Which would you prefer I answer?”
My patience thinned. “Either one, Millicent.”
She flashed a sugary-sweet smile I’d seen on Poppy every time she had to speak to Aylard, and fuck if that didn’t hurt. “How did I get in here? I know so many ways to get onto the Wayfair grounds and into this castle that your head would spin.”
Damn.
That wasn’t good to hear.
I needed to know all those many entrance points because I’d been confident we’d secured them when we first took possession of Wayfair.
“Then I’m sure you know there’s a main entrance.” Distrust brewed as I held her stare. “Why didn’t you use it?”
“Well, considering the current state of things…” she said, waving an arm around, “I had no idea what I would be walking into. Figured I’d better get in and check things out first.”
“Makes sense,” my father chimed in.
Millicent gave him a blinding smile. “Thank you. I thought it was a very senseful thing to do.”
The deep, long breath I took didn’t do shit for me as I resisted the urge to tell hersensefuldidn’t fit that sentence. “Where have you been?”
“Where have you been?” she parroted.
My nostrils flared. I didn’t even ask what kind of question that was. The answer would make as much sense as her throwing the question back at me did.
She shifted her weight from one heel to the other, and the corners of her lips tightened as her gaze darted around the atrium. “Where is my sister?”
What came out of my mouth might shame me later. “Like you give a fuck about your sister.”
Millicent stiffened.
“Kieran,” my father said, his voice low.
“No.” A muscle ticked in my jaw. “She’s been gone. If she cared enough, she would’ve been here.”
Something akin to pain flickered across her face as she sucked in a sharp breath, but I figured I had to be imagining it because I wasn’t sure Millicent was ever in the right frame of mind to experience that.
