He laughs, and the sound warms me.
When we finally reach the gates of Carrenwell House, I expect to feel relieved to be home, but I still feel like a tightly wound ball of stress. Leaving did not, in fact, make this house feel like a home. It still feels like a museum where my behavior needs to be as curated as the art on the walls. After acting like a wild woman in Mountain Haven for a few days, I’m not as anxious to walk these familiar halls again.
Gaven busies himself speaking with the stable hands tending to our horse, but I feel his eyes on me as I smooth Henry’s coat and fluff my windswept hair.
My parents’ carriage pulls through the gates as we’re dismounting. Able hops out first, gives me and Henry a withering sneer, and thenstorms into the house, slamming the door behind him. He’s devolved into a forty-five-year-old toddler.
My father helps my mother down from the carriage and they turn their assessing gazes on us. I wonder what they’re looking for. I make sure to take slow, deliberate breaths to smooth my feelings into a blank canvas so that my aura will stay steady.
“Congratulations on your nuptials. We wish you were back under better circumstances, and we weren’t counting on seeing you so soon, but we’re happy to see Harlow looking so well,” my mother says with the imitation of a warm smile. “Doesn’t she lookvital, Harrick?”
Vital. I wince. She means I look terrible, which I probably do. I went straight from my run and only changed into riding clothes before we took off for the city.
“Marriage suits you, Harlow,” my father says. “I’ll leave your mother to get you settled, but we would love to hear about the wedding. Join us for dinner.”
He doesn’t wait for me to answer. He turns and walks into the house as if my agreement is a certainty.
My mother smiles, like that alone can balance out my father’s rudeness. “We’ll make the most of this unexpected visit. We’ll catch up tonight, and tomorrow, we’ll invite the high houses for a post-wedding reception. Nothing fancy. Just allow everyone to get to really meet you and your new husband—since the engagement dinner was interrupted.”
“That sounds good. Henry has to pick up medicine from a healer in the northwest quadrant of the city for someone back at the fort, so he won’t be able to join us tonight,” I say.
My mother’s face brightens. “Of course. Perhaps he could also stop at North Hold and extend the invite to the mayor on our behalf.”
I bite back a smile. She asked Henry to do it so she doesn’t have to deal with Rafe, but now he has an officially sanctioned reason to go there.
“I would be happy to,” Henry says.
My mother clasps her hands together and gestures for us to follow her up the stairs.
Inside the dark foyer, servants help my mother out of her coat and stand awkwardly by, unsure how to help me and Henry since we brought so little with us.
My mother smooths her hair. “We’ll have rooms made up for you?—”
“I’ll stay in Harlow’s rooms, thank you,” Henry says. “Customary for newlyweds to spend their nights together at the fort.” He squeezes my side and smiles indulgently down at me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can read my mother’s immense displeasure, and it makes me smirk back up at him. She abhors the rudeness of his interruption, and she hates it more that he’s commanding her in her home. But he’s a man and my husband, and this is what she signed up for—what she has never pushed back against.
He leans in like he’s going to kiss me, and my lips tingle with the rush of poison. Instead, he brushes a soft kiss to my cheek. When he pulls back, his eyes drop to my dark lips.
“Expecting something, lovely?”
I hate that I have a tell.
Part of me wanted him to kiss me just to see the complete shock on my mother’s face when he didn’t immediately die. But if she and my father find out now, they will find a way to call this whole thing off. They’ll pull me out because they’re counting on my magic to get me out in a pinch. While I’m very aware that I’m expendable to them, they don’t like to waste resources.
“I’ll be back soon. Enjoy your family time,” Henry says. He hands his small saddlebag to the servant beside us and nods to my mother before ducking out the front door.
My mother’s face instantly melts into a scowl. “At least he has some manners.” She wrinkles her nose when she looks at me. “Go wash up and change and meet us in the dining room. We have much to discuss.”
I don’t need to be told twice. I race up the stairs, eager to wear something that Henry hasn’t picked for me for the first time this week.
37
HARLOW
The parental scrutiny starts before I’ve even had my first sip of wine.
Instead of sitting at opposite ends of the grand dining room table, my parents sit across from me, making it clear this is an interrogation, not a reunion. The candelabras have been moved to the sides so they have a clear view of me and my aura. I try not to be flustered, but being the youngest, I’ve so rarely borne both of their attention at once.
