Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97229 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
I tried to summon Mum and Grandma’s voices some more, telling myself I was being a ridiculous girl with a fantasy brain, and it may just have been beginning to work for me – until Frederick got up to make his way to the bathroom and Hans summoned me over.
“A merlot for me, please,” he said.
Blood-red…
“No problem, coming right up,” I replied, but he called me back with a wait a moment, Katherine.
The only other person in earshot was George.
“You seem a little uneasy tonight,” Hans said. “Are you feeling unwell?”
I shrugged it off, screaming inside that I was nothing but crazy, and that Hans Weyer was just Hans Weyer, a normal human. The newest member of our club and nothing more.
“No,” I assured him. “I’m fine, thank you.”
I thought that would appease him, but it didn’t. He kept his bright green eyes fixed right on mine.
“Are you sure about that? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost. As if you’re living in some horrible night terror.”
I thought I’d known prickles before, but they were nothing like these fresh ones. The room started spinning, and the only thing that was steady was Hans’ beautiful white smile.
“Did you have a nightmare?” he asked me. “Honestly, Katherine, if you aren’t feeling well, you should go home.”
I swallowed and braced myself on the bar.
The prickles were hot and fierce. The memories of racing across the cobblestones came back with a vengeance, but Hans’ words still transfixed me, surpassing it all.
I’m interested in YOU.
His vampire fangs, his perfect touch, the way he kissed me so fiercely.
His hand…
Stop!
My voice found itself, and the world stopped spinning. My spirit held firm in my body.
“I’m fine, thank you,” I told him. “I didn’t have a nightmare.”
“No?” he asked. “Are you sure about that? They call night terrors terrors for a reason.”
I held his stare, even though it was eating me up.
“It wasn’t a nightmare,” I said, and my words sounded more assured than I thought they would. “I had a dream last night, and nothing more.”
I poured his merlot, confident, even though my fingers were shaking. I handed it over with a smile.
“Thank you,” Hans raised his glass to me. “Here’s to more sweet dreams, Katherine. We all have plenty of them. A whole world of dreams out there worth living for.”
And dying for.
That’s the voice that came into my mind.
His voice.
Some dreams are worth dying for.
The question was…
Were mine?
Chapter Four
It turned out to be a busy night at Regency, considering it started as a dead zone. The regulars were drinking hard, chatting into the early hours, and even Eliza was sneaking glances at her watch, clearly wishing everyone would fuck off so we could close up the bar.
Hans had already left with Frederick several hours before Max and the crew waved their goodbyes and stumbled out with boyish cheers.
“Thank God for that,” Eliza said once she’d locked the door behind them. “I thought we were going to be here until breakfast.”
We cleared up the empty glasses together, loaded up the washer and got to wiping the bar clean. She was on the opposite side to me, working hard when I cleared my throat and chanced a conversation. She knew the member accounts a lot better than I did.
“Hans seems an interesting guy. What does he do for a living?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No,” she said. “His membership application had nothing on it beside the essentials.”
I stopped wiping the bar.
“Really? How did he get approved, then?”
The application process was normally rigorous, I knew that much. The criteria for acceptance here was high.
“He’s an associate of Frederick’s. Frederick went to management and they accepted Hans without question.”
“I guess maybe Hans is a client of Frederick’s?”
“Well done, Sherlock,” she laughed. One of the few times I’d seen humour from her.
Frederick was one of the top accountants in the country. He worked for the elite at levels that barely anyone knew about. Eliza had told me that right from my first shift. He was one of the most prestigious members, from a very prestigious group, and was to be treated with utmost respect and consideration.
The bar was archaic and all of the members were wealthy, but Frederick was a prize amongst the rich of the country, no doubt integral to them maintaining their already huge financial estates.
Eliza seemed to take pity on my curiosity as I carried on working.
“Hans moved back to London recently, I believe, from the countryside over by Wales. Quite a rural gentleman.”
“Really? Where from?”
“Herefordshire, actually. Like you. Who knows, maybe you ran into him in the corner shop, and didn’t notice him.” She huffed out a laugh. “Scrap that, you’d have definitely noticed him.”
I stopped moving, staring at her with the bar cloth in my hand.
“Herefordshire? Really?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know where from exactly?”
My legs were trembling at the thought, because it seemed so weird. Hans from Herefordshire? Surely not.