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)
“I didn’t.” He leans back and studies me. “It’s coincidence, really. But I saw your maid by the stream the other day. You two were as thick as thieves back at Honori, so I had my men ask around. Everyone in the guild is quite eager to tell me all about the women who have fledged to Guild Master Magpie and her Taurian brute.”
I purse my lips, irritated.
“You didn’t even go by a false name, Aspeth darling. It’s as if you were begging to be caught.”
“I had one. They wouldn’t let me use it,” I mutter.
He reaches for my hand on the bar. “We can ignore all of this. Come home with me.”
Just as he touches me, I snatch my hand away. “I’m not going anywhere with you, and we’re not marrying. You’re not getting Honori Hold.”
Barnabus ignores me. “I won’t even tell anyone that I found you here. We’ll simply say you were overcome with passion for me and we eloped. No one has to know the truth. Your family will be ruined if anyone finds out that you’re here, pretending to be a guild stooge.”
I bristle at that. He makes it seem as if I’m an idiot. That I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. I know—and have always known—that traveling without a chaperone isn’t done for a holder’s daughter. I know that coming to a rough city like Vastwarren makes it ten times worse, because the reputation of this place is less than savory. The guild is considered a necessary evil by most holders—required, but disliked.
I know all this.
I just don’t care.
Being a pristine, virginal holder’s daughter with an impeccable reputation got me nowhere for the past thirty years. I haven’t married. My father’s hold is broke. Our artifacts are gone. We’re in danger of losing our lives if the truth comes out, and frankly I’m tired of all of it. I’m here in this rough, despicable city, preparing to do the dreaded manual labor of a guild member, because I’m out of better choices.
I’m finally doing what I want. What I need to do.
And Barnabus is here, sticking his nose in and trying to ruin things. My anger rises, and I grab the onion from his mug and crunch down on it, not caring that I spray bits of white onion flesh everywhere. I hope he finds me disgusting. “I’m not going to marry you.”
“Wrong.” He leans back, his expression downright smug, as if he has me trapped. “You marry me, and I’ll keep your little secret about all of this. Otherwise, your reputation is destroyed.”
“I’m not going to marry you,” I say again calmly. He doesn’t need to know that I can’t. That I’m already married to someone else. Seeing him here has just cemented the fact that I would rather walk across broken glass than marry this jerk. To think that I once enjoyed his kisses. I try to imagine this selfish, self-absorbed boor tonguing me the way Hawk did and the onions in my stomach churn. “Don’t make me say it again.”
“Well, then, enjoy hunting artifacts for me,” Barnabus says, voice light. “I’ve paid a lot of money to the guild to get everyone possible down there scouting for artifacts, and they’ll all come to my hands. They know I’m planning to go to war. To take down another hold. And do you think they care? No. All they care about is getting a commission, so I made sure it’s an enormous one.” He smiles, all teeth, and leans back confidently. “You’re of course welcome to commission teams on your father’s behalf. It can be a race between us.”
My nostrils flare as I seethe in silence. He knows I can’t stop what he’s put in motion. The guild is neutral when it comes to the squabbles and power plays of holders. They have to be. It doesn’t matter who is fighting whom, just that the guild gets paid for the artifacts they retrieve.
“So you should marry me,” Barnabus continues. “Marry me and I won’t tell everyone that I saw Lord Honori’s spinster heir Aspeth pretending to be a guild lackey. That she was slumming with commoners and thieves. Trust me, you want my silence.”
My mind is racing. I can’t even tell my father about this. Can’t warn him. If I get connected to the guild itself, Father will show up and drag me home and marry me off to Barnabus anyhow, just to stop the oncoming bloodbath. A marriage to me stops everything.
Which is why I threaten Barnabus instead of cowering. “You’re not going to tell anyone that I’m here.”
“Won’t I?”
“No, you won’t.” I straighten. “If you do, I’ll marry someone else—the first holder I see—and make him the heir to Honori Hold.”
His face flushes with angry color. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would. There are other holders with sons who aren’t married. What about Vurlith from Morsell Hold?” Mereden has mentioned her brother is courting another man, but I don’t care. “He seems nice enough, and he’s not married. We don’t have to be compatible, understand? We just have to be married for me to make him the heir.”