Free Web NovelChapter 92: Chapter 92 Chemistry between them
_Rowena’s POV_
Pierre was already moving toward the door when I thought of something and stopped him.
“There’s something else,” I said.
He turned around with the expression of a man who had come to do one thing and was being informed that the one thing had expanded. Which it had.
“I need to see Alaric tonight,” I said.
Something moved across his face. I caught it clearly, a small involuntary shift in his expression that came and went faster than he intended. His eyes changed for just a moment before the rest of his face caught up and smoothed it over.
I didn’t comment on it. I knew what it was, but this wasn’t the right time.
He arranged his expression into something neutral and then into something that was almost a smile. “Tonight?” he asked.
“He must’ve gone back to the Ebonmoon Packhouse after the competition,” I said. “I just need an hour. Maybe less. It’s important.”
Pierre looked at the door. Then at the window. Then at me with the patient expression of someone already mentally reviewing a plan he had already constructed and was now being asked to extend without additional preparation time.
“The guards outside your door are still down,” he said. “But the perimeter guards are a different situation. Your grandmother would have made sure the outer positions were covered when she sent for you.” He paused. “Getting you out of the room would be one problem. Getting you out of the property would be another. Can’t it wait?”
“It can’t,” I said.
He sighed and massaged his temples. “Fine, I have six men with me,” he said. “They came with me from the Ashford estate. They’re positioned outside the mansion perimeter.” He looked at me carefully. “If you authorize it, I can reach them through mindlink and have them clear the perimeter path. Nothing serious. Your guards won’t be harmed. They’ll just have a brief confusing period and an urge to sit down.”
I thought about it.
My guards were good people. They were doing their jobs correctly on a direct instruction from my grandmother and they didn’t deserve to be knocked down twice in one evening. But the alternative was staying in this room while the clock moved forward and the things I needed to do remained undone.
“Do it,” I concluded. “And tell your men to be careful with them.”
Pierre went still in the focused internal way of someone using mindlink, eyes present but attention traveling somewhere else entirely. His breathing stayed even. His hands were relaxed at his sides. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
It lasted about thirty seconds.
Then he came back.
“Two minutes,” he said.
We waited.
The sounds from outside the door had already changed before Pierre had made the call, the guards there still in their confused sitting position from the first intervention. Now I heard a similar quality of quiet spreading from the corridor to the sounds that came through the window, the particular absence of movement that meant the perimeter positions had been addressed.
Pierre went to the window and looked down.
“Clear,” he said.
I came to stand beside him and looked down at the garden path below. Two of the outer guards were visible near the eastern wall, they looked like they fell asleep.
I looked at Pierre.
“Your men are extremely good,” I said.
“I know,” he said. The tone was even but there was something behind it that was doing its best not to comment on the comparison.
“Don’t,” I said.
He pressed his lips together very deliberately.
He held out his hand. A black key fob, understated.
“East side of the property,” he said. “There’s a service path past the garden wall on that side, it runs parallel to the delivery access. I had them park there an hour ago when I arrived, just in case.” He paused. “In case of what, I wasn’t sure at the time. Apparently this.”
“Thank you,” I said gratefully.
“But you have just one hour,” he said seriously.
“One hour,” I agreed.
I took the keys and went through the window.
The drop from the window to the ledge below was about four feet and I managed it without difficulty. The garden was quiet and the path Pierre had described was exactly where he said it would be, a narrow service lane between the garden wall and the outer perimeter that the delivery vehicles used on supply days and that was completely empty at this hour.
The car was at the end of it. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
I stood beside it for a moment before getting in.
It was lower than I expected and darker than it had looked from the window, the kind of vehicle that had been built for a specific purpose and had no interest in pretending otherwise. I got in and adjusted the seat and the mirrors with my muscle memory.
The engine started cleanly.
I pulled out of the service path and onto the road and gave the car enough acceleration to understand what it was, which took about four seconds and told me everything I needed to know.
Pierre had very good taste in cars. I filed that thought and focused on the road.
The Ebonmoon Packhouse was on the north side of the city, twenty minutes in normal traffic, fifteen at this hour with the roads emptying out for the night. I drove it in fourteen because the car made fourteen feel entirely reasonable.
The packhouse gate had a guard who looked at me, looked at the car, looked at me again, and made a call. The call lasted about forty-five seconds. Then the gate opened.
I parked and walked to the main entrance and a maid met me there and took me through the entrance hall and up a staircase and along a corridor.
She stopped at a door near the end.
I thought about what I needed to say and in what order and whether Alaric would agree to what I was going to ask him.
I knocked.
“Come in,” his deep voice rang from inside.
I opened the door and went in.
He was at his desk with papers in front of him that had the arrangement of papers that haven’t been moved recently, and he looked up and for a moment his expression did something that he managed very quickly and replaced with composure.
But I had seen it.
The same small involuntary thing I had seen on Pierre’s face, but different in quality. Where Pierre’s had been something careful and contained, Alaric’s had been something considerably warmer before he put it away.
“Sit down,” he said. “Please.”
I sat.
He looked at me for a moment across the desk and then he said, “You drove well today,” and the directness of it, with no preamble and no social cushioning, was the kind of thing that landed differently than a prepared compliment would have.
I felt warmth move into my face before I could manage it.
I cleared my throat.
“Thank you,” I said.
He looked at me and smiled, and I couldn’t help wondering why. Alaric barely smiled. He was always cold, but when it came to me...... I won’t finish that thought.
“He wants us as much as we want him.” Kyra said helpfully.
“I don’t want him.” I deadpanned.
“Yeah, whatever.”
I looked at the desk.
“I came to ask for your help,” I said. “My grandmother won’t let me leave the city and there’s somewhere I need to go. After the competition. The place where my father and brothers died. I need to see it myself.” I looked up at him. “I need your help getting her to allow it.”
He stood to get water from the side table and came back and handed it to me and in the process of doing that he was closer than the desk had suggested he would be and neither of us moved for a moment.
He was looking at my face.
I was looking at his.
The distance between us was small enough that closing it would not have required much from either direction.
I tried to take the water and mistakenly dropped my phone. A gasp left my lips and I reached down to grab the phone, but he also did the same, making us freeze in that position with her faces so close. I could feel his breath on my face when we looked at each other.
I unknowingly looked at his mouth for approximately one second and then looked away. His lips were.....good looking.
I grabbed my phone and straightened up, looking everywhere but at him.
“I’ll do more than help you get permission,” he said and cleared his voice.
I waited for him to finish because that statement confused me.
“I’ll come with you as well.” he finished.
I looked back at him.
“Pardon?”
