“You should see the bruises on Carlton’s neck! You can’t think what Jericho did was okay.”
“I don’t,” I tell her, picking a piece of lint off the bed.
“Are you okay this morning?” she asks seriously.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
“I want to come see you. Matty does too.”
“I don’t know that they’ll let you past the gates. What did you tell Matty?”
“That you got married. I wouldn’t have said anything, but Carlton brought it up.”
I sigh. “Was he okay?”
“I don’t think he thought much of it honestly. He’s only four. All he knows is he misses you.”
“I miss him too.”
“Tell me about the marking. The ceremony is always such a secret since no women are allowed to witness except the one being marked.”
“You have a creepy fascination with it, Julia.”
“I have to live vicariously through you.”
“You do know it’s not that I want this,” I say when she sounds too eager.
“Tell me.”
“It’s a dragon tattoo all the way down my back.”
“Not just your neck? That’s strange. I wonder why he did that. They didn’t do it in the courtyard either, which is tradition.”
“How did you know?”
“Grapevine. News travels fast especially news of the mysterious Jericho St. James and his young bride.”
I groan.
“I wonder why Hildebrand allowed it to be so private.”
“It wasn’t exactly private, Julia.” I love my cousin but sometimes she gets in her head about things, and she has this fascination with all things IVI. If she knew the reality of it, I wonder if she still would. “There were witnesses and…” I trail off, too embarrassed to mention the pillory, grateful suddenly that I can’t see her just now. That I won’t have to show her the tattoo. His mark.
“And what? Don’t keep me in suspense.”
“Nothing.”
“You had sex with him, didn’t you?” she asks so abruptly I feel myself flush. When I don’t answer quickly enough, she sighs. “See if you can get to the compound. We can meet there. You’re the wife of Jericho St. James now. Surely you’re allowed to lunch at the compound.”
“I’m not so sure of anything, honestly. I’m especially not sure what he means to do with me.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” She pauses and I realize she must be out somewhere because I hear the distant buzz of voices.
“Where are you?”
“Oh, just at breakfast. But on what he wants, there’s only one thing that makes sense.”
“What’s that?”