Gossamer in the Darkness (Fantasyland)

My gaze swung to Edgar, who was staring death at me.

Fix this, he mouthed.

Frantically, I turned full body into Loren, pressing into him.

“Please, your grace, I need to speak to you.”

Loren looked down at me.

“Please,” I begged. “Privately.”

He glanced at his father, then back to me and nodded.

Okay.

All right.

A start.

He began to draw me from the room as I thought, Now what did I do?

I caught Edgar’s eyes, he narrowed his at me warningly, and I started to breathe funny.

I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I was going to have to come up with something.

Loren didn’t take me to the yellow, cream and green sitting room. He took me to a room that could only be described as a kind of this-world family room. It had warm, deep colors and comfortable-looking furniture, but was still stately and refined.

He closed the door behind us.

And as it would seem was his way, he got there first.

“Countess, you’re safe here. I can well imagine what your life has been like with that man, and I’m now realizing the answers to a number of questions, including why you remained in Fleuridia as long as you did. But there are laws against this type of behavior. This isn’t your mother’s times. We have a new king. And you have my promise, we will see what is to come between us, but my father and I both will be certain you are seen to in the manner to which you’re accustomed.”

“You can’t make him leave,” I blurted.

“My lady—”

I tugged my hand from his, wrapped both around the sides of his neck, pulled him down to me, got up on my toes, met him nose to nose, and whispered, “Loren, you cannot make him leave. We must mend this. Now.”

He stared into my eyes and said not a word.

“I can’t explain it, just, I beg of you, play nice. Go back to that room, share with your father that I’m a klutz—”

“A klutz?”

“Clumsy. Awkward. Two left feet. Whatever…just—”

“I don’t know what hold he has on you, my lady,” he said gently. “But you shall understand freedom. He will be sent from here, but we will be calling the royal inspectors immediately to investigate this. He’ll be jailed, he’ll be fined, and he won’t be able to get to you again.”

Oh my God!

It was getting worse.

If Edgar was jailed, I’d never find Mom.

And even worse, he might do something to her beforehand, or if he wasn’t around at least to pay whoever was giving her gruel, she’d starve to death.

And the same would befall Maxine.

“Lor…your grace, don’t.” I squeezed his neck. “Honestly, it’s not that I fear him, or I’ve known nothing but this so I expect it, or anything like that. I just…Dad and I have a weird—”

He lifted his hands to wrap his fingers around my wrists, and he carefully pried away my hold.

“You must know, seeing what we’ve seen, it’s our duty to attend to you, sweeting,” he said gently.

Shit, shit, shit!

Why did this guy have to be a good guy? Tall and strong and interesting and tender and principled.

Fuck!

“Stay here,” he bid. “It’ll all be resolved shortly. I’ll come to get you, we’ll have dinner. In the meantime, I’ll send someone to pour you a sherry so you can calm yourself, and bring you a cold compress, to perhaps contain some of the swelling.”

With that, he gave my wrists a squeeze then let go.

He started walking away.

Goddamn it.

There was nothing for it.

“He’s holding my mother and sister captive until I marry you,” I said to his back.

Loren froze, statue still, his back to me.

I sounded like a lunatic.

I had no choice.

“I know it sounds insane, because it is, because he’s a huge di…I mean, uh, cad, but it’s true. I didn’t want to…didn’t want to…come home. From Fleuridia. Because, obviously, he’s awful. And my sister, she’s…not right. She needs to be somewhere where they can look after her. And…and…and…”

I trailed off because he’d been turning, slowly, as I spoke, and now he was facing me with a carefully blank look on his face that was scaring the beads off me.

“I know I sound mad,” I said quietly. “But it’s true. And I was playing his game until I could discover where they were, rescue them, spirit them away, and then…um, I don’t know. I was making it up as I went along. But then he hit me, and it hurt a lot…”

I got off that tangent fast when his mood started heating my skin again.

“And I was dazed and made a mistake and now we have to go in there and pretend it’s all right and…uh…your grace?”

I called after him in the end because he’d turned on his shiny, black evening boot and was prowling out of the room.

Uh-oh.

“I think I just made mistake two, goddamn it,” I snapped to myself.