Worries. Controls. That looks about the same from Jakob.
Mum stands up. “I guess I’d better speak to the cook seeing as your fiancé is coming to dinner.”
I stop wiping my face. “He’s what?”
“We arranged it on the phone,” she said, and from her grim tone I suppose that he invited himself. She must be worried about me and Dad if she’s allowing him to sit at our dinner table. Mum shakes her head as she heads out of my room, as if she wishes it wasn’t happening.
A few minutes later, I go downstairs to find Mum in the dining room, arranging a centerpiece of autumn leaves and creamy dahlias while the staff set the table. I examine the place settings. “You’re putting out the best silver and porcelain.”
Her lips press into a thin line as she tucks a tiny golden pumpkin in among the dahlias. “He’s an important man to His Majesty. It would be rude not to treat him like a guest.”
I stare at the place settings. Jakob’s getting his own way in this house, too. How does he do that? Next there’ll be a ring on my finger and I’ll be walking down the aisle. This isn’t how I want my life to go.
“Mum, I’m going out for a bit.”
She looks up in surprise. “But I thought it wasn’t safe for you to leave the house.”
“I’ll take Jakob’s guards with me. I’ll be fine, I promise. I’m not going very far.”
“But Sachelle…”
Before she can go on, I run upstairs, change into jeans and grab my bag, and head out to the front gate to Jakob’s men.
“Can you take me to Jakob, please?” I ask one of the gray-uniformed guards.
He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, we were given orders that you aren’t to leave the premises, Lady Sachelle.”
“But it’s Jakob I want you to take me to see.” The guards stand there dithering, and I stand up straight and raise my voice. “I’ll tell my obsessed fiancé that you all tried to stop me from seeing him, shall I?”
That does the trick. They flank me as we walk around the corner to where a black car is parked. One of them drives and the other sits in the back with me, continuously looking left and right and out the rear window. After yesterday’s incident with the truck, I find myself watching the traffic, too.
As I walk into Jakob’s office, he glares at me, sparks of fury dancing in his eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to my fiancé,” I reply, sitting down in the chair opposite his desk and crossing my legs.
“Sachelle, I’m busy.”
“You’re not too busy for dinner at Balzac House tonight, so you’re not too busy to talk to me now.”
Jakob folds his arms and sits back. “I can see something’s got up that pretty nose of yours. Well?”
I gaze at my handsome husband-to-be. He wants me, so I’m going to use this to my advantage. “The very first time I met you, I asked you to help my cousin and you turned me down flat. Ever since then, Jakob Rasmussen has been the one to get everything his way, and I’m sick of it.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Wasn’t what?”
“The first time we met. We first talked when your mother asked me to come around on some trivial family matter and I got punched in the face. If anyone owes anything, then the Balzacs owe me.”
“Your bloodied nose for my life, body and fortune isn’t a fair trade.”
“So, what do you want, my lady?” he asks through clenched teeth.
“What I always wanted. If you want to sit at our dining table like an honored guest and pretend that Lady Sachelle is thrilled to be marrying you, then you’re going to do something for me. Let Briar and the others out of jail.”
“I can’t.”
I shoot to my feet. “Yes, you can! You’re bullying them for no reason other than that they don’t agree with how Paravel is being run. All you care about is getting your way, and screw everyone else.”
His face darkens. “So, that’s what you really think of me.”
“It’s how you are. You don’t care about me. If it wasn’t for my father being sick, I’d tell my parents everything that’s happened and they would tell you to go to hell. You’d never see me again. Maybe they’d be angry with me for being mixed up with protesters, but I wouldn’t care because I wouldn’t be marrying you.”
The room echoes with my shout and then falls eerily quiet.
“And yet he is sick, and you’re playing with fire,” Jakob says icily. He comes out from behind his desk and his hand closes around my upper arm. “You’re so desperate to see the inside of a jail cell, and I must give my bride everything she wants.”
He steers me out of his office and marches me down the corridor.