Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
He was saying this to make me feel better.
I knew I didn’t have to share that, until it happened, we didn’t know there were trolls.
Until it happened, we didn’t know Tatra had spirited away decommissioned battlecraft to use for her nefarious ends.
Until we discovered it, we didn’t know there was a drug that counteracted the effects of truth serum.
I knew he remembered all of this.
And I knew this was why Nayden was right then tapping relentlessly on the display of his Palm, getting someone to analyze that pic.
So I knew they were on it.
I also understood I shouldn’t sit on the kind of sensation I had last night.
I was an heiress, former party girl, art connoisseur and future queen.
I was no warrior.
But that didn’t mean what I sensed and felt should be dismissed.
And I was a member of this team.
I had to hold up my end of the deal.
As such, without Tanyn saying anything, I said quietly, “I won’t do that again.”
He still said nothing.
But he moved in to kiss me.
So he didn’t have to.
“This is great, Yorna, thank you,” I said as Yorna and I finished unpacking my cases.
This was our final task, since we’d sorted out Laura and Aleksei’s, Aleece’s and Gayle’s things too.
The closet in Tanyn’s and my chamber was filling up.
Though, I had work to do. Especially on Tanyn’s side.
“My pleasure, Ms. Truelock,” Yorna replied, looking and sounding like she meant it (what a difference getting paid what you deserved made). “Anything else?”
“I think I’m good,” I said.
She nodded and strode out.
When she left, I moved to one of the rails and trailed my finger along my clothing hanging there.
I then hit the shelving holding my shoes at a tilt, and I straightened a red pump.
I was home.
Again.
I’d left home.
And came home.
“Yes, this is going to work,” I said to the pump right before Hurley bounded in.
I looked down at him, before I crouched and gave him a full-body rubdown.
Unsurprisingly, his daddy trailed him.
He didn’t fully come into the closet though.
He didn’t even look around.
He said, “Uly’s back. Estra is with him. They’re both staying for dinner. Cool?”
I smiled brightly at my male.
“Absolutely.”
“Ready for a drink?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” I repeated.
I went to Tanyn.
Hurley trotted beside me.
Tanyn called for the lights in the closet to extinguish.
They did that.
And together with our dog, we walked out of our bedchamber and down the hall to have drinks and dinner with our friends.
At home.
Chapter 27
Later
“We’re just going to have to run with it,” I proclaimed.
It was Wednesday, and I was in my study, sitting in the seating area by the fireplace, having a meeting with Mira, Jorda and Barret about the New Year’s Ball.
Before she was exiled, Tatra had come up with the uninspired theme of Shooting Stars, much of the décor had already been confirmed, and as such, ordered.
Perhaps not incidentally, Queen Calisa’s theme for the Midnight Masque had been “Soaring,” and those weren’t identical, but they were similar, so it almost seemed like a copycat situation.
Alas, at this juncture, I couldn’t throw it out.
Not only because we were operating on time constraints, but also because the castle’s finance department shared the budget for the Ball, it was astronomical, and most of it had already been committed or outright spent on deposits with vendors. I couldn’t make significant changes now, partially because I didn’t want the finance department to think I was a spendthrift like Tatra and Arnaud, but also because I’d already pushed a budget change with the staff salaries. I didn’t need to come to them with another one so soon.
Thus, we were going to have to work the shooting stars thing.
Blech.
“Anyway,” I mumbled, examining my tablet, “I like this moon and clouds installation that guests have to walk through, with all the lights in the clouds and against the background denoting stars. I think we can work with that.”
I wasn’t going to give Tatra credit for what was definitely a kickass design, since it was probably some talented party planner who came up with it. Though, whoever they were had been erased from any of the documentation so Tatra could assume the credit.
The ways she could be a bitch seemed to have no end.
“I do have some, um…suggestions for, uh…changes in the catering that we have, erm…plenty of time to implement,” Barret said haltingly.
I turned my attention to her.
She appeared terrified.
Therefore, I smiled at her. “Let’s see them.”
She tapped her tablet, I heard the bing on mine, and I pulled up the new doc.
I scanned it.
And my smile was wider when I aimed it again to her. “This is excellent.”
Barret returned my smile tentatively as pink tinged her cheeks. “It would be the same cost, but more creative.”
“I love it,” I replied. “Let’s go for it.”
Barret’s eyes brightened with excitement and her smile became a beam.
“All the designers I reached out to are keen to accept the commission to design your gown and confirmed they’d make the time to craft it,” Jorda butted in. “A couple of them already sent sketches. I’m pinging those to you.”