Chapter Forty-eight
As Paradise descended the grand staircase of her home, she held up the flowing skirt of her pale blue gown. With each step she took, she thought of the night one week before, when she had come down to find Anslam there on the marble, waiting for her as if there was nothing out of sorts, nothing wrong, nothing threatening.
For a split second, her mental wires got crossed and a shimmy of adrenaline shot down her spine.
Doc Jane had been right: The concussion had healed and so had the bruises, but her brain had a new pathway, one that had been forged quickly, but permanently. The conditioned fear response wasn’t going to be a prison, though. Mary was helping her make sure of that.
As she got to the last step, her father emerged from the library. “Oh … Paradise.”
With a dip of her head and body, she curtsied to him. “Father.”
“You look like your mother.”
When he held out his hands, she went to him. “That is the most perfect compliment.”
“Well, it is true.” Guiding her in a twirl before him, he smiled. “And I have something for you.”
“Oh?”
“Come.”
Drawing her into the study and over to the desk, he presented her with a flat red box with a signature golden border. “These were hers.”
“Father…”
“No, come now. You must open it.”
Paradise’s hands began to tremble as she accepted the box and toggled the top open. As she gasped, he stepped in and took the antique diamond rivière from its satin bed.
“There are forty-eight diamonds, one for each of the first forty-eight years I spent with your beloved mahmen. On this night, I give it to you free and clear in the same manner I give to you my love and respect. I couldn’t be—”
“Wait.” She stopped him. Shook her head. “I can’t accept that.”
“Why ever not?”
As his face fell, she closed her eyes. “I have to tell you something. It’s…”
Unable to stay still, she began to walk in a tight circle. All she could think about was that conversation they had had about love, and class, and how he wanted her to have an aristocratic match like he and her mother had had.
But unlike before she’d gone into the training program, she had a much better sense of who she was now. And even if it broke his heart, she was going to love whoever she wanted, regardless of station, class, or ranking.
“Father, I’m in love with a male. He’s a commoner, and I don’t care. More to the point, I don’t believe that makes him any less valuable than anyone else. Craeg is—”
“Finally!” he exclaimed. “Finally!” He pulled her in and kissed her on both cheeks. “I’ve been waiting all week!”
“What—wait, what?”
“Peyton told me.”
“What!”
“And I agree with you. Craeg is a male of worth—and I totally approve. You may have all my blessings.”
Paradise frowned and shook her head. “Father … I don’t understand. Just last week you were telling me that I needed to mate an aristocrat. I know Craeg saved my life, but you can’t do a one-eighty like that and expect me to believe it.”
“My darling,” he said with a recoil, “when did I tell you that you had to mate a member of the glymera?”
“We were having First Meal before I went out—and you were saying that I had to have a mating like you and mahmen had. Two aristocrats set up by their families.”
“No, I said your mahmen and I found true love. That’s what I want for you. The true-love part—as long as the male is good to you, I do not care where he hails from. I have long watched the travails of our class and been summarily unimpressed. Balls and parties are fine, but one must return home with the person to whom one is mated. That is far more significant than any pedigree—and I shall make no apologies to anyone if there is talk—”
Paradise launched herself at her father and squeezed the dickens out of him. “I love you so much I’m going to cry!”
Her father, her dear, wonderful, perfect father, laughed and held her in return. “Will you allow me to put this necklace on you now? And will you finally admit that Craeg is attending to you this eve?”
“Yes, yes, he’s coming! Oh, he is! I can’t wait for you to meet him properly and get to know him.”
“Nor can I, my love … nor can I.”
Thirty minutes later, with streams of glittering guests arriving through the front entrance and proceeding down the hall to the ballroom, Paradise thought … well, at least she assumed Craeg was coming.
He’d told her he was coming.
Really, he had.
Standing just inside the ballroom’s upper level, at the head of the grand staircase that took guests down to the dance floor, she searched the crowd. She didn’t think it was possible that she’d missed his arrival. Certainly not with the butler announcing everyone as they came in before they descended to the party below.
She’d been well aware that he’d seemed a little uncomfortable at the idea of escorting her, but he wasn’t the type to back down. Especially not where she was concerned—
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Peyton,” she murmured as she turned to her friend.
As they embraced, she glanced behind him, hoping to see … nope, no Craeg.
“Wow, nice ice.” Peyton leaned in and checked out her necklace. “Where’s your man?”
“I don’t know.” She frowned. “And I thought you were bringing that female, what’s her name?”
“Oh, her. Yeah. No. Her father called mine and asked what my intentions were. I’m not about to get entangled with that stuff.”
“Why didn’t you ask Novo then?”
“Don’t know where you got that idea.” He surveyed the crowd. “Well, time to find a date. Anyone in our generation here, or is it full of old farts—wait, look, I think there’s a female over there with her own teeth still.”
“Peyton. You should have asked Novo.”
“Who?” He kissed her on the cheek. “Laters.”
As he sauntered down the red-carpeted steps into the crowd, he attracted all kinds of attention, a reminder that her best friend was a very viable commodity in the glymera.
The poor bastard.
And there was another reason she was worried about him, for him. Ever since the night at her house with Anslam, Peyton had closed up. On the surface he was just the same, but she knew him at a level other people didn’t.
Something had changed in him, and he wasn’t talking about it. Then again, a friend of his had killed a relation. That was a lot of grief to process.
God, she wished he’d talk to her. To someone.
As music swelled and couples began to make it to the center of the ballroom, she fluffed her skirts out a little and realized she’d wanted to share this with Craeg—but that might be asking too much of him. Most males would find this a snooze—or worse, a curse.
Well, fine. She didn’t have to go to these things. And she could wear her damn diamonds in her bathrobe and be perfectly happy. After all, what made the necklace important was that it had been her mother’s and was now hers.
Yup, her father was so right. As fancy as this crowd was, with their gowns and their jewels and their airs, it was a flat experience to stand among them. Even though she belonged here by right of birth, she was totally apart, and really pretty uninterested—
“Is there a better band coming later?”
Wheeling around, she smiled like crazy—and then stopped. Put a hand to her mouth. Took a step back.
Craeg shook his head and looked down at himself in horror. “Damn it, Butch swore to me this contraption fit. He swore it.”
“You are…”
Her male was flat-out 007-gorgeous in his white tie and tails and his patent-leather shoes, looking as tall and distinguished as anybody else in the room. Although it was funny … she liked him just as much in his jeans and his baseball cap.
Or nothing at all. Even better.
“Wait, is that … my father’s ceremonial sword?” she blurted, blinking through sudden tears.
Craeg smoothed the gold sheath that hung off his left hip. “He was waiting for me when I got here. He insisted I wear this tonight. He said he would have it beneath no one else’s dagger hand when his daughter was presented to society with a male escort for the first time.”
Paradise had to clear her throat. “That is … an immense honor.”
“I know.”
“And you got your hair cut,” she said. Although as soon as she spoke, she wanted to kick herself in the ass. “I mean—”
“I was pretty shaggy.”
She jumped up and hugged him. “Thankyousomuchforcomingimsohappyyourehere—”
Craeg laughed in that great baritone he had started to use and he held her in that great way he did, up close to his body so she could feel his strength. “I would have been here sooner, but my ride was getting busy.”
“You made it. That’s all that matters—and oh, my God, you are hot.”
“And you are…” He put some space between them and seemed to look at her properly for the first time. “Wow. That is some dress, and … are those real? Those are real … that one in the middle is the size of my thumbnail.”
“It was my mahmen’s.”
“It’s almost as beautiful as you are.”
As they talked, she was very aware that they were being sized up and spoken about, and there would be scandal, yes, there would be.
Fuck ’em, she thought as she hooked her arm in his. “Come with me?”
“Anywhere you take me, tonight and always.”
Leading her male over to the head of the stairway, she nodded at Fedricah, who immediately bowed in deference to Craeg.
“Sire. My honor to see you this eve.”
And then the doggen turned to the crowd and in his best, most formal voice announced in the Old Language, “Mistress Paradise, blooded daughter of Abalone, First Adviser to Wrath, son of Wrath, sire of Wrath, and the honorable Craeg, son of Brahl the Younger, bestowed of the King’s Award of Valor last eve for services rendered unto the royal court.”
A hush silenced the crowd, and then a ripple of conversation overtook even the orchestra.
Meanwhile, Craeg recoiled. “What was all that? I got what? They did who?”
Paradise patted his hand. “My father told Wrath you saved my life, and the King gave you a title. But I loved you just as much before. You were supposed to find out tomorrow evening—I think our butler got a little overexcited.”
“What?”
“Technically, you’re an aristocrat now.”
“WHAT.”
“Pay no attention.” She met him right in the eye. “It doesn’t change anything—well, except tacitly tell the haters to f-themselves.”
Craeg blinked and then chuckled as he looked out over the assembly. “Let’s do this, my Paradise. And then maybe we can find a private spot?”
She leaned in. “I already have one in mind.”
“That’s my female, oh, yeah.”
Stepping forward with him, she didn’t look at the crowd. They weren’t even in the room for all she knew.
No, she was looking at her fine male.
“You know something,” she said with love as they descended to the black-and-white marble dance floor.
“What?”
“I am the luckiest female on the planet. Right here, right now.”
Yup, she thought as his chest puffed with pride. She knew exactly who she was … and who she was with—and they were a helluva pair.
“I love you,” he whispered as he swept her into his arms. “Dance with me.”