★ELOWEN★
My husband came home for lunch as he had promised. We sat at the long table, one different from the table we had occupied when I first came to this place.
We sat at either head of the ten-seat dining table. The maidservants finished laying the table.
"Is that where you would prefer to eat?" Azrael asked. I raised my eyebrows in confusion. "I would prefer if you sat on my right."
Oh.
I rose and took my seat at his right, as requested. Lunch commenced.
"Have you gotten to know the servants?" he asked. A relief, that he was no stickler for dining table formalities.
"A few. I know Vanessa." Vanessa was the servant who had mistaken me for a whore. "And the head maidservant, Jeane."
Azrael nodded. "I suspect you spent the remainder of your time in the library?"
A smirk tilted the corner of his lips, and I smiled too. "Yes. I began a book. You possess far more modern titles than you seem to realise." I raised a brow, but Azrael only chuckled. "Do you still have work for the remainder of the day?"
My husband nodded. "Yes. I have paperwork to sign. It shall all be done at home — I am not leaving."
It ought not to have, but his words put me at ease. Azrael was kind and comfortable to be around, though that did not mean I would forget the truth surrounding him.
"Okay."
"We have been invited to a wine tasting event," he said, placing food into his mouth.
I stilled my movements.
"By humans?"
"By humans," he confirmed. "You forget we are in human lands? We must attend such invitations if we are to belong." He said it with conviction, yet I did not miss the quiet sigh the words came with. Even he did not relish the thought.
"Okay."
"Are you frightened of humans?"
I shook my head slowly. "Not precisely frightened. But humans can be fearsome creatures. Were they ever to discover we are not the ordinary souls they believe us to be, I am quite certain things would go down the drain. The wrong drain entirely."
Azrael chuckled. "Indeed they would. That is precisely why, when we attend, we must appear as one of them."
"What of your eyes?" The question left my lips before I had even thought to hold it back. I pressed my lips together. "I am sorry—"
"It is quite alright, darling. My eyes would stir things they ought not to. I have contact lenses. A fortunate thing that they do not irritate me."
"Okay. That is good to know."
We continued the remainder of our lunch in silence. When he departed for his home office to complete said paperwork, I recalled I had never thought to ask him the date of the wine tasting event.
I retreated to the library to continue the book I had started. I read until Vanessa came to call me for dinner. I had never known there was a reader in me. But, God — books were a lovely thing.
We walked together along the way to the dining room.
"Do the servants here get breaks?" I asked.
Vanessa looked up at me with a surprise she did not entirely conceal. It was the same gaze she had given me when I asked for her name — as though she could scarcely believe I had forgiven her for the impression she had made upon our first meeting.
"Yes," she murmured. "We do get breaks. But it is staggered — we do not all take them at once. So that some may remain and assist Jeane and Alpha King Azrael."
"Yes, I understand." I halted; she stopped with me. We were near the same height. She was beautiful, with calm, light blue eyes that put me in mind of Alia — they shared the very same colour. "I know someone you would like," I said, and resumed our steps.
"Really?"
"Yes. Her name is Alia. She is kind. I said that if I live a week or more, I would bring her here and employ her."
A pitiful look crossed Vanessa's gaze. She likely thought I had not noticed it. "Okay," she whispered.
★
Dinner with Azrael was much like lunch had been. He told me the date of the wine tasting event was the first of December — still a fortnight away.
If I lived to see the first of December, I would go to Thanksgiving service at church.
"You will go shopping for new gowns?" Azrael asked, still eating.
"Yes. Yes, I will," I agreed with a nod.
"Good." He nodded. We continued the rest of our meal in silence.
After dinner, we retired to our bedchamber. Azrael gave me space to bathe and change into another of the alluring nightgowns. Again, I drew a robe over it. He entered shortly after, dressed in a mahogany robe and pyjama bottoms, his bare torso a quiet feast for the eyes. I noted a few scars and tattoos upon his skin. He lay beside me on the left while I took the right. We lay facing one another.
"You do not hide it very well." Azrael spoke suddenly, and my heart lurched into my throat. Was he speaking of my scent? Lord. I had not applied the perfume today.
"Hide what?" My voice came out unsteady.
"Your fear. I am certain you go about counting the days you have left with me." His tone carried a strange, unreadable quality.
I exhaled, relieved. "I cannot help it."
"I know," he murmured. We regarded each other for a few heartbeats. "You will not die so easily."
"But I shall die, all the same."
Azrael laughed — a true laugh, not a chuckle or a scoff. "I suppose so." He lifted a shoulder.
It was a strange thing, to speak of death so lightly. Azrael was a comfortable being — deeply, surprisingly comfortable to be near. I thought that whatever days I spent with him would be worth something. More worth something than the Stormrider home had ever been.
Azrael lifted his hand and tucked my hair behind my ear. "You are gorgeous. Have I told you so?"
I shook my head, suddenly breathless. "No."
"You are gorgeous," he repeated, and my heart performed its peculiar, traitorous little turn. God, that deep, low voice of his was reducing my every sensible thought to nothing.
I did not wish to entertain the notion that Azrael harboured any romantic feeling for me. If anything, it was mere lust — it was simply not possible to genuinely like a person one had only just met, over the course of so few days.
Though I was not entirely certain the same could be said of myself.