Chapter 1
“Corisande. Where was my driver taking me?”
Her fingers tightened around the engagement ring.
She looked toward the driveway again.
Wrong direction.
I stayed beside my mother.
Merewyn’s hearing aids lay on the folded napkin between us, wet with champagne. Tessara stood on the other side of the table, one hand still shining with spilled wine.
Corisande forced a laugh.
“Home.”
My mother gripped my sleeve harder.
“No.”
Her voice was thin without the hearing aids, but certain.
I looked at her.
“What did you hear?”
She leaned closer so she could read my face.
“Briar House.”
Everything inside me stopped.
Corisande closed her eyes.
There.
Briar House had been empty for twenty-seven years.
My father closed it after his younger brother Lucius was accused of betraying Veynham and driven from the family.
No receptions.
No staff.
No reason for my driver to take me there after midnight.
I looked at Tessara.
“What exactly did Mother overhear?”
Tessara swallowed.
“Miss Corisande told Mr. Shaw you were to leave through the west drive after the toast.”
My driver.
Nathaniel Shaw.
Seven years with me.
“And?”
“She said no escort.”
Corisande snapped:
“That isn’t what I said.”
Tessara flinched.
I turned toward my fiancée.
“No interruptions.”
Silence.
Tessara continued.
“She told him someone would meet the car before Briar House.”
My mother touched the table.
Then slowly said:
“Her father.”
Corisande went pale.
Interesting.
Her father, Ambrose Hollingby, was supposed to be in Chicago tonight.
I looked at her.
“Is Ambrose waiting at Briar House?”
She whispered:
“Not only him.”
Around us, guests had stopped pretending not to listen.
I lowered my voice.
“Who else?”
She looked toward the driveway one more time.
Then said:
“Men your father destroyed.”
That changed everything.
May you like
This was no wedding surprise.
It was an old war being brought to my engagement.
