Preferably with two bedrooms, one for my sister when she visited and one for me.
One would work as well, I supposed. We’d shared a bed plenty of times before. It might be nice to huddle up and pretend we were still young and carefree.
When I opened my eyes, I found Rían staring at me, his head tilted.
“That’s what I would’ve wished for,” I explained, tugging the hem of the dress to cover my bare feet, gritty from the sand beneath the stones. “A place of my own where I could live as I chose without anyone telling me what to do. What to wear. Who to marry.” I could sell flowers in the market and grow my own vegetables. It would be a simple life but one that belonged to me.
“If you could have anything in the world, you’d want a shack and some flowers?” Snorting, Rían added more bits of wood to the fire. “Humans are so disappointing.”
I snagged another stone and threw it at his back. “All right, almighty prince. What would you wish for?”
The ghost of a dimple appeared as he peered down at his clenched hands. “Someone took something precious from me long ago. If I could have anything in the world, I would make her pay for it with her life.”
I understood wanting someone to suffer. I thought of Lady Eithne. I’d hated the woman for years. But now that she was gone, I realized her death hadn’t fixed anything.
It hadn’t taken away my guilt.
It hadn’t brought Charlie back.
Her suffering was just that.Hersuffering.
It hadn’t eased mine.
“You’d honestly rather punish the person than have the item returned?” I asked.
Rían’s penetrating gaze met mine.
“Sounds like a waste of a wish to me,” I said, standing and brushing off my skirts.
Rían could keep his vengeance.
All I wanted was a shack and some flowers.
17
The woolly grayclouds hovering overhead looked as if one poke would flood the entire town.
“You’re awfully chipper for a woman claiming she doesn’t want to get married,” Keelynn grumbled, trudging by my side toward the first of three stops.
“I’m trying to make the best of things,” I told her.
Our father had met me on the back patio with a to-do list of useless tasks for a wedding that wouldn’t happen.
When I finished them, I wanted to swing by Dame Meranda’s. Padraig had delivered her a trunk of my dresses, along with a note explaining my desire to sell the lot. She was the only one I trusted to give me a fair price.I would need funds to start my new life. I had a little in savings, along with the few pieces of my mother’s jewelry that she’d left to me. I didn’t want to sell those but would if it came down to it.
Somewhere between my father’s house and town, it struck me: Keelynn may be the one marrying Robert in the end. If that was the case, I was planning her wedding, not mine.
Tarnett’s dressmakers was empty at this hour, with most people enjoying lunch in the pubs and tea houses around town. Dresses and bolts of fabric had been organized into neat rows along the walls, nothing like the mayhem inside Meranda’s cluttered shop.
I collected a deep burgundy day gown from one of the racks, holding it against my chest. The color didn’t suit, and I’d never have a chance of fitting into the thing.
On Keelynn, though, it would be a vision. “What do you think of this one?” I asked.
Keelynn traced the lace along a daring evening gown with no back.“Why does it matter what I think?”
“Come on? Please?” A pang of guilt struck my heart. Would she forgive me for what I was about to do? She’d be upset at first, but Robert would be there to comfort her.
A sigh. “It’s beautiful.”