“Try it on,” he said.
He took hold of my shoulders and turned me towards a mirror. I stood frozen as he brushed my hair aside, his expression fixed with concentration as he undid the clasp and fastened it around my neck. My senses seemed magnified, and I felt everything keenly: the brush of his wrist against my shoulder, the warmth of his breath on my hair, the faint scent of apples on his hands.
When he was finished, he eyed our reflection. “The Jewelers’ Guild had it made expressly for you – they sent it to you at dinner, but you weren’t there.”
It was like ice water had been poured through my veins. “Oh,” I said. “How kind of them.”
He frowned. “You don’t like it.”
“It’s… cold.” I moved, needing to put distance between us. I could sense his confusion and it made my own thoughts seem scattered. “Everything here is beautiful!” I said, my voice bordering on a shout. “Everything. But it doesn’t mean anything because I’m always alone.”
“You’re rarely alone,” he replied warily.
“That’s not what I mean!” I pressed my hands to my temple as I struggled to articulate myself. “Everyone around me is there because they’ve been told they have to be. By you, your father, your aunt! No one cares about me except for what they think I can do for them. And now,” I clenched my teeth. “Now, I’m about to send you off to ensure that the only people who do care about me think I’m dead. Soon I’ll be nothing, no one to anyone.”
“I see.” His voice was toneless.
Suddenly the necklace broke away from my neck. I watched helplessly as it rose up into the air and rent into countless pieces before dropping into a heap on the carpet.
“Why did you do that?” I shouted.
“It was ill-considered.”
I dropped to my knees and touched the scattered bits of jewels and metal. “You didn’t consider it at all,” I said bitterly. “Someone else did.”
Tristan turned his back on me and I watched him grip the edge of the desk so hard the wood groaned in protest. “I can’t do this,” he muttered.
“Do what?” I asked.
Silence.
“Victoria and Vincent,” he finally said, not turning around. “They are more than passing fond of you. And Marc, well, I didn’t think there was anything that could breathe life back into him, but you seem to have managed. And given the amount of time you spend with all three, I can only assume the fondness is mutual. Avail yourself of them, and perhaps you will find the warmth you’re lacking.”
Before I could think of anything to say to that, he was gone, the door left swinging from the force of his departure.
CHAPTER 16
CéCILE
“Cécile, I thought you said this would be fun.”
I glanced up from my contemplation of the swirling water of the river. “I said no such thing, Vincent. You asked how ‘we human folk went about catching fish’ and I said that I would show you. You said that it sounded like fun.”
“That’s true,” Victoria declared, looking up from the worms she had lined up on a rock in an attempt to get them to race. “Although I must say, Cécile, this technique of fish-catching seems flawed, as we have caught none. What we have done is sit in a row for nearly an hour, listening to Marc’s dreadful conversation and watching you stare pensively at the water.”
“Sorry,” I said. “Fishing is better done at dawn and dusk.” I squinted up at rock above. “Although I’m not certain that matters as much here.”
“I find it rather relaxing,” Marc said from where he lounged across a rock on my right. “It would be the perfect activity if you two could stand to be quiet for more than a minute.”
“I expect no more from you, Marc,” Victoria replied. “But Cécile is usually far more entertaining than this.” She poked me in the ribs. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Tristan and I quarreled at breakfast,” I muttered. “I’m afraid he put me in a poor mood.”
“About what?”
“Apparently I chew too loudly.”
“That is a very annoying habit,” Victoria said. “So is this.” She threw a handful of worms at me. I tried to dodge, but the wriggling mass landed square on my skirts.
“What happened to the farm girl I once knew?” she teased. In response, I picked one up and pretended to eat it. Then I tossed it on Marc’s sleeve.