good accountant must know how to prepare for losses. How to counteract them and not be blindsided by them. Thankfully, I know how to protect myself in this situation. As for Elliot…
I shake the thought from my mind and pull my lips into a warm grin. “Try one of the chairs, Mr. Rochester. Please.”
He grumbles but finally relents, choosing the seat closest to the fire. It takes him a few moments to settle in and find that slouch of his. Once he does, there’s no denying the truth; it’s written all over his face. “Fine,” he says. “This chair is adequate.”
I clap my hands together in triumph and take the seat opposite him. His gaze turns to the flames and I suddenly can’t recall what reason I’d had for sitting down in the first place. Surely, I should leave him to enjoy the first peaceful moment he’s had in the parlor all week.
I’m about to rise when his eyes flash to me. “Stay,” he says.
I settle back in, expecting conversation, but his gaze returns to the hearth, and we fall into silence. I’ve never been too comfortable with being still, not without a book at the very least. It doesn’t take long before words reach my lips, begging to be free.
“I never thanked you,” I say.
“For what?” he says, not looking at me.
“For standing up to my father. I appreciate what you did—confessing who you are, despite your desire to remain anonymous.”
“He was stinking up my property,” he says flatly, but there’s a gentleness in his tone that betrays his act of disinterest.
I study him for a few moments, replaying the event in my mind. There’s one thing I haven’t quite figured out. “How did you know to tell him you pay his salary? Surely, the king isn’t personally responsible for paying every citizen. But when you said that about my father, it was true.”
“I know who he is,” Elliot says. “He’s the owner of the quartz mine my court recently acquired rights to. The quartz from that mine has filled my own vault. In turn, his contract with the Winter Court has made him a wealthy man.”
I furrow my brow. “Did you know all along? When you captured me? When you planned on holding me for ransom?”
He shakes his head. “Bertha told me the day after I brought you here. Before that, I only knew what I’d read in the documents I’d been delivered to sign, that my court had acquired new quartz and that the seelie king and I would be paying the salary of a man who had brought it.”
“Wait, how did Bertha know who my father is?”
He barks a laugh and meets my eyes. “Apparently, your father is a popular specimen amongst the people of Vernon. She’d already heard your family name weeks before she met you.”
“How? She’s…fae. Doesn’t she live in some cabin out here in the woods?”
“She may be fae, but she loves gossip nearly as much as those wretched humans do. When she goes to town, she hides her ears, and the townspeople share all the latest news. Luckily, I trust her not to ever mention me.”
I can imagine the easy-mannered Bertha charming gossip from the people of Vernon, leaving them no clue that she’s actually a fae bear shopping for dinner supplies to feed a pack of cursed wolves. Which reminds me…
I sit up straighter in my chair, my stomach buzzing with excitement. Or is it trepidation? “Mr. Rochester, I think it’s time.”
“For what?”
“To invite Imogen Coleman to meet you.”
He blinks a few times, then frowns at the fire. “All right. That’s your phase two, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I was just planning it out when you came in. I think we should host a casual dinner party.”
His head swivels back to me, eyes wide. “A dinner party? Does that mean…more than just the human girl?”
“Trust me, I’m not any more pleased about that than you are, but yes. I think, to impress her, we should host a dinner with a small selection of important families. I’ll ask Imogen to decide who to invite, so that she feels like she’s been given a distinguished task. What it will really do is make her recognize her own desire and possessiveness when she finds herself excluding any eligible young women to compete with.”
He groans. “How many guests are you subjecting me to?”
I lean forward, my tone placating. “I’ll tell her no more than three families. She’ll bring the most tiresome and uninteresting people in town, only