added.
He didn’t agree, but he stopped himself from saying it aloud. She struck him as the type who would have no problem going through a person’s life story and picking it apart, finding the flaws and the weaknesses. Then again, the point of therapy was to do just that, so those points could be healed or shored up, and he wasn’t completely sure if that was her intent. Some people, he’d come to learn, simply enjoyed picking at the frayed edges of the fabric to see what would unravel.
“I’m sure you have better things to do than stand around and listen to me prattle on,” Blair said, turning and waving over her shoulder. “Tell your father I said hello for me, would you?”
“I can do that,” Nathaniel told her.
“And tell Sonia I said hello too.”
And with that, she was gone, leaving him to watch her departure with a mixture of bemusement and wonder. It was a strange thought, but he was beginning to wonder if Blair was one of those rare people who found a place in the lives their families expected them to live. Not out of requirement or necessity, but simply because she’d found her niche and wasn’t afraid to throw her weight around if need be.
He wasn’t sure who he envied more, her or her cousin, Theo.
After leaving the gallery, he had been sorely tempted to wander about the city for a little while. The problem with that was, he knew his driver was sitting less than a block away, waiting for Nathaniel to leave. If he decided to go walking around aimlessly, the man would follow him, albeit at a distance. Besides completely ruining the appeal of a solo walk, the driver undoubtedly would have reported everything back to the Carter patriarch. And the last thing Nathaniel needed was to have his father asking why he decided to go off schedule.
So, he’d allowed himself to be driven out of the inner city all the way to the edge of town. There, the massive estate that formed the Carter ancestral home waited for him. The Carter’s, right along with the Atkins, and Thompsons, had all been the founding families of Port Dale when it had been little more than a tiny mining town. Of course, all three families had grown beyond their original humble means, something they prided themselves on, even as they left all semblance of humbleness behind.
The massive estate, centered around the three-story, sprawling building at the center, took up a great deal of space on the edge of Port Dale. Surrounded by brick walls, accessible only by massive gates, it towered over the rest of the landscape. That was partly due to the fact that the ancestors who had built the house had chosen to build it upon the massive bluffs that lined the southwest edges of Port Dale.
The rest was because the house was simply huge. Nathaniel had wondered more than once why they needed three stories, three wings, and the dozens of rooms that made up the vast estate. And that wasn’t even counting the oversized guest houses, four in total, and the decently sized servants quarters as well. Of course, in the modern-day, the servants all had their own titles, fair wages, and a massive amount of non-disclosure agreements to sign, but their roles hadn’t changed.
“Thank you,” he murmured to the driver once they rounded the curve of the driveway to the front door.
Personally, he would have preferred to use one of the side entrances. Using the front doors, twice the size of normal doors, felt encumbering and unnecessary. His father, however, said that the majesty of them made all the difference. When one is high, one should use the best, at least according to his father. Nathaniel privately thought it was just a load of smoke and mirrors but had long since learned to keep his mouth shut regarding such thoughts.
He had to repress another cringe when the doors opened as he mounted the steps. Sure enough, two men, impeccably dressed, stood with their hands on the inside handles of each door, waiting for him.
“Thank you, Peter, Ethan,” he muttered to them as he stepped through.
The older of the two stood straighter. “Forgive me, sir, but Mr. Carter requested that you join him in his study when you arrive home.”
Nathaniel resisted the urge to sigh. Of course, his father wanted to see him.
“Thank you, Peter,” he told him.
Flashing them a smile, he stepped across the pristinely white marble floor to