Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

A mber nearly let out a yelp in shock as the hand on her wrist tightened, pulling her away from the others. Her heart pounded in her chest, every fiber of her body screaming at her to find a way to escape. She looked up to see her cousin, Simon, glaring down at her.

"I've been looking for you."

"Why? What is it? Did you need something?" She forced her voice to stay level.

He scoffed. "I think you know what this is about."

She pulled her arm from his hands. "Do we?"

"Yes," he nodded, eyes harder than stone. "You do. Now, stop trying to fight me on this."

"I'm not fighting you on anything."

"That's good because if you were, you wouldn't win. Now, come on already. I have someone to introduce you to. It ideally would have happened as soon as we arrived, but you ran off the second we were through the door for some reason."

Amber looked away, crossing her arms, "It was nothing. I only had something I needed to talk to Mary about."

"I'm sure you did. What might that be if I might ask?"

"You cannot ask." Amber replied. "Conversations between ladies should stay between ladies."

"Is that what you think you are? A lady?"

She squared her shoulders. "It's what my father's title made me. It's what I always will be."

It was a small act of defiance, but it was one, nonetheless. Simon wanted deference. He wanted Amber to show that she knew her place. She had no land or money of her own. Everything she had came from him.

So she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

She would hold her head high and make sure he knew that she knew her worth and value even if he told her that she was wrong. It was a small victory, but sometimes, those are the most important to celebrate.

And celebrate she did. When she saw the rage spark in his eyes, she had to fight the urge to grin. Still, some victories were best celebrated in private, so for now, she would simply tuck the memory away to savor when she was finally blessed with permission to return to her room and lock herself away from the others for the night.

For now, she kept her face a mask of unreadable emotions even as his eyes bore into her.

"Perhaps that was true once, but he is not here now. I am here now, and at the moment, you are nobody. You are simply my cousin. You had best keep that in mind."

"I am well aware of our relationship." You would hardly dare let me forget for even a single moment.

"You had better be. I hope you won't forget again."

For once, she held her tongue.

Simon once more snatched up her wrist. "Bear it in mind, and come with me. We have kept him waiting long enough."

"Slow down!" she called, struggling to keep up after him.

But he didn't even acknowledge that she spoke. Not that she should be surprised. Unless it somehow could benefit him or she forced him to hear, he rarely paid her even the slightest mind.

He dragged Amber across the room, artfully weaving between small clusters of people with the grace and elegance of a cow meandering through a pasture, until she was in front of a man she'd only had the misfortune of personally interacting with once before, and who, once she realized Simon's plan, she had hoped to manage to never see again.

Amber once again found herself cursing her consistently terrible luck. Only that wasn't quite true. She only began having terrible luck after Simon had forced his way into her life.

The man was short with large dark eyes that she'd felt staring at her from across the room ever since the first time she had the displeasure of meeting him.

"Amber," Simon said in a sharp tone, "this is the man I told you about, the Viscount Gillion, Thomas Jones."

She glanced at Simon, heart pounding in her chest. "I see. How nice to meet you, but I should get to the dining room. Dinner is about to be served."

Simon laughed. "You don't need to run off just for that. I arranged for the two of you to sit next to each other. I will meet you both in there."

He walked away but not before shooting Amber one last look to make his expectations clear.

Lord Gillion leered, offering his arm. "Come now, darling Amber. I'll escort you to our seats."

She took a shaky breath; she had little choice but to accept, taking his arm. He led her to the dining hall where, sure enough, they were seated next to each other.

Amber took a deep breath. It was one meal. How bad could it be?

Then he started talking. All Lord Gillion seemed to be able to talk about was how much money he had and the size of his estate.

As they ate, Amber found her eyes scanning over the other guests at the table. It didn't take her long to find where Christopher was seated. He was on the other side of the table, a few seats down. He was besides his sister, and as far as Amber could tell, she was the only one whom he had spoken to.

Every time she glanced over, she found herself realizing just how handsome Christopher actually was. His dark, wavy hair framed his face in a most becoming way. Intelligent hazel eyes sparkled out from his face. He always looked like he knew something no one else did.

Amber couldn't help but wonder what it might be.

The more she stared, the more her thoughts started to drift. Was he truly the best candidate for the job?

On the one hand, he hardly seemed like the most pleasant man; on the other, she knew it would be smart to start getting to know him, if only to make her play easier.

And on a third disembodied hand, now, she was stuck sitting next to who was easily the most unpleasant man she'd ever been forced to endure in her life.

Lord Gillion

"Are you listening, Amber?" he whined.

"Of course," she lied. "Why would you think I wasn't?"

"Because you weren't even looking at me. You were just vacantly staring into space."

"I have a bit of a headache," from listening to you talk.

"You poor thing," he cooed in a patronizing voice. "Perhaps you should go lay down after dinner."

"Yes, I think I will."

Through the rest of the meal, she had a bit of an excuse not to listen to him too closely. She couldn't help but steal glances down at Christoper. He was rather handsome, she thought to herself.

Amber shook her head. What was she thinking? It didn't matter what he looked like. This was purely a practical decision.

She couldn't let herself forget that.

She couldn't risk the consequences if this failed.

"Amber," the man beside her frowned, "I understand you aren't feeling well, but that is no excuse to be a poor conversation partner."

A strange sense of calm entered Amber. Maybe there was more she could do while she waited to see her main plan come to fruition.

"I would apologize, and of course I do, but you should know, I'm rather known for being a bad conversationalist."

He clicked his tongue. "Who told you that? Because I must say I asked around about you before your cousin introduced us, but I have never heard this before."

Her heart pounded in her chest. "Asked around about me?"

"Oh yes. To anyone I could find who knows you."

"And- and what did they say?"

"Everyone I spoke to said that you are an absolute delight. You're spirited and rather fun when you want to be. Everyone I spoke to only made me more sure of my decision." He set his hand on hers, and Amber had to resist the urge to rip her hand away. "I can understand if you're nervous, but you don't need to be. My mind is made up, and once I decide what I want, I don't stop until it's mine."

Her skin crawled, palm sweating under his touch. Finally, he pulled his hand away, and she felt like she could breathe again.

"I suppose I should be glad to see you're so nervous. It's a sign the rumors weren't wrong. You are a proper young lady. Your cousin told me no one has ever courted you before. Is that correct?"

She nodded, eyes locked on her plate.

"That's good. I'm glad to hear it. I understand if that means it takes you a little longer to warm up to me. I can be patient."

"I fear I am not worth your patience. Perhaps you should turn your attention to more worthy endeavors."

He chuckled. "You are being too humble. I assure you, I can think of no more worthy endeavors than this."

Amber couldn't bring herself to eat after that. She pushed her food around her plate and did her best to pretend to listen as he chattered on and on. She wanted nothing more than to go home to her mother. She wondered if the woman had any idea what was happening here. She couldn't.

Amber was confident that if she did, she would never allow it.

When the meal finally ended and people started to disperse, Amber caught Christopher's eye from across the room before slipping towards the door.

Amber slipped down the hall, shut herself into one of the rooms, and waited. Every second felt like hours. All she could do was stand there, heart pounding in her chest. She tried to distract herself by studying the room around her.

It appeared to be Mary's writing room. It had a small bookcase filled with novels, and a few plants littered the corners and shelves. A woman's writing desk took up the space in front of the window, all implements neatly put away in their respective places.

Despite her best efforts to distract herself, Amber's thoughts quickly turned back to Christopher.

She wondered if he would even come.

He had every reason not to trust her after all.

Maybe he would just tell her cousin where she was and what she had asked. If he did, would that really be the worst thing in the world?

Maybe word would even get back to him, and it would be enough of a scandal to make him give up.

Maybe things would be fine even if he didn't come.

Or maybe he wouldn't come and would put the incident from his mind. Amber would wait until late into the night, and nothing would come of it. She would be on her own to find a new accomplice or try and find another way to change her fate.

The more seconds that ticked by, the surer Amber was that he wasn't going to come. Sighing, she glanced at the clock. She'd give it another five minutes, and if he didn't come, she would return to the party alone.

Just as she was about to give up, the door opened behind her. Whoever entered didn't speak. She had no way to know for a minute if it was him here to meet her, someone else by pure coincidence, or Simon, here to reprimand her.

It was now or never.

Amber took a deep breath and turned around.

A few minutes ago

Christopher watched Amber slip from the room before the others had even split into groups. He didn't follow after her right away. If he were a smarter man, he wouldn't follow at all. There was nothing she could want that was worth taking this risk, but he just couldn't help himself.

He was intrigued, and he just needed to know what she could possibly want. So he gave it a few minutes after she left then moved to follow after her, but as he moved to step away, he was intercepted by Felicity.

"Where are you off to, brother?" she asked.

"I was just going to step away to talk to someone for a moment. I won't be long."

"You were going to go talk to someone? Who? I thought you didn't have any friends here."

"I didn't say I was going to talk to a friend. There is simply someone I wanted to speak with for a second."

"Oh, did you? And who might I ask is it?"

"No one you need to worry about."

"Is it the friend you were speaking with earlier before I interrupted you?"

"You didn't interrupt anything. Now, if you excuse me."

He maneuvered past her. As he went, he was stopped by several other people. Making various excuses, he made his way to the hall he'd seen Amber disappear down.

It took so long that he was further behind her than he would have liked, and all he could do was stare for a moment at the countless closed doors. Amber could reasonably have gone into any of them at this point.

For that matter, he'd kept her waiting long enough that it seemed entirely plausible that she had already made her way back to the others.

It seemed unlikely given how anxious she had been to speak with him, but it wasn't impossible. Even if she hadn't intended to leave, it was possible someone had come across her and brought her back to the others.

He could only hope if she had, she didn't mention she was waiting to meet him.

With no other options, Christopher began the process of opening up various doors in the hope of finding the room Amber had tucked herself away in.

It only took four or five tries before he found it.

Opening the door to the lady of the house's study, he found her standing there. Her back was to him, but he could see the way she tensed when the door opened. For a moment, he just stared at her, taking in the woman who had persuaded him here.

A kinder person might have called her beautiful. Her chestnut brown curls piled high on top of her head, the neckline of her gown just low enough for him to know the freckles on her cheeks continued down her shoulders, her gown accentuating her curvy figure.

But Christopher would not call himself a kind man, so he called her unadorned hair and simple black dress plain.

After a long pause she finally turned to look at him, face set in determination, but even then, she didn't say a word. Instead, she simply stared at him long enough for Christopher to begin to grow impatient.

"You wanted to talk. I'm here, now talk," he finally snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.

She chewed her lip but still said nothing.

He sighed. "I have left my sister alone at this party for this. Either tell me what this is about, or I am returning to the others."

Another beat of silence.

"Right," he turned to go. "I suppose that's it then. I must say I wasn't sure about coming, and I am a bit disappointed it ended up being little more than a waste of my time."

"Wait!" she called.

He froze, hand outstretched reaching for the door.

She let out a deep breath. "I want to make a deal with you."

Frowning, he turned to face her, crossing his arms once more. If he were a smart man, he would have turned and went back to his sister, suffered through the apparently necessary social interactions until she was ready to return home, and then forgotten all about this girl and her requests.

And yet, instead he found himself asking, "What kind of deal?"

"It might sound strange, but you need to hear me out until the end."

"I don't think you are in any position to make demands. Also, that wasn't an answer, so I will ask again, but I warn you, I will not ask a third. What kind of deal."

There was a pause. For a moment he began to think that was it, but then she spoke, and her words shook him to his core.

"I want you to ruin me."