He Chose the Wrong Sister novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Terms in the Stable Yard

Imogen tells Cade Garrow she needs a husband the prince cannot move. He sets the terms, and she goes to the tin that holds her only proof and finds it empty.

"Lord Garrow, you'll stay and dine," Hester said from the doorway. "I'll have the good room aired."

"Thank you, Lady Tarrant," Cade Garrow said. "I'll see the stables first."

He looked at me.

"Lady Imogen, you can show me where the grey goes."

It was a bad excuse, and he knew it.

I followed him down the steps and across the yard.

My stepmother watched us all the way to the stable door, and she looked pleased.

Inside, the groom took one look at the Warden's face and found something to do at the far end.

Cade Garrow tied the grey to the post and turned around.

"Your stepmother says you're twenty-two and sensible. She says you won't cry at the wedding."

"I won't."

"She also says you'll be no trouble, because nobody will ask where you are."

That one landed. I kept my face still.

"I asked my father for a husband this morning," I said. "I asked in front of her, and she agreed before I had finished. Then you tell me she wrote to you a week ago."

"So I heard."

"I need a husband the Crown can't order about," I said. "You're the only lord I know who has told the prince no."

His eyebrow went up, the scarred one.

"Who told you that?"

"Everyone in the south knows it."

"No one in the south knows it," he said. "I told him in a tent, with six of my men listening, and none of them talk."

In my first life the palace footmen had told that story for years, and I had listened to it from the corridor chair.

"Then I have good ears," I said.

"Why does a girl in a country house need protection from a prince?"

"Because he is coming here in nine days. He'll want something from my family, and my stepmother has already decided what to sell him."

"What does she sell?"

I looked at him.

"Me," I said. "Or my sister. One of us goes to the palace, and the other is buried under her name."

It was more than I had meant to say, and less than I wanted to.

Cade Garrow rubbed his jaw with a hand scarred across the knuckles.

"That isn't an answer."

"It's what I can give you today."

"Fair." He sounded as if he meant it. "Then here's what I know. I came south to say no to her letter and ride home. The Northmarch needs coin for the winter garrisons, and she offered a dowry I could use. I don't like being managed, and I like it less when it's done this politely."

"People say you killed two wives," I said.

"People are generous. I had one wife. She died of a fever, and I buried her myself."

"And the second?"

"Still waiting for me to get round to it, apparently." He folded his arms. "Does that frighten you?"

"No."

"It should, a little. I'm not kind and I'm not easy."

"I didn't ask you to be kind," I said. "I asked you to be unmovable."

He was quiet for a moment.

"I'll marry you," he said. "On terms."

I made myself breathe slowly.

"Name them."

"We marry in three days, in your family's chapel, before a priest and your father. A quick wedding is legal. A secret one isn't, and I won't have it said I stole you."

"Agreed."

"Second. You keep your own room at Harrowgate until the prince's visit is done, and I don't come through the door unless you open it."

I had not expected that.

"You think I'd ask you to?"

"I think you've known me a quarter of an hour. Let's not start with anything either of us didn't choose."

"Agreed," I said. "Third?"

"Third, if you want out, you leave with your whole dowry and nobody says a word against you. I'll sign it today."

I stared at him.

"And the fourth?"

"One day soon, you tell me the real reason. All of it. Not now, but before it can hurt me."

I hesitated.

"That's fair," I said. "I will."

"Then shake on it, Lady Garrow."

I put out my right hand, and he looked at it and took my left.

"You're left-handed," he said. "Good. So am I."

His palm was warm and rough, and he held on for one breath longer than a bargain needed.

When he let go I stepped back and found that my knees were not quite steady.

At dinner my stepmother seated him on her right and asked him about the winter garrisons, and he gave her short, polite answers.

My father signed the contract between the soup and the roast without reading it.

Rosalind did not come down at all.

"She's resting," Hester said, and sighed. "The poor girl tires so easily."

I thought of the attic stairs.

I went up early, with the candle shaking in my hand, to take the wolf button out of the tin and sleep with it under my pillow.

I knelt and lifted the loose board.

The tin was there.

I opened it.

The tin was empty, and someone had put the board back flush, without a scratch.

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