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Dalton is watching. His face is unreadable. No anger, no shock, nothing for anyone else to comment on. Just that hard stillness he gets when he has locked everything down so tightly it almost feels colder around him.
Then he turns and walks away.
I pull back from Alester immediately. “I want to speak with you privately,” I say.
He looks at me, calm as ever. “Of course.”
Of course.
That almost makes me laugh.
He leads me down the hall to a study I’ve been in once before, all dark shelves and careful furniture. The moment the door closes, the noise from the party dulls to a distant hum. I turn on him before he can say anything. “I didn’t know this was part of it.”
Alester sets his glass down on a side table. “Which part?”
I stare at him. “Seriously?”
“The announcement?”
“The photographs. The room. The speech. Any of it.”
His expression doesn’t change. That’s what makes him so infuriating. He never looks guilty, never looks caught. He just looks like a man waiting for a point to be made more clearly.
“I never said I wouldn’t make it public,” he says.
For a second I think I misheard him. Then I realize I didn’t.
I actually laugh. A short, ugly sound. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m being precise.”
“That’s not better.”
He folds his hands behind his back. “This is not an ordinary arrangement, Maggie. There are practical considerations.”
“You announced my pregnancy to a room full of people.”
“I announced the arrangement.”
I take one step toward him. “That is such a sick distinction.”
He says nothing. Which means he doesn’t disagree. Which is somehow worse.
“I didn’t consent to this,” I say.
His gaze sharpens slightly. “You consented to the contract.”
“No. I consented to carrying a pregnancy. I didn’t consent to being put on a display like a show pony.”
His voice lowers. “You are overreacting.”
That does it. I look at him for a second, just long enough for the heat in my face to settle into something colder. “I am trying very hard not to.”
That makes him pause.
The room is quiet for a beat. Then he says, “I thought it was time.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Time for what?”
