HEIRS OF TIME (CASTE BOOK 2) SAMPLE CHAPTERS

Chapter 6

Once dressed in a long flared dress and lightly made up, I thought back to my handsome stranger and looked at myself in the mirror. My thick strawberry blond hair was even more vibrant in the midday sunlight, cascading from my shoulders to my waist. My milk skin, inherited from my mother, suddenly prickled with excitement because I was certain to meet my mystery man again during the day. I had to prepare enough so he wouldn’t be disappointed by my appearance in the light of day. Although my outfit was less flirtatious than the day before, I found it charming and hoped he would share that sentiment. I thought only of him, the image of his body imprinted on my mind, and I was impatient to find him. It was strange because we only exchanged a few words, and I didn’t know his name or anything about him. I set off fifteen minutes early in the direction of the common room, to have breakfast there and in the hope of meeting him again.

We were at the end of September, and the mild weather had made it possible to set up tables in the courtyard garden. Several castes had taken their places there, and some nods accompanied my entrance. I realized then that many now seemed to know who I was. The party’s atmosphere the night before had spared me those bows which I thought were reserved for my mother, and embarrassment made me quicken my pace towards the common room.

Upon entering, a hubbub invaded my ears. I skirted the busy castes near the kitchen, hoping to help myself to a cup of tea, a large plate of grilled bacon, and scrambled eggs. My progress was more difficult than expected. So, when I saw Carmichael, I ran straight for him, hoping to take advantage of his status so that he could help me find my way to the buffet set up there for the occasion. But before I could reach my goal, I saw my handsome stranger was there, seated at the end of a long rectangular table, right between a lovely blond and Carmichael. Although it was from behind, I could recognize him from the many tattoos covering his forearms.

“I think you saw her yesterday,” Carmichael said to his two guests as I approached.

“Who couldn’t have noticed her?” said the captivatingly elegant young blond woman.

“Hum…” grumbled my handsome stranger.

“Anyway,” continued my stepfather, “you must have met her daughter. She’s strikingly beautiful.”

“A very pretty young woman,” adds the blond.

“You think so? I found her banal and uninteresting. Let’s be honest! Compared to her mother, she’s the second-best copy.”

Stunned and shocked by the words of the man I had spent the night with earlier, I stiffened and froze a few steps away from him.

“I think the contrary,” said Carmichael’s dark voice, whose tone now told him to be quiet.

Unable to hear any more, I fled from the common room and rushed back to my room. I swallowed hard, and tears threatened to fill my eyes, but I forced them back as anger took over my sanity. How could I have been so stupid?

Two hours later, Elias and Wassim showed up, asking me to follow them to the Pomona room. My mother demanded my presence. It didn’t take them long to realize something was wrong. I had only been with them for two months, and they already knew how to read me like an open book. I was pathetic.

“What’s up with you, Panchak?” said Wassim, who couldn’t take my bad mood any longer.

“I was fooled by a f*****g pick-up artist!” I said in response.

“Oh, dear… this doesn’t bode well,” Elias said, glancing at his brother, who hid a nervous laugh.

I caught my breath and paced in front of the fireplace, whose mantel represented two naked female bodies carrying the marble lintel. The twins sat down on the couch facing the hearth, not saying a word, patiently waiting for me to say more.

“Last night, I slept with a hell of a bastard!”

Their dazed looks made me realize that they were expecting anything but that. Elias squirmed in his seat and scratched his shaved head while Wassim’s eyes widened in surprise.

So I told them everything. I stopped at the scabrous details, but I had captured their attention.

“And what’s the name of the happy cad?” Elias asked.

“I don’t give a s**t!”

“Oh.”

It was true that admitting to having slept with a stranger, of whom I knew nothing, and to demand accountability from him soon after was rather inappropriate. However, they tried to distract me from my bad mood with their jokes and forced me to follow them to the Pomona room, where a council was being held.

Reaching the room with my two friends, I threw myself towards the huge round table where my mother and Carmichael sat. The Hanlons were present, Caleb too, as well as my uncle Thomas. My stranger sat next to the king, while the blond seen earlier in the common room stood to his left. I was beginning to understand. The room was crowded, but they gave me free rein to go to the table, where a chair next to my mother was waiting for me. At her request, however, I remained standing while Carmichael rose, his magnetic gift spreading to me in a suffocating cloud. I cleared my throat, trying ever so slightly to regain composure. I was still unused to this effect and hoped my rosy cheeks would remain well camouflaged beneath my foundation.

“My friends, this is Isabelle Panchak, your queen’s daughter.”

I greeted everyone with a nod. My gaze avoided the man I now hated. Carmichael continued his speech.

“Now that your queen has returned and the event celebrated as it should be, we can sleep easy. No one will seek to challenge your ruler’s authority in her presence, and you all know why, don’t you?”

Exclamations ran through the assembly under the amused gaze of Carmichael. I saw my mother lower her head listening to these words, on the verge of hitting her royal husband. She had never supported being the centre of interest, and her behaviour confirmed that to me again. Carmichael grabbed her hand, however, and when she looked up at him, she gave him a tender look. The king turned to me.

“Isabelle, this is my sister, Prisca.”

The blond I had noticed in the common room stood up and greeted me with an elegant wave of her hand. I replied with a smile.

“…and this is Connor, my brother.”

My handsome stranger got up and nodded to greet me, accompanying his gesture with a wink that didn’t fail to surprise me. My icy gaze disconcerted him while I remained mute and insensitive to his attentions. Carmichael suspected something, for an impatient gesture betrayed him, asking Connor to sit down.

The rest of the council was boring, as one might wish. These were long-term projects for the entire caste community. I still didn’t feel very comfortable among my peers, and I had to admit that the playful exclamations and the initiatives proposed left me indifferent.

When everyone was released from their obligations, we could leave the room. I paced the empty hallway leading to my suite when a hand grabbed my arm.

“You were going to run away again?” a deep and sensual voice asked in my ear.

I turned around and met his eyes and that crooked smile I wanted to feed him. Cold as an iceberg, I freed myself from the grip of his hand and opened the door to my bedroom. I went to shut it behind me, but he was already in the middle of the room, near the bed. I stood there staring at him without breaking my silence. I took off my sandals, dropped them near the entrance, and walked barefoot around the room to the kitchen area, where I filled an electric tea kettle. I didn’t offer him a cup and completely ignored him. I turned, and my head hit his chest. I pushed him away from me.

“Move!” I said coldly.

“Well! Our night will not have made you change your mind, I see! I thought I was up to it, though.”

Frozen, I couldn’t believe his nerve! Maybe I looked like a barely adult woman, but a gentleman would quickly realize that my brain was far from that of a giddy teenager.

“You were perfect,” I replied with a polar smile. “I even had a fantastic night, but it’s daytime now, and if running away this morning didn’t make you realize my intentions, then know that I have no desire to repeat the experience. It was good, but that’s it, so nothing is keeping you here.”

He ran his tongue over his lower lip, his gaze darkening. He seemed touched by my murderous statements but yet far from giving up. This man was strange.

“I could have sworn that you had enjoyed it,” he said. “At least your moans made me think so. I think I even heard you say “again” a good twenty times.”

Well, okay… I could only swallow. His last sentence had inflamed my mind, not to mention my body, still gripped by the seismic tremors caused by the memories of that night. It took me a few seconds to collect myself. I thought, perhaps wrongly, that I would win this verbal contest.

“You have immense self-confidence! Getting laid in a cell wasn’t part of my plans, but I admit I let myself get carried away by the alcohol and the hot atmosphere of the evening. I’m not used to it yet. Since then, I have come to my senses and prefer to leave it at that.”

“If I’d known you were staying here, we wouldn’t have gone to a cell. My suite is further from the Pomona room, and I… well, I didn’t think about that, and I regret it now.”

He seemed sincere, but his crooked smile, creating an irresistible dimple on his cheek, still made me want to slap him. I amused him, and he wasn’t so insensitive to me if I believed his faster breathing. I didn’t understand anything anymore, and I wanted him to leave.

“You were right not to have taken the trouble.”

“Judging by your behaviour,” he retorted, “I doubt it.”

He stepped forward and held out his hand. I looked at it, taken aback, suppressing a furious urge to grab it. Then I looked up.

“Go away, please.”

He took the hit and finally backed away with a look of marked incomprehension on his face. When he turned and walked out the door, I felt like I could breathe for the first time since his crashing entrance. I wasn’t happy, though. I was even devastated.