I scrambled backward onto my seat. Glowering at Bodin.

The rest of the carriage ride was icily quiet.

I was so angry I could feel myself vibrating with frustration. I closed my eyes and imagined I was at one of my favorite stage plays listening to the carefully crafted lines and the pretty poetry being recited so lovingly.

My senses calmed and my body eased as I imagined the smooth, low voice reciting it and envisioned myself as the inspiration for such lovely words. Knowing how Sarah would laugh at me for my fanciful musings.

"Why hunger for a poet you'll never meet instead of grabbing hold of a suitor right before you."

I'd heard her say it often enough as she made the clenching motion.

"I plan to find a man fine of form and face and charm him with my wit and beauty until he's utterly susceptible to my persuasion. Then once he's wed me, I'll set him aside like a pretty trinket and go back to buying fine dresses and nice tea parties."

I'd scoffed at her.

"What's so wrong with that?" She'd frowned at me. "Nothing wrong with a simple life, Belle."

But I wanted more. I wanted wooed. I wanted to swoon in moonlight because a man's words moved my soul. I didn't want some cold marriage of convenience as my mother and father's had been.

I want more. I wanted to feel wanted.

I'd seen the way my mother had seemed to forlornly knit each day while my father was out late with his mates.

I don't want that life for myself.

***

"We're here." Bodin announced.

I couldn't recall ever being at Charters House before.

It looked hugely imposing with dark gray paint and white trim.

I shivered.

He opened the front door for me, and I found the inside equally as unmoving.

It was dark and as coldly decorated as I'd have expected from Bodin. It did rather surprise me that in all the years he'd been coming to Demetrius House, I'd never been here.

I found the floors were all swirled black and white marble. The staircases were white with deep blue carpeting. Everything was total contrast.

Much like he's grown to be.

Difficult and complex. I entered behind him. Footmen carried most of my bags but Bodin had insisted on carrying my valise. With my most intimate belongings.

Probably to keep me from bolting. I glared at his back.

I'd refused to speak to him the whole trip after what he'd done to me in the carriage.

In-fact I was still angry about the things he'd said to me back at my House. But I'd unwillingly obeyed. Within half an hour, I'd been sullen and packed and ready to kill him in the carriage.

But unwilling to be alone with him again in my chamber.

I had heard Bodin giving the Butler firm directions to have my chamber door righted.

So, kind. Since you broke it down.

He nodded without missing a beat. "Yes, My Lord."

As I was headed downstairs with my things, he'd already been rallying servants to right the House.

***

I was distracted from reveries of Demetrius House by Bodin taking my hand to lead me toward the stairs.

His hand felt huge wrapped around mine.

And the stairs looked dark and narrow and seemed to go up forever.

I wondered again if he was going to house me in his chamber.

Am I to be his little mistress?

"I won't lie with you again, Bodin." My voice cracked despite all my efforts to be assertive.

"I didn't ask you to." He headed up the stairs behind me. Coolly dismissing my statement.

I wondered if he could feel me glaring so heatedly in his back. I wondered if I could kick his feet out from under him on the stairs but suspected it wouldn't work.

He'll probably just catch himself like a big jungle cat. I'd never actually seen anyone manage to get Bodin off his feet.

But I was willing to try. I was suddenly staring at his calves. Tempted to step on one.

"Stop glaring at me. I can feel it." Amusement marked his voice.

"Good."

"Does it make you feel any better?" He smiled at me over his shoulder.

Not particularly.

"Yes. It does." I lifted my nose haughtily.

"Belle..." He chided. Clicking in his cheek as he walked before me. "I know you too well."

Not well enough. I thought bitterly.

***

He opened the door to my room, and I found the wall adorned with tapestries of foxes at play or running across fields.

The room was done in shades of cream and orange. A strange mix.

But one I always loved.

And fox was my favorite animal. I'd had a kit as a pet for a few years until it had slept into the kennels one night and the hunting dogs had gotten it.

I frowned at the memory.

"Don't like it?" Bodin looked somewhat crestfallen.

I shot him a wide-eyed look. "I love it actually. I love-"

"Foxes." He smiled slightly. "I recall."

I gave him an assessing look.

"Just one of your many oddities." He turned and began striding from the room.

"Are you going to tell me how long I am to be here?" I called down the hall after him.

He stopped in his tracks. Back stiffening. "Until you wish to return to Demetrius House and join your cousin Randy."

I cringed at that thought. "I abhor Randy. A fact which you know."

He rotated on his heel. "Then where else would you go, Belle?"

"I'll kick him out."

"You can't. He's the heir apparent."

"I have more legitimate ties to it."

"But the property and grounds were willed to him."

"Why?" I blinked at him. "That makes no sense."

"No, it doesn't." Bodin frowned. His gaze falling. "I'm working on that."

Before I could ask what he meant by that he was walking away.