"I need you to start watching him for me." I urged to Ginny. "Let me know of anything concerning..."

I knew that asking her to spy on Bodin was a dangerous game. But I need to know if he did it.

Or if someone did...

"Yes, Mum." She nodded.

I noticed that she looked stunningly pale and wondered if I had scared the life out of her.

"Ginny?" Her name made her stop at the door and slowly turn.

"Don't let Bodin know what you're doing. He can be a very dangerous man."

"Yes, I believe he can." Ginny murmured as she exited.

Why would she think so?

***

"She suspects someone murdered her father." Ginny was back at Demetrius House, pacing agitatedly before the new Lord Demetrius.

He shrugged nonchalantly. His boots propped up on the coffee table before him in the Parlor.

"You're awful high strung for a mere maid." He remarked in an unimpressed tone.

"If someone found me out, I could have my head on the chopping block or be taken to the stocks!"

"Oh, we wouldn't want that." He leaned forward with a bored expression to collect his tea from a corner of the table. Sipping it as he eyed her as though she were the most inferior creature alive. "I suggest you don't let her find out it was you."

"Us." Ginny stopped to correct. Giving him a wide-eyed look.

He was aware, it'd likely never dawned on her before that he wouldn't help her out of the situation if she were caught. After all, she had thought him in love with her. At least until the brutal day of his arrival.

He had made it abundantly clear at that time, how little she meant to him and that she was merely there to serve a purpose. Sating him and doing his bidding.

He was already getting hard again at the thought of how he'd taken her upon his arrival at Demetrius House, and her pitiable whimpering.

"Is there a point to this little visit, Ginny? I did order you to be watching her at Charters House and keeping her as far away from Charters as possible."

"I've been trying!" Ginny stomped a foot. "I've even had a friend trying to help."

"What friend?" Randy set down his tea to eye her. Displeased at finding out that she had another person meddling in his plans to bed and possess the Demetrius girl.

"She..." Ginny was looking furtively around. "I...came across her one day following Lord Charters about and I have something she wants. She...does what I say."

Ginny was clearly reluctant to disclose who was assisting her and it was annoying Randy who didn't like there to be any unaccounted for components to his plotting.

He stood. Rising smoothly to his feet and ruffling a hand through his red hair. He snatched Ginny by the neck and walked backward with her until he slammed her into the wall next to the fireplace.

She gasped for air and clawed at the back of his hand. Like a kitten trying to escape drowning.

Randy was familiar with the sight.

"Tell me who she is." He said in a frightening his tone. His light eyes turning nearly black in his annoyance.

Ginny was trying to push against the wall with her feet and frantically tossing her head as she panted for air. Desperately trying to get him to release his hold.

He flexed his grip just enough she could draw a long breath.

"Her name is Vix. She does what I say. And she's been working on Lady Demetrius. Turning her away from Lord Charters."

"Why would she do that?" Randy's eyes narrowed on her. Wondering if Ginny had been fool enough to recruit someone that might betray them both and land him in the stocks. Something he'd dearly not appreciate and most certainly make Ginny pay for.

With her suffering.

"Vix?" He pondered aloud. Still holding Ginny while she struggled to ease away from his unrelenting grip. "An interesting name. Exotic."

"She is exotic." Ginny said in some attempt to distract him from hurting her.

"I'd dearly like to meet her." He was tempted by the idea of having a taste of a little foreign girl. Especially one meek enough to fear Ginny. Who was about the most simpering little female he'd ever met.

His brows lifted slightly in curiosity. "Tell me how you have her doing what you say?"

"I have something of hers, she wants back."

"Tell me." He roared. Tipping her forward and slamming her back hard enough that her teeth jarred.

"Her little brother."

***

"He doesn't want you, you know." Vix murmured from under the bed.

I leaned over and lifted the sheet to peer at her. "How long have you been there?"

"Awhile. I heard you talking to your maid yesterday."

"And?" I queried. Wondering what the point of this conversation was.

Vix seemed consistently determined to have me thinking the worst of Bodin.

"But he wouldna have killed your da'."

"How do you know?"

"I know that much about him. He's our Master, afterall."

"How are you here, Vix?" She was clearly not a creature of this realm. More like the fey I had seen separating from the tree.

She eased out from under my bed. Alternating between walking on four feet and two until she glided from the coverlet to blink those huge yellow eyes at me.

"And what do you mean, your Master?"

"He is the descendant of the King of Fey, you know?" Vix said dully. Staring at the floor and fiddling with her small raccoonish paws before her.

"I don't understand what that means." I shook my head.

"It means he can be very scary. But his dad is even more scary."

"His dad is dead." I said flatly. Growing more tired of Vix's games by the minute. It seemed very cruel of her to be talking about bodin's father as if he were someone in a far off land when he was very much cold and in a grave and someone that Bodin grieved.

Since when am I defensive of Bodin?

"No..." Vix whispered. "He's very much alive. And he wishes a meeting with you. In the garden. At noon today."