Chapter Seventeen

Mira nodded.

“Why have you allowed that woman into your home?” He was attempting to keep his tone even, Mira could tell, but his control slipped as he asked and, wow. He really did not like Cecily.

‘On what basis does he dislike her?’ Mira wondered. Colvin and Cecily acted like they hadn’t met before when Vesper introduced them. Just what then, exactly, was the newspapers saying about Cecily? Mira had wondered about that earlier, but now she realized she might actually need to know. The game didn’t specify what the newspapers reported beyond Sir Rousseau ’s fit at the beginning of the game and some background conversation between NPCs that implied that it wasn’t complimentary, but public sentiment hadn’t seemed to be against her in the game.

“She’s my sister,” Mira replied as blandly as she could. “Where else should she be?”

“With her father or in a separate residence arranged by him,” Colvin countered without missing a beat. “Is there any good reason why she should be supported by you, of all people? The fourth prince pays very close attention to her. She’ll bring him straight to your door, which could very well kill you right now.”

Mira looked away without really meaning to. “My older sister and I have agreed that this is for the best. Vesper will be responsible for her living expenses and schooling. You don’t need to be concerned.”

“I see.” Colvin did not sound like he actually did, though. He stood facing slightly away from her so she couldn’t see his face all that well.

“Cecily isn’t responsible for what he does.” Mira was a little flattered that he was this pissed on her behalf based on basically nothing, but she did need to get Colvin on the same page with her. His game antics were very cathartic on the screen, but she didn’t need to live through it in reality. “How do you think it would go if she were to tell him no?”

Colvin turned back to face her, his expression neutral. “I think she has always stood the greatest chance of bringing him to heel and chose not to,” he said.

Not for the first time, Mira wondered if Colvin had some hidden history that didn’t get revealed in the first two games. That sounded an awful lot like he knew more about Violet’s school years than he ought to.

Time to go fishing.

“Are you familiar with his highness?” she asked. “You sound as though you have personal experience with him.”

“The Crown Princess has primary custody of all her younger siblings, including the Prince Regent’s extramarital get,” he explained. He started picking books out of the giant crate that had been delivered to Mira’s room again and looking at the spines. “I have been dispatched to deliver things to his manservant at school on occasion and to make observations about how well he integrated with his classmates. She has also asked my opinion on his relationship with you.”

“Oh?” Mira tried to hide her surprise. She hadn’t realized that the Crown Princess was that involved in her youngest brother’s affairs, much less hers.

Colvin nodded. “To summarize; he and I have not been introduced, but I am familiar with him.”

Mira turned in her seat to drape her crossed arms over the armrest of her chair. Colvin had been slowly moving into her blind and deaf spot and she wanted to hear him. “What did you tell the Crown Princess? About our relationship,” she clarified, when he looked over at her with a brow raised.

“I told her that he did not appreciate the gift he’d been given,” was Colvin’s grave reply. “I told her that he would not care for it.”

Mira’s vision blurred for a second and she had to look away from Colvin’s quiet and unashamed sincerity as her heart rose into her throat. ‘It’s not him,’ she told herself.

It was never him.

That person had only ever appeared in her first life and he never came back to her, no matter how many lives she endured. She sometimes saw brief echoes of him in other men, but it was only ever that; a reminder of what and who she’d lost. Colvin Adelram was one more in a long string of ghosts that she’d long since tired of chasing, but never could manage to stop.

‘No wonder I was so obsessed with trying to unlock his route,’ she sighed at herself. ‘How embarrassing that it took me this long to realize why.’

“Are you alright, miss?” A shadow crossed her lap and Mira looked up to find that he’d crossed over to come stand by her chair. His red gaze had softened from his earlier disapproval and Mira’s heart started to hurt.

Adra used to look at her that way, back when they were first getting to know one another and she suddenly missed him more than she ever had before. She hadn’t thought that was possible.

“I’m fine,” she reassured him. “It was just a stray thought. You don’t need to worry about me.”

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A complicated look flickered across Colvin’s face and the fine hairs rose up on the back of her neck when he replied, “I’m afraid that I can’t help it.”

She was still trying to convince herself that it was just a coincidence by the time Anna helped her into bed. He’d just been responding to what she said. He’d been hired to look after her wellbeing so of course he said that.

Just because another man, hundreds of lives ago, had once said the same thing to her in exactly the same way was irrelevant.