Read Online Nightshade by Shea Godfrey - Free Book Online

voice. “I’m sorry if you thought so. That wasn’t my intention.”
    “You engaged the Princess in conversation? As if she were just another guest at my table?”
    Darrius’s eyes were sharp. “It is our father’s table, Malcolm, not yours. And I treated her as I would a friend. For the love of Gamar, you had her seated half a world away from the people she knows. Did you not consider she might be nervous?”
    “She knows her place,” Malcolm snapped. “As you never have.”
    “And what place is that?” Darrius asked.
    “Must I renew my objections and tell you yet again the shame your behavior and you cause me?”
    Darrius laughed. “Not what my place is, you bloody fool,
hers
.”
    Malcolm took another step, and from Darrius’s perch on the rail they were nearly of the same height. “Take care how you speak to me, Darrius.”
    “Or what?” she asked, reclining casually. “When you’re the lord of all the world you may banish me to whatever dark hole you see fit. But until that time, never forget that I carry the same blood as you, and it comes with certain rights and privileges. Calling you a fool is perfectly within those rights, I assure you.”
    Jessa smiled in surprise.
    Malcolm’s response was slow to form, his hands clasped behind his back. “Then what did you mean?”
    “Malcolm,” Darrius’s tone softened, “you’re bartering for the hand of another human being. This isn’t a horse that you bid for or land you must trade for. She’s a
woman
, Mal, a beautiful and striking human being. You sent for her and Bharjah wrapped her in bright colors and obeyed, though we both know for reasons of his own. If you truly wish to court her then
win
her, Mal, seduce her until she says yes out of want, no matter the question you would pose. Not because her father or her pig of a preening brother tells her to. Don’t presume to just
take
her. She’s not yours for the taking. She belongs to no one but herself.”
    Jessa felt a stirring in her chest at the heartfelt words. To be defended by anyone was not something she had ever come to count on. Only Radha had stood by her. But for a stranger to stand up and voice compassionate words in her defense was something she had never envisioned happening.
    Malcolm’s smile was cold. “Is that what you would do then?”
    “Yes,” Darrius replied. “That’s exactly what I would do.”
    “You really have no clue as to what needs to be done or how things work, do you?”
    “I know what’s important.”
    “And what might that be? Playing at being a man?”
    Darrius gave a breath of laughter. “Yes, Malcolm, that’s exactly what I mean.”
    “Is there not a tavern you must be at, Darrius? Someplace suitable to your backwards behavior? Should you not be drunk?” His tone was callous. “Should you not be begging to kiss the sweat from between a barmaid’s thighs by now? You may leave the important things to those of us with the intelligence and authority to handle them properly.”
    Jessa was startled at the sexual reference and considered his words as she watched Darrius for a response. She understood that Darrius was backwards. Radha had made good on her pledge for more information. She had not, however, truly considered the heart of the matter until that very moment.
I do not think she would have to beg, you fikloche
.
Bloody well
look
at her. They must stand wanting beyond her door.
    Darrius was very still and Jessa felt the sudden tension, an air of danger about Darrius as if any reaction were possible. She saw that even Malcolm felt it, for he took a silent step back, creating some distance between them as his hands fell open to his sides. Jessa understood the reason beneath his words at once. She was familiar with the tactic. As any one of her brothers had done a thousand times, Malcolm sought to provoke Darrius into a retaliation he might take advantage of.
    “Do you remember that summer at Lake Aurora, Mal?” Darrius met his eyes. Her