s P

Not a polite request, but a command. My grand

, but she was its spine. A formidable matriarch in her seventies, with eyes that missed nothing and a will forge

private rose garden, a place of serene beau

wn, methodically pruning a bush of rare Black B

d leaf. "I hear you intend to make a public s

of my shows, Grandmother."

re as sharp as her pruning shears. "This is foolishness. A Kensington daughter secures her position through

protectively. "Alys has been through a gre

essity. Her duty right now is to either solidify her union with the Vanderbilts or, failing tha

Darius. I do not care about your personal squabbles. The Kensington-Vanderbilt alliance

ast life would have withered under that gaze, would

lys wa

r. "A person who cannot control their own des

er stern features. My mother dr

nt on the recipient's mood. I become a liability the moment he grows bored. But if I have my own honor, my

Kensington Laurels.' That honor, Grandmother, must be won by a Kensington. It must stay within o

Give me this chance. I will win. I will show everyone that a d

see the gears turning in her mind. She was remembering the incident at the lake. My uncanny,

dn't believe in fairy tales,

she said slowly, her voi

d her gaze, letting my promi

became steel again. "If you compete and you lose, this foolishness ends. You will immediately do whateve

wager for

said withou

y mother let out a breath she seem

, her eyes shining with a fierce, astonished pride. "Alys! Th

I've been listening al

e daughter, but as a woman. A potential all

e settled on me. The pressure was immense, but it

aining schedule I would need to keep, Eliza

ger has arrived from the Vanderbilt estat

erbilt wolf crest. It was an invitation for my mother and me to j

the wax seal. My b

irst move. It was his mother. The formi

s even

ue architect of power-more dangerous than Darius, more calculating than any general I had ev

ay my respects to thi