Hidden River Five: Book 5 in the Hidden River Academy Series by Strange KT

Author:Strange, KT
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heartcandies Publishing
Published: 2021-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

I don't know how I sat for that portrait when every single part of me felt like it was shaking. The trembling must have not been noticeable, or maybe the artist was just used to his subjects moving slightly. Mr. and Mrs. Barron, Bernard and Sarah as I had finally come to know them, talked about casual things like their travels to Europe, the investments that they'd made in some Kentucky horse farms, acting as if they hadn't just threatened to frame and murder my uncle.

They looked so casually poised that I wanted to vomit.

It didn’t help either that the entire time, I sensed Buck’s panic as he stood just to my right while I sat in my wing-back chair. The fear rolled off of him in waves, and it was obvious why he’d lived with my uncle for so long.

It wasn’t because he hated being in an empty house.

It was that his parents were monsters. At one point Sarah fussed over my hair, laying it down behind my shoulders and saying that it was too common for such a family portrait, and I thought that Buck was nearly about to punch her out right there.

Only my hard stare at him, begging him with my eyes to do nothing, stopped him.

I needed to find a way to talk to him privately after this. But I wasn't sure how that would even be possible. I've known his father was evil — our father — but I didn't truly understand what a complete and absolute demon he was.

As soon as we were done sitting for our portrait though, Bernard whisked Buck off to his ‘study’ to talk. Sarah took me by the hand and offered to show me a tour of the gardens, nice places that I could sit and study, she said. While we walked, she grilled me about my future plans, and if I thought I was more likely to get a husband at Harvard or at Yale. I wasn't sure how to tell her that I never imagined getting into such a school, or even getting a husband. Women like me didn't get married, I finally said as much, and she laughed. She took me by the shoulders and smoothed my hair behind my ears.

"You are a part of our family now, and even if you weren't beautiful, men would be lining up. What do you think of Cael Pierce? His father may have been a sacrificial lamb for the family, but they’re stinkingly wealthy."

I didn't even know what to say to that, so I said nothing. She dropped me at my rooms, and told me to rest. Dinner was brought up on a tray and, for the next four days, I was left alone: door locked from the outside, with only a maid to come in and change the linens on my bed, bring me food, and finally, a delivery of books to read. I felt like I was going to scream at the windows, and instead I somehow stayed pacing the room, calm on the outside while on the inside I felt like I was dying.

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