Step Brothers

Vance was pleading in desperation and that was certainly not something that Melva had expected this man was capable of. He had such a high self-esteem, thus it was nearly impossible to imagine him lowering himself to plead for someone's help. She wondered how dangerous Lord Corbett was, seeing that Vance would go this far to deal with him at breakfast.

"What if I say I dislike the idea of having you in my chamber while I am asleep, Your Grace?" Melva was testing the waters. She was curious about what his response would be. How far was he willing to beg for her touch?

The look in Vance's face hardened as he was losing his patience. "You need to remember why you are here. Or I will take it that you are breaching the contract. You will not like what I will do. I am in a desperate moment, as you can see. I advise you to comply while I am being nice."

It was another threat thrown at her. Apparently, Vance was only behaving nice towards her if he needed something from her for his own benefit. The second Melva considered refusing what he asked of her, he would resort to using Ichorhold's safety as his weapon against her, reminding her over and over again that their lives were in his hands. This was not a plea. It was a threat.

Vance was not a very nice person in her eyes right now. What she saw was a duke who was terrified of getting his position stolen from basically everyone around him and he would do anything to prevent that from happening, including threatening people. He appeared strong and overbearing whenever he was outside, and only showed his weak side to Melva. He was afraid that people would try to kill him any time and any place, which was why he was desperate and he didn't want to look weak.

Melva was displeased with his behaviour. If he wanted someone to do him a favour, politely asking for help was the correct way, not threatening. It only made her reluctant to lend him a hand, however, her hands were shackled. Vance kept holding her hand nearly all the time, because he was paranoid and he wanted to be sure he was always in his best condition.

"That is nowhere near nice," mumbled Melva honestly.

"I was nice, until I realised being nice will not bring anything good to myself," said Vance through gritted teeth as if he was recalling unpleasant memories.

He was squeezing her hand tight as he was clenching his fists, but her hand was still in his. The force he applied on her hand was so strong for her that she was unable to hold back from groaning in pain. Upon hearing her painful groan, he realised that he was gripping her hand too strongly, so he quickly retracted his hand from hers and hurried up the stairs, stomping angrily. Melva had to fasten her pace to follow after him.

It was easy to tell that his mood had turned sour again. His mood swings were very irritating to deal with. He was already sitting at the chair by the table inside his chamber when Melva came in, not even waiting for her to start eating.

Her appetite disappeared in an instant. She didn't want to eat with a short-tempered man who could explode in anger anytime soon. She was not interested in being an object for him to direct his rage towards.

"My apologies, Your Grace. I am not hungry. As it is late already, I am going to retire to my chamber." Melva bowed and then went out of Vance's chamber without waiting for his response. She didn't even wait for Wilber to open the door for her and opened it herself.

Of course, she had no plans to return to her chamber this early. She was not going to be an obedient girl after being threatened like that when she had no intention to deny him her touch in the first place. She only asked a hypothetical question, so there was absolutely no need to get worked up and be so rude to her.

She searched for a door to the balcony, because she found herself desperately in need of some fresh air. Being around Vance all day had been suffocating her. She needed time to be alone and away from that pompous man, even for a short while.

It was fairly easy to find the balcony. There were huge double doors between a couple of ceiling-to-floor windows which curtains were left opened to reveal the beautiful night sky outside. She excitedly opened the doors that were fortunately not locked and ran towards the railings to admire the view from the balcony.

The night breeze blew her brown hair softly and she could finally breathe easily. The stars were visible along with the moon. The forest could be seen from where she was standing and she wanted to visit it badly.

The weather was beautiful and it was quite disappointing that she couldn't roam around in the woods at this time of the day. The wolves and all the night creatures were active right about now. She would enjoy watching them hunt their prey while she was hunting them.

"Do you mind if I enjoy you on the balcony, Lady Melva?"

Melva turned her back to find Corbett standing by the door to the balcony, holding two glasses of wine. She had no choice but to be polite and accept his company. "Not at all. Please join me, Lord Corbett."

Corbett came to stand next to her by the railings and offered one of the glasses of wine to her, which she took gratefully. "I believe we have not had a chance to get to know each other, although we are living under the same roof. So I would like to create a chance myself."

This was going to be weird with only the two of them. Melva would prefer talking with him tomorrow at the dining hall rather than here. However, she couldn't possibly ask him to leave, because this was not her manor. "I thought we were going to do that tomorrow at breakfast, sir."

He offered a smile and sipped his wine. "Well, just say I am curious and eager to get to know you, Lady Melva. Consider this as a compliment."

Melva was not going to accept that compliment, for she thought this man was up to something suspicious. "There is nothing interesting about me, Lord Corbett. I am just an ordinary woman."

"You are too humble," said Corbett, chuckling good-naturedly. "We are going to be family, are we not? Am I wrong to be curious about the lady who is going to marry my dear brother?"

"I suppose you are right. But my apologies, I have nothing interesting about me to tell you," said Melva politely, avoiding his questions.

Corbett clucked his tongue in disapproval. "That is quite disappointing. What about you? Don't you have anything to ask about me?"

Being given the chance, Melva found it difficult to keep herself from asking questions. Her curiosity overwhelmed her. "Will you tell me about your relationship with Duke Vance, Lord Corbett?"

"Only if you answer my question. A question for a question. How does that sound?" asked Lord Corbett cunningly. He was bargaining with her to exchange information. Vance had compared him to a weasel and a fox, now she understood the reference. This man was really sly.

"Alright. What is it that you want to ask me, Lord Corbett?" She didn't intend to answer the question, but she was curious about what Lord Corbett wanted to know.

"Why did His Grace suddenly decide to marry? He has lived for the longest time and not once did he consider marriage."

This was a question she should be able to answer, since Vance himself had told many people that the King had ordered him to marry her. It was supposed to be safe to tell Corbett this. There was no harm in telling something that a lot of people already knew.

"It's the King's order, Lord Corbett. I have answered your question. I hope you will answer mine," said Melva rather impatiently.

Corbett was contemplating what to answer as he seemed to be deep in thought. "We are step brothers, as you already know. His father married my mother a long time ago after his mother and my father died in a war. We are from different wolf packs. Their marriage was to combine our strengths. Is this what you want to know?"

Actually, there were a lot of things she wanted to know about the step brothers, but she would not ask for more at the moment or she would seem suspicious. "Yes, Lord Corbett. Thank you for telling me."

"I do have another question to ask. Why is Vance—?"

Melva and Corbett were interrupted by a sudden loud slam of a door opening. A very angry Vance was standing by the door when they both turned around.

"Stay away from her," yelled Vance in rage, his blue glowing eyes intimidating under the dimly lit night sky.

"We are just talking, brother," said Corbett calmly, lifting his wine glass to show the proof of his intention.

"She is mine," growled Vance possessively as he stood between her and Corbett.