Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
To my surprise, her mouth tightened in open annoyance, she bobbed a curtsy, then, without even a glance at me, she turned on her sleek pump and swanned away.
Aleksei drew me into the lift.
“What was that about?” I asked when the doors closed.
“My guess, Timothee or Errol slept with her, making promises they didn’t keep, and now she’s compromised. And since she works in a sensitive area, she’ll need to be reassigned,” he clipped, his anger sharp, but I couldn’t tell if he was angry at his brothers, having to reassign a female when that shouldn’t have to happen, or both.
Hmm.
Timothee or Errol got their jollies, and it was the female who had to uproot her life because of it.
I was beginning really not to like his brothers, and I hadn’t even met them.
He ordered the lift. “Sublevel five.”
Hang on.
Sublevel?
Five?
There were five sublevels to his joint?
I didn’t know there was even one.
“Erm…how big is this place?” I asked.
He looked down to me, and the instant his gaze fell on my face, the irritability left behind by the blonde visibly melted away.
Really, he was just so lovely.
“There are two buildings devoted to the Catalogue. Three levels in both above ground, where there are vaults but also administrative offices, extensive records and databases and conservation labs. This building has six sublevels. The other, which was an add-on when an overflow became necessary, has seven. Quite a bit of that is empty, but it was built proactively to be filled at a future date.”
I wished I had a better response than I did, but there really wasn’t more to say but, “Wow.”
He grinned, the lift doors opened, and, outside of the light coming from the lift, utter darkness greeted us.
“There’s twelve hundred years’ worth of history to preserve, some of it even older,” he remarked. “And that takes space.” He then ordered, “Lights on, seventy percent. Display cases full illumination.”
Immediately, the vast room lit, and at the wonder that met my eyes, I gasped.
Loudly.
“Oh my…” I drifted forward as if walking on air. “Oh my…” I repeated as I approached the first large, glass display box. “Oh my gods,” I whispered, staring at what was in the box.
I felt Aleksei come up beside me, his hand lighting on the small of my back, but my eyes swept the long line of glass vaults, and I was transfixed by the bounty that was before me. And that didn’t even take into consideration whatever treasures were hidden in the plethora of cabinets meticulously positioned to stand at attention, ready for perusal.
“My mother’s wedding gown, my father’s wedding suit,” Aleksei informed me of what was on show before us.
Though I already knew. I’d seen the pics thousands of times.
But to see it, live and in person…
Divine.
His hand glided to the side of my waist, his fingers pressing in, and he moved us to the next box.
“My grandmother and grandfather’s. And then there’s my great grandmother and grandfather’s. I think you can take it from there.”
I stared at the extraordinary garments fastidiously exhibited on custom-made, headless mannequins.
And I knew he knew.
He knew before he brought me here, he was giving me this remarkable gift.
He knew.
My eyes started to tingle as he murmured, “Come.”
I would have gone anywhere with him at that juncture.
He took my hand and led me down the line of wedding apparel that ranged from YoD 2080s to…
He stopped us at a glass case.
“Princess Mathilde. Married to Prince Atlas. Year of the Dragon 1319, five years before the trolls invaded,” he said. “Our clan was Starknight then, and that was the name of the land we ruled.”
Oh yes.
He knew.
I tore my gaze from the flame-red velvet gown with its cameo neckline, stunning gold silk-braid edging, pearls and ambers stitched into intricate gold embroidery, the deep fall of the bell sleeves that nearly brushed the floor, the intricate gold lace of the undersleeve embellishment and the sumptuous sable cape that flooded down the back of the gown and flowed across the dais the mannequins were standing on.
And I looked up at him.
A million words filled my mouth, but before a single one could escape, he tugged my hand again.
He guided me from the display cases into the long rows of cabinets sporting wide, shallow drawers. Along the way, he nabbed a pair of white gloves from one of the many cannisters of the same that were readily available.
We stopped in front of some drawers that started at ground level and went up to my neck.
Aleksei called, “Open DR dash SK thirteen, twenty-five dash seventy-eight M.”
He pulled me back as a drawer around calf height slid out and up to hover at waist height in front of us, whereupon the top slid away, folding into the back panel.
I expected to see troll skin.
It wasn’t troll skin.
It was a gold gown with a gossamer white tucked shawl at the square bodice. The fall of the bell sleeves were prettily scalloped. It was folded over itself precisely to fit in the flat, wide drawer, but still in a manner that exhibited the features of the garment.