Chapter 78 REASON BEHIND THE AGREEMENT
GALLAHAN’S POV
“Good morning!” I chirped happily as I sauntered inside the sitting room Zuleika, Maliya and I loved in the castle.
It was spacious, yet nothing too grand. The interior was decked in clean cool tones that radiated calmness and coziness of equal proportions. A large wooden book-filled shelf occupied the entire east wall, standing mighty and imposing. But the best part of the room was the large and ridiculously wide oriel window with a cushioned seat installed.
Needless to say, it was one of the perfect spots to lounge and laze in the castle.
“Hello, Mal. Hello, Zee,” I greeted again, exuberance radiating from my tone.
“It’s too early to be this happy, Gallahan,” Maliya grumbled from where she was lazily sprawled on the velvet chaise lounge. “Perhaps tone it down a little? If you could be so kind…”
“I’m sorry, but it is such a particularly good day today,” I said as I picked up a puff pastry from the plate on the tea trolley.
Zuleika squinted her eyes at me in suspicion, setting down her teacup and coaster plate down on the ornate glass side table that stood on the right of her armchair. “You are planning something.”
“Indeed, good friend!” I exclaimed before taking a hearty bite of my pastry.
“Oh, dear Circe,” Maliya whined. “What did your children do to you? Give you all their candies?”
“No,” I answered right after I had swallowed down my food. “Willa does not really indulge them with such tooth-rotting junks. But hey… You have to admit, fatherhood looks good on me, yes?”
“No,” Maliya and Zuleika replied at the same time with a deadpan look on their faces.
“Okay, Gallahan. Out with it,” Zuleika ordered sharply. “What are you planning? Maybe Maliya and I could still talk you out of it.”
“Well,” I drawled, lifting Maliya’s legs up and claiming the space at the end of the chaise lounge for myself. Then, as I gently placed her legs on my lap, I continued, “I left the bracelet you gave me at Willa’s place.”
“And?”
I grinned before launching a quick and succinct explanation of my six month agreement with Willa and the brilliant plan I had concocted to circumvent the said agreement.
“So, let me get this straight,” Zuleika said, sounding like she couldn’t quite believe I was being serious at all. “You left your bracelet, hoping that she and the kids would come here in Moonshire all the way from Wolverham?”
I nodded in affirmation as I shoved down the last bit of my puff pastry into my mouth.
“Are you insane?” Maliya asked, her voice rising in volume and pitch. “It’s so far, Gallahan. Will you really put your children through such a long journey right after they recovered from the severed parental blood link? Besides, it’s just a bracelet. She wouldn’t go that far just to deliver it to you.”
I shrugged. “I think Willa believes it’s important to me. So I have quite the faith that if I tell her that I had accidentally left it and that I desperately need it back, she and the kids will come to deliver it for me.”
Maliya scoffed just as Zuleika threw a cushion at me, which I caught with ease.
“You’re delusional,” Maliya said, looking at me with a certain judgmental glint in her eyes. “Between the bracelet and the welfare of your kids, I’m pretty sure Willa will choose to prioritize the latter.”
A wide grin stretched on my lips as I casually squeezed Maliya’s ankle. “That’s why you and Zuleika will help me. Like always.”
“Gallahan, please,” Zuleika chimed in, sounding equally annoyed and tired. “Don’t you think it would be in your best interest to handle the matters with the Drummonds first? Besides, your plan is just plain childish and manipulative. Grow up. Man up and honor the agreement you have with Willa. At least have the decency to show your kids they have a responsible father who wouldn’t just make them come and go anywhere in this bloody continent at a whim for something as trivial as a bracelet.”
“Breathe, Zee,” I said lightheartedly, intending to ease the bubbling tension within her.
But it only caused her to lash out, saying, “Honestly, Gallahan? Perhaps it is time for me to take a step back and cease taking care of matters for you. Maybe it will help you mature. I believe you desperately need it. And you know what? You dare to pull us into another one of your shenanigans like indentured servants when I haven’t even heard a word of thanks for me and Mal for keeping your father out of your back while you peacefully nested with your family.”
I stared at Zuleika, sufficiently abashed and rightfully dumbfounded. I couldn’t even say anything back to her because…
Well, she was right.
Next to me, Maliya whistled, low and long. Then she murmured, “Damn. Took the words right out of my mouth.”
It worsened the shame that settled in my gut like a heavy rock.
“Zee, I’m sorry.”
“Save it,” she cut in softly with a wan smile. “Best prepare yourself to face the Drummonds. They are arriving around lunchtime.”
“Wait, what?” I exclaimed, staring at Zuleika like she had just slapped me.
But she seemed suddenly tired as she leaned her elbows on her chair’s armrests and began to massage her temples. “I said they are coming. Ugh. I told you last night before we retired to our respective rooms.”
The reminder effectively stirred my memory.
Zuleika had in fact told me that the Drummonds were coming to discuss the details of my betrothal to Elodie. It was also a ploy to get me to formally meet her and actually get to know her.
Fuck.
“Anyway,” Zuleika went on as she shifted on her armchair to properly sit with perfected grace and elegance befitting the soon-to-be Matriarch of the Banfey Clan and High Mago of the Belleza Coven. “Mal and I will head back to Banfey Manor. The Drummonds do not take kindly to our kind. I don’t get why your father would want to forge close ties with them when he’s best friends with my parents.”
“For the moonstone mines, obviously,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
Dad had always eyed the cornucopia of moonstone mines in the Worthbank territory under the Drummonds. It was one of the main reasons why the Drummond clan remained to be one of the richest in the continent.
“Ah… But I bet it’s because your Dad thinks you're going insane with your obsession with Willa,” Maliya added with a teasing smirk. “He must be hoping that Elodie Drummond’s beauty would sway you back to sanity.”
I snorted. “Yeah, well… Tough luck for him. I am already in too deep for my mate. And the moonstone mines? He could kiss them goodbye. Because the betrothal arrangement would have to be cancelled.”
But cancelling it was easier said than done when Elodie Drummond was a cunning woman who was a great force to be reckoned with.