I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 84 - Where's a Lawyer When You Need One?

When Evangeline had finished the bowl, she felt steady enough go to the other room. Valerian said nothing when she rose; simply followed her in.

"You look more alive now," Harrowheart declared cheerfully, sitting at the small table that had been set up in Artmond's room. There were four chairs placed as well, with Artmond, Sigismund, and Hagor filling the other four. As she approached though Hagor stood up.

"You may have my seat, little chipmunk," he said, intercepting her bowl as he carried his to where an empty tray waited with a small stack of other dirty bowls.

"No, that's alright," Evangeline tried to admonish, but Hagor waved her toward the seat any way.

"I am tired of sitting. You take my place," he insisted, leaning back against the small dresser the tray sat upon. Valerian bit down some sort of snotty retort, and went to the bed, to plunk down on it. Considering how small the room was despite it supposedly being grander, he was almost up to the table from that spot.

"We were just talking about what our next moves should be and we could really use some Meta insight right now," Harrowheart agreed, leaning her elbows on the table. "We are still planning on going to the Green, right?"

"I definitely think we should," Evangeline agreed. "As much as I love you guys, I think we would all find it easier if we could take breaks from each other. "

"As soon as I'm free, I don't plan on seeing any of your faces again," Valerian said cheerfully. "No offense meant, but I have some pressing objectives that a crowd like you would slow me down from."

"And even more so for us," Sigismund agreed. "Now that Artmond has met up once more with his fiancé, it will be that much harder for us to continue on to this green place. And we don't have any guarantee that what we can find there will even work. But with the help of the First Lady, we would now have access to more resources to get us out of this situation."

"I'm not too keen on that idea," Valerian interjected. "Nobles are like... well my kind. It's probably why there are so many of us amongst them. They always want something if they have to give something and would prefer to take that something without giving anything up at all. I mean, how much to do any of us even know about the esteemed 'First Lady.' Not even Artmond really knows her, correct? This is just an arranged thing."

All eyes swiveled to Artmond, who had spent most of the conversation staring at his fingers, drawing circles on the table.

"No, I don't," he said, his voice slipping from him like a wind amongst the reeds. "We met twice, once at a ball, briefly, before the engagement. And then the second time at the engagement banquet. We didn't do much talking to each other then either."

Pity dripped into Evangeline's heart for the position Artmond sat in. There were two things about the situation that she had learned from her forced Meta Point burning. The first, that Artmond did not want to marry the First Lady Enrichetta. He wanted out of this engagement. The other was that if she didn't provide him another option, that he would stay and do just that, which would make it so much harder and stickier to leave, as First Lady Enrichetta would chase, or rather would send people to chase, after her runaway groom. She would need to get him to decide to be honest about who he really had feelings for and if it wasn't herself, there was only one other.

And if she just said any of that, she had no idea what would happen to the way the dialogue was supposed to unfold.

"Why do you think First Lady Enrichetta wants this marriage?" she did ask, even though she also knew these answers.

Sigismund was the one to answer. "She is in line to be the Countess of this area. Her father wishes to retire the position and enjoy his dowager years, and part of the stipulation for her to take over is that she must marry. Then there is the advantages to taking a husband from Artmond's house would bring. His mother is also a powerful Countess and part of his dowry comes with a piece of land that borders both counties."

"This has been a standing agreement for ten years," Artmond finally added.

"It's very legally binding and if I don't marry her, it makes it very difficult for her to marry anyone else for awhile, technically speaking," Sigismund continued, her pinching her eyebrows at Artmond.

"She'd sue the pants off of my family. And she'd have legal standing to do it," Artmond sighed.

"That seems terribly... terrible," Harrowheart said, crossing her arms. "To not have the freedom, to marry who you will? That sounds like a recipe for a lot of other sorts of troubles."

"Well... here's a wild idea: Let's talk to a lawyer," Evangeline said.

Artmond and Sigismund both sat up straighter in surprise at the suggestion.

"What good will that do?" Harrowheart asked, rubbing the tip of one of her tusks.

Rogue Skill: Legerdemain. Success.

"I don't know," Evangeline lied. "It's just something Meta told me to do."

Each of them sat silently a moment, taking that in. They had all come to respect this "god" Meta of hers. The Meta points had steered them right so far, though Evangeline realized that with all her Meta points burned, she couldn't exactly remember why she knew all this. She also knew that this path would be the shortest and easiest to get them to the place they really wanted to be.

"Did your Meta happen to mention where we could find a lawyer?" Valerian asked, curving a blonde eyebrow at her.

"As a matter of fact, he did," Evangeline said with a devilish grin.

Want to read more by me? Check out cozy paranormal romance: Cookbooks and Demons.

She doesn't know how to cook, and somehow summons a demon. 

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