All Chapters of The Alpha's Greatest Regret: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Chapter 32. The Tea HouseCassium stopped her in the east hallway on Wednesday night. "This is yours." The photo lay on his palm, still folded in its scrap of cloth. Callie didn't reach for it. "You told everyone it was yours.""I told them what they needed to hear." He held it out further. "Take it." She took it. The cloth was warm because his coat had kept it warm. "You didn't ask what it's for.""No." He stepped aside. "The housekeeper's list has your name on it for Thursday. Be back before dark."Her head snapped up. He was already walking away. Della talked from the moment the cart left the gates. The cook's temper. The price of saffron. A stable boy named Toma with freckles on his ears. She never asked Callie a single question. That was the best thing about her. Callie kept her hood up and her head down, the grey dress buttoned to the throat. The photo was in her left pocket. The coins were in her right. Every time the cart hit a rut, she pressed a hand to both. Nobody in the

Chapter 34. Followed"Why does that little girl have your scar?"Callie looked past him into the tea house. Posy was bent over the basin, collar slipping off one shoulder. Under it was a thin, jagged line along the collarbone, healed badly and never stitched. The same place as Callie's. Almost the same shape. Her stomach dropped and she swallowed hard. She pulled her arm out of Liam's grip. "Half the children in this city have scars, Liam.""Not like that one.""No." She met his eyes. "That kind you get when somebody hurts you, and nobody bothers to fix it after."He went quiet for a few minutes. She watched it land. The archive room. The bolt sliding home. Her knuckles bleeding on the iron door. "Della's waiting," Callie said, and walked past him. He didn't follow. When the cart pulled out of the market an hour later, he was still standing at the end of the tea-house street, staring at nothing. "I'm not going again," Liam said.Fenna stopped wiping the tack bench. "Sir?""She saw me

Chapter 36. Peter's Night Watch.Peter gave up on sleep a little after one. He lay on his back, listening to his mother cough through two walls. Every time it stopped, he waited for it to start again. It always did. At half past one, he got up, pulled on a shirt, and went down the servants' stairs in his socks. He told himself he was going to the kitchen for water. He didn't go to the kitchen.The corridor by the servants' stairs had one window and four doors. Callie's was the last, nearest the back stair. Peter stopped at the far end, by a broom cupboard, and sat down on an upturned crate in the dark. He didn't knock. He didn't need to.The perfume he wore was enough as her scent sat in the corridor. But it was old, hours old, cooling. Under the door there was no breathing. Nobody turning over, nobody at all. She was out. Peter's stomach dropped.Thursday, he had told Liam. He'd been so calm about it. I'll see for myself. And she hadn't even waited until Thursday. He sat on the cra

Chapter 38. Dinner With Questions.Rowena wore the blue dress, because Lord Soren had looked at it on Tuesday. He sent his regrets at the door. He was dining with the elders in the west hall. Rowena smiled at the steward and said that was perfectly all right. She took her seat at Peter's left, where she'd sat every night for two years.Peter didn't look up. He always served her first. The best of the roast, the crisp end of the bread, a spoon of plum sauce because she'd said once that she liked it. Tonight the steward did it. Peter sat with his hands on either side of his plate and stared down the table and then at Callie.Callie sat at the far end, past Liam, past the empty chair where Father used to sit before he started taking supper in his rooms. Same plain dress as every night. She'd taken the smallest slice on the platter and was eating it in small, quick bites. Cassium sat across from Rowena. He hadn't touched his wine."The soup's lovely," Rowena said."Mm," Peter said. Liam w

Chapter 40. The Bitter CupThe whole people in the house woke at 3 am in the morning. Cassium heard it through two floors. Feet on the stairs. Someone shouting for the doctor. Then, we heard much quieter, a woman was crying. Cassium was dressed before the shouting stopped.Madam Elena's room was too hot and smelled of sweat and vinegar. Peter stood against the far wall, gripping the back of a chair. Rowena sat at the foot of the bed with her face in her hands.Callie was at the pillow, her mother's head on her arm, wiping Elena's neck with a cloth."Her face is burning and her hands are cold," Callie said, not looking up. "Hot bricks from the kitchen. Wrapped. Not against her skin."Nobody moved."Now."A maid ran. Doctor Harl came up the stairs two at a time in his coat and nightshirt and went straight to the bed."How long?""Since half past two. Cramping, then the sweat. Her heart's slohe morning. Though he was too slow."Harl pressed two fingers under Elena's jaw. His mouth