The sun was slowly starting to dip low in the window as Rayne sat in one of the many sitting rooms, sipping on a cup of warm tea. The day had gone by slowly and it felt almost agonizing as she sat down and did virtually nothing the entire day. She had no meetings today thankfully, but having meetings would have also given her something to do. Granted there was also work to be done and Rayne had genuinely tried to get some done, but she just couldn’t focus. Her mind was somehow all over the pce whilst also thinking about nothing. It wasn’t a good day today and Rayne didn’t know if it would get much better.

  Eda hadn’t said anything about whether Hannah would be coming to see her again tonight like normal and Rayne was a little afraid to ask. What was she going to do if Hannah said she didn’t want to see her? Maybe this morning had put off her fox so much that she didn’t want to see Rayne again. What if every time Hannah now saw Rayne she just thought of this morning? Even if Hannah did come to see her, what would Rayne say to her?

  A knock at the door brought Rayne out of her slightly spiraling thoughts to find Hamish standing at the door. “Am I interrupting some deep brooding?”

  Rayne shook her head and gave him a gentle smile. “No, I was just a little lost in thought. Nothing too deep to be considered brooding.”

  “Well then I’m not so concerned about interrupting you.” He returned her smile and walked deeper into the room. “How has your day been so far?”

  Rayne took a deep breath. “It’s been fine.” Lying to her own family didn’t feel nice, but she wasn’t going to tell Hamish about this morning. “How about yours?”

  Hamish sighed as he sat himself down across from Rayne. “I have had a little bit of an interesting day.”

  “Oh?” Reading Hamish was easy and Rayne could tell he wanted to talk about his day. Listening to him might be a good distraction and maybe even get them to dinner time.

  “Yes, and it all started from a letter I received this morning.”

  “Who was it from?” Rayne started taking a sip of tea.

  “A Lord Cyton Barbery.”

  Rayne only spilled her tea just the slightest at the name. Lord Barbery was the collector Rayne had purchased Hannah’s neckce from st night. “And what did he want?” He was out of luck if he was looking for more money.

  “Oh he wanted to talk about you.” Hamish leaned back and crossed his legs. “The letter was rather vague and initially I had wondered if it was about a potential match with his son. I know the young Lord Barbery is rather close in age to you so I went.”

  “By the Goddess, please don’t tell me that man actually wanted a match between his son and I.” She had met the young Lord a few times, but neither of them had interest in each other.

  Hamish ughed. “Oh, no. No.” The smile Hamish wore more often than not faded. “He wanted to tell me about how upset he was with your actions st night.”

  Rayne pursed her lips. What was he upset about? She paid him handsomely for the pendant. “And what actions would that be?”

  The middle child narrowed his gray eyes at Rayne. “He told me about how rude you were to him st night whilst you were, and I quote, ‘desperately trying to buy an elven pendant’ from him.”

  “I wouldn’t say rude,” Rayne quietly said. “I treated him no differently than I would any busi—”

  “Rayne, what were you thinking?!” Hamish never dared to cut Rayne off unless he was truly angry. Even being angry he still leaned back in his seat though he also crossed his arms, and Rayne couldn’t help but feel that it was a defensive move.

  “I was thinking that I should treat it as any busines—”

  “Why the hell were you buying an elven pendant?!”

  “It wasn’t even elven.” There was no need to yell back, especially when Rayne could feel he either wanted her to scream back or cower at his words. She was going to do neither while standing her own ground.

  “Oh, yes, I heard about you constantly trying to convince him that a piece of his collection was a fake. Do you know how angry he was?”

  “Not angry enough to not sell it to me.” Rayne truly wasn’t helping Hamish’s anger and part of her didn’t want to.

  “Because you offered an absolutely insane price when he kept refusing!”

  “Nothing we can’t afford.”

  “Rayne, you spent eight and a half tho—”

  “As if you’re one to talk. You spent twenty-seven hundred just the other day and I know for a fact you would have bought that elven book if you hadn’t already spent your money.”

  “That’s different.”

  “How is that different?”

  “Because its an investment fo—”

  “Because you’re a man and the lord of the house and when you spend money it's an investment, but when a woman like me spends money it's a frivolous expense.” There was finally anger in Rayne’s voice, but not a hateful one. It was an anger of a slow simmering build up over years of being treated differently for who she was.

  Now Hamish paused. The confidence he had shown was starting to wear off. “That’s not what I was going to say.”

  “Then what were you going to say, Hamish?”

  “I was going to say…” Hamish trailed off clearly knowing that he had already lost.

  “This is the fucking problem with this society.” The anger wasn’t fading and it felt like the hold she had of it was slowly breaking. “We believe in and worship a Goddess, yet somehow women are still considered lesser than men. If a man bought an elven neckce like I did it would be a Goddess damn investment in the family's future because it holds a high value that won’t be lost with time. Men have built their fortunes on elven artifacts. Men take out asinine loans with them as damn colteral and no one bats an eye. But Goddess forbid a woman buys one because then it's a vain expenditure.” Rayne took a deep breath at the end of her little rant. While it had felt like she got out what she needed to say, the long built up anger was still there. Looking at Hamish it was clear that he was uncomfortable with the quiet part of life being spoken out loud. Most men might have stood up for themselves but Hamish had enough respect for his sister to take it.

  There was a long pause as Hamish thought over what was the right thing to say in response. His mouth opened a few times but always closed. He let out a sigh before saying, “Spending that much money randomly is still a bad thing. It should have been well thought out before you considered an investment like that.”

  “Hamish,” Rayne’s voice came out gentle now, the anger reigned in, “I am the one who handles the money of this house. I am the one who runs the business. You trust in me enough to do all that, why can’t you trust that it wasn’t a wise and thought out decision?”

  “Was it?” Hamish was good at wordpy and could see Rayne wasn’t actually saying it was a good decision.

  “Yes. I will admit I wasn’t pnning on spending that much money, but I am very happy with my decision to do so. It was the right thing to do.” Seeing how happy the pendant had made Hannah was fully worth all the trouble and money that she spent.

  Hamish sighed. “Alright.” He uncrossed his arms. “At least tell me you’ve put it in a safe and aren’t going to be wearing it like some gaudy women of the ton.”

  “Oh no, I won’t be the one wearing it.” Hamish narrowed his eyes at Rayne and the dy knew she had slipped up.

  “That sounds as if someone will be wearing it. You aren’t giving it to Margret are you?”

  Rayne pursed her lips. Maybe it was time to actually come clean. Not that she had ever lied during this conversation. “No. Hannah will be wearing it. I assume she will be at least since it's hers.” Putting her face behind a cup of tea felt like the right thing to do at the moment.

  There was a long pause as Hamish processed what Rayne had just said. “You gave the elven artifact to Hannah?! You’re putting it on a beastkin?!” There was a lot of confusion and anger in Hamish’s voice as he threw himself up off the seat.

  “It’s hers and it’s not an elven artifact.”

  “What do you fucking mean it’s not an elven artifact?!” The anger was taking over the confusion. It was easy to tell when Hamish was angry because he started to use his hands more expressively.

  Rayne shrugged, not really sure how else to put it. “I already told you it wasn’t real.”

  “Why the hell would you spend that much money on a fake? How do you even know it was fake?”

  “Because it’s Hannah’s,” Rayne answered calmly. There was still no point in yelling back.

  “Yes, I know you gave it to her!”

  “No, I didn’t give it to her, Hamish. I returned it to her.”

  And the confusion was back. “What?”

  “The pendant is Hannah’s. It was hers from before being taken as a sve. It’s everlian, not elven.”

  Hamish plopped himself back down in his seat with a hefty thud. Leaning back he covered his face with his hands. “Of course it was something to do with Hannah. Why would you spend so much money on a pendant?”

  Rayne took a deep breath. “Because it was handmade by her fiancée and used to propose to Hannah.” Admittedly Rayne hadn’t known that at the time of tracking it down, but that was just semantics.

  “That’s still a lot of mon—”

  “Hamish, that pendant is quite literally the only thing Hannah will ever have of her past life. The only thing she will ever have to remember her fiancée by.” Pain filled Rayne at that knowledge. Her eyes were even getting misty just knowing that Hannah had been in so much pain and never thought she would have anything to remember Eine by. “I don’t believe there is a price you can put on true love, and that pendant is love in its truest form. Money will not stand in my way to ensure that love is felt and treasured.”

  The hands fell away from Hamish’s face, though he continued to look up at the ceiling. “That was actually poetic.” It didn’t really sound like a poem to Rayne, but then again Rayne wasn’t the poet in the room. “Goddess, alright, I can’t deny that wasn’t maybe one of the most heartfelt things you’ve ever done.”

  Rayne wasn’t sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. She liked to think she had done heartfelt things before, but maybe Hamish was right that this might be one of the biggest. “Thank you.”

  Looking down at Rayne, Hamish said, “I did think it was strange of you to try and get a better deal by convincing someone that the thing was a fake.”

  “I would never stoop that low. I tried to honestly inform Lord Barbery that he had been had, but I was still willing to pay more than someone would for a small wooden pendant. It didn’t work and I admittedly had no way of proving it was a fake elven artifact.”

  “It’s a wooden pendant? Why would he believe that was elven?”

  “There’s an inscription on the back. Elven and everlian look simir and I suppose someone either made a genuine mistake or tried to capitalize on people not knowing the difference.”

  Hamish narrowed his eyes, but it wasn’t directed towards Rayne. “I need to ask Lady Whitlock to come and bring that book.”

  “The woman with the elven poetry book?” Hamish nodded. “Do you think this isn’t an isoted incident?” People would always take the opportunity to make money and Rayne had to admit it was a scheme with a potentially astronomical profit.

  “I have no idea, but we have the person who could tell us.” Rayne nodded and took a sip of her tea. It was starting to cool now. “How did you find this pendant?”

  “Hannah mentioned it once when I…” Rayne hesitated. What other word could she use? “…bought her. Her previous owner said she sold it. I was out yesterday so I went there and asked where she sold it. I then went there and found it was sold again so I asked again where it was sold to. Honestly it started to feel like a challenge and you know I have a problem with backing down from those.”

  “Yes you do.”

  The dy nodded. “I just kept going and eventually found it.”

  “Well, I have to say, you made an absolutely terrible impression with Lord Barbery,” Hamish said with a gentle ugh. “He had a lot to say about you.”

  “I am curious to know what he did say,” Rayne said with a smile.

  Hamish returned the smile. “Well first of all, it’s inappropriate of a dy to try and conduct business like a man as you did. If you want to buy such investments in the future you need a husband or me to be the one to purchase it for you. There is no need for a woman to sully herself with such important transactions. These ‘elven’ artifacts are true treasures, you know.” That made both of the Hayward children ugh.

  Rayne smirked. “I will be sure to inform my husband of when I wish to purchase another one.”

  “Be sure you do because it will be the only way he will ever sell to you again.”

  Rayne let out an exasperated sigh. “Then I suppose I need to find a husband right away.”

  “Well… As Lord Barbery said ‘a woman like Lady Hayward conducts herself in a way that isn’t deserving of a husband, nor the title of dy. No man should ever marry a woman that…’”

  The dramatic pause was uncalled for in Rayne's opinion, but Hamish did love a little theatrics. “A woman that…?”

  “I don’t know, I didn’t let him finish.” Now Hamish was the one smirking. “I wasn’t about to let a man insult my sister so.”

  A familial loving warmth flourished in Rayne’s chest. Of course it wasn’t the first occasion a Lord found himself rather mad at how Rayne conducted herself, and it most certainly wasn’t the first time Hamish had jumped to his sisters defense. It still made Rayne feel loved every time. “Thank you, Hamish.”

  “Of course, dear sister. I love you.”

  “I love you too, dear brother.”

  Trinidia