A Court of Heart and Fealty | Rhysand

Chapter 17: The Villa

Humming, she glanced around as though to make the calculations. "If I need more room I might be thinking about the other side of the city. Walking distance to your home is still too close." She sent a small smile to Azriel to tell him that she only teased about his choice of location. Somewhat.

Placing a hand on his chest, Rhysand moaned. "You wound me." He crossed his feet and looked around again. "I told Azriel that he could use my funds for something bigger but he was certain you would prefer this."

She bit the inside of her cheek. "I do prefer this. Even if I didn't I would have rathered a backstreet alley than your money."

Rhysand gave no response.

Sensing that her tone was verging on something more than fickle bickering, a consequence of the discomfort rumbling in her stomach, Galadriel tightened her arms around her middle. He had sounded... sincere. Behind all of it, every taunt and gesture, there had always been sincerity. "I'm sorry. I've just never been given a house before. Or had a High Lord offer me anything like that."

Rhysand smiled softly. "I've opened you an account with the city's bank. You have a household credit verified by me so don't worry about carrying anything on you, they'll charge your account directly in most places." Her previous account had been verified by Amoise in the Autumn Court—insurance to the bank and vendors that the amount owed would be paid. If she could not, the debt would be taken from the one who verified her.

"Everything that you had before has been replaced," added Azriel.

"Replaced?" Her mind ran with the number she had told Azriel just nights before. "Five thous... That is too much." Years' worth of saving. Savings she had thought she had lost but a loss she had mourned and grieved and forgotten about. An amount far too much to take as nothing more than a gift. "Take it back."

Azriel parted his thin lips but Rhysand spoke before him. "Returned," he enunciated. "Returned is the better word. Azriel was able to take the funds from your old account undetected. There is no trace that would lead them to this one even if Velaris wasn't protected."

Azriel frowned slightly but nodded in confirmation.

Relief trickled through her and she dropped her hands from her stomach. "Oh."

He watched her for a moment, amused. "A house is not too much but five thousand marks is?"

Galadriel couldn't be bothered to explain it to him. The villa, however beautiful, was not a gift. It was a sentence. A housing cell. But gold was freedom, one which she could not take from them and feel right. "My mind works in odd ways," is all she could say.

"I'll say," Cassian muttered. "You got any food in here?" Before she could answer, he was wandering into the kitchen and opening her cupboards.

"Pig," Rhysand muttered to himself. Galadriel hid her smile but trailed after the general.

Her cupboards were in fact, partially stocked. Filtering across the packages and containers, she realised that most of it, other than some fruits and salted meats, was handy for her practice of baking. Biting her lip, she glanced subtly at Azriel who stood off behind her. It was warming to know that he had taken that into consideration. That he thought of her.

Rhysand smiled again, hands still deep in his pockets. "Already thinking of what to bake?" he asked, reading the look in her gaze.

Galadriel nodded and took in the kitchen. Smaller than the town house's of course, but she barely needed that space anyway. "I would offer to bring something over later, but you never ate my lemon muffins so..." She trailed off with a shrug. "I'll just take it as you believing my baking is terrible."