In the House of Summer | Novella

Disappointing The Wife

"So far, this hasn't mentioned anything about Viscount Trotten or the Queen."

After a few minutes of reading Lady Whitley's account of parlor games and dances and the conspicuous advances of some poor guy by the name of Simon, Olivia put the little notebook down, a disappointed look on her face.

And then she sneezed so intensely that I felt her whole body shake next to me.

"Liv, why don't we get out of this dusty library?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

She pursed her lips, and I braced myself for her stubbornness. But she surprised me, saying, "Okay, Asher."

Clutching the journal in her hands, she stood and walked over creaking floorboards. I followed her with my eyes, not really believing it was that easy. Nothing with Olivia was ever easy.

She disappeared out of the double doors leading from the library, and I scrambled up, remembering our conversation earlier about falling through the floors into the basement. Olivia was fiercely independent—almost ridiculously so—but the ruinous Rosecrest Manor was not a place where I felt inclined to leave her on her own.

By the time I made it back out into the main hall, Olivia was already vanishing down another hallway.

"Olivia!" I called after her.

She paused, merely looking back with an arched brow. And because of that, I couldn't keep the exasperation from my voice. "Where are you going now?"

"You said we should leave the library, so I am exploring the rest of the house."

Stuffing my hands in my pockets to hide the clenched fists that would undoubtedly reveal my frustration, I strode toward her. "Is that really necessary?"

"Is what really necessary, Asher?"

"Do we really need to poke around this mess? It's obviously a wreck, Liv."

"Yes, obviously, it is a wreck." She stomped her heeled foot a little, and the floorboards wobbled hazardously beneath her. I gritted my teeth. "And I wonder whose fault that is, Mr. Graham?" she bit out.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry if I didn't want to spend all of our money fixing an estate we would never visit."

"The only reason we wouldn't have visited is that you wouldn't have taken me." Her words were pointed and sharp. Then with a toss of her hair, she added, "You never took me anywhere."

With that, Olivia spun on her heel and continued into the depths of Rosecrest Manor.

"Fuck," I muttered. Why did I think this was going to go well?

Following her—again—I stepped carefully over a fallen door and down the darkened hallway. "I took you places," I retorted, my thoughts finally catching up with what she'd said. I'd been too busy thinking about how to get her out of here before.