Liar (Madison Kate #2)(33)
Ana led us through the marble-tiled floors, despite Kody clearly already knowing the way, and into an old-fashioned sitting room. It was complete with gold-framed paintings of straight-laced women, stern, moustached men, and their beagles.
"Madam Constance, I located the stragglers." There was an edge of teasing in the housekeeper's tone, and it surprised me. I certainly wasn't one for staff acting deferential because we paid them, but it was what I'd grown up around. Ana's level of familiarity with her employer—who looked very much like a prim and proper high-society woman—gave me pause.
"Thank you, Ana." The immaculately dressed and made-up woman perched on the chaise lounge. Deep lines framed her eyes, and the skin of her hands and neck held a certain delicate frailness of advanced age, yet she was still gorgeous. A shock of white hair was swept up in a perfect french twist, and her designer skirt suit was pressed to perfection. She even wore pantyhose with her sensible, low-heeled pumps. "We will be ready for dinner in around an hour, I think. I'm sure Madison Kate would like to freshen up after the drive here." She cast her ice-blue eyes over me, but it wasn't an unkind gesture.
"Not a problem, madam." Ana gave a genuine smile, one that creased her eyes, before leaving the room again.
Archer cleared his throat, drawing my attention. He was sitting beside the old woman on the chaise lounge, and the resemblance between them was clear. They shared the same eyes and the same perfectly formed lips.
"Madison Kate, this is my grandmother, Constance D'Ath." There was an edge of uncomfortable formality to the way he phrased that, and I wondered if he was just weirding himself out by not including an insult in a sentence with my name attached.
His grandmother gave me a small smile, though, and I pushed aside the uneasy feeling Archer had just given me with that introduction.
"It's lovely to meet you, Madison Kate," she told me, and seemed to be sincere with the sentiment. "Archie, be a dear and get your beautiful friend a drink from the bar."
She raised a penciled brow at her huge, tattoo-covered grandson.
He gave a small, apologetic smile back to her. "I would, Baka, but Madison Kate hates it when we do things for her. She's an independent woman like that, aren't you, Princess?"
I allowed my eyes to narrow at him ever so slightly before giving Constance a smile. "For sure." I started in the direction of the bar across the room, and I heard a distinctive whack followed by a protest from Archer.
Constance hissed something to him, and he sighed dramatically as he stood and followed me to the bar.
I smirked at him as he hunted a glass out of a cupboard and plonked it down on the bar top in front of me. "You got in trouble for being rude, didn't you?"
He just glared back at me. "You cool with champagne? I'm not mixing you a fucking cocktail."
I clicked my tongue, teasing. "Such terrible manners, Archer D'Ath."
He rolled his eyes and bent over to retrieve a chilled bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. As he opened the bottle, I glanced over my shoulder to where Constance chatted to Kody and Steele like they were old friends.
"Your grandma seems lovely," I told Archer in all seriousness. "So does Ana. Has she worked here a long time?" I was fishing for information and didn't even try to pretend otherwise.
Archer gave me an exasperated glare while pouring my champagne, then sighed. His gaze shifted past me to his grandmother, and his eyes softened.
"Ana's worked for my family her whole adult life. She was purchased by my great-grandfather as a teenager." His mouth twisted in disgust at that word, and my jaw dropped in shock.
"Purchased?" I repeated, dumbstruck. "As in—"
"Sex trafficking?" he finished for me, cocking a brow. "Yep. Anyway, she and my baka have been lovers for as long as I can remember. They think we don't know, and we don't pressure them to act otherwise. They both lived the kind of lives where their relationship wasn't even a possibility, let alone accepted. Now they're just too stuck in their ways to change."
"That's... equally adorable and heartbreaking all at once," I murmured, looking back at Constance with new eyes. She had such a story behind her; I could almost see it written all over her skin. I was insanely curious, but also cautious not to push Archer too far. When he was in a sharing mood, I needed to be sly.
"It's not so bad," he commented, refilling his own drink from a crystal decanter and dropping in a fresh ice cube. "I'm the only one who ever visits here, so the rest of the time they live their lives comfortably like a normal couple." He gave me a sharp look. "And before you get all snarky at me, Princess Danvers, yes I hate that they feel like they need to pretend while I'm here. Believe me, I've tried to tell them we support their relationship, but Baka won't hear a word of it. She's a stubborn old bat."
I grinned as I picked up my glass and followed him back to the seating area. "Sounds like a family trait," I whispered as we sat down, and he shot me a quick, narrow-eyed glare.
"So, Madison Kate," Constance said, turning back to face me, "tell me about yourself. What are you studying?"
I blinked at her a second, feeling a bit under the microscope, but something about her set me at ease. Soon I found myself in a comfortable, engaging conversation like I'd known her for years.