Immortal Desire

THE AMBROSE FAMILY

Chapter 2

ANAHITA

“Miss Anahita! Drop your garment this instant!” A stern voice booms right behind me and I freeze in my steps, shocked to the bones as I slowly turn my head with a sheepish smile to look at Butler Barrett who watches me with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, eying me from head to toe in that distasteful way of his that makes me feel like a little over pampered princess.

“It is very unladylike to show off your calves like that, miss.” He admonishes and I sigh, grudgingly dropping the hem of my billowing skirts that I had dragged up while trying to rush down the stairs.

The sly old man.

I had been running down the stairs in a haste and when I had noticed that my skirts were slowing me, I had looked sideways in search of the old butler before dragging my skirts up to give me more room to run. I had not even gotten to take a single step!

I grin at him and give an awkward chuckle, wincing in preparation as I drag my skirts even further up my calves and proceed to run down the staircase, blocking my ears to the admonishments that Butler Barrett sends my way for not behaving like a proper lady.

I just snort and continued to run.

It is not like anyone expects me to be a proper lady anyways, Athalia has always been known to be the prim and proper one of us, it is not like I am not prim and proper but you know, a noble lady has got to have fun sometimes and break rules.

A wild grin stretches my lips and I give a dramatic inward sigh even as I continue to run, showing off my calves to the whole estates and the servants working in it, happily soaking in their horrified gazes and how they quickly look away from me as if I am an abomination.

Well, maybe I am.

I am just about to round another corner that leads to my father’s office in the godforsaken chief house when a huge man crosses my path breathing hard and glaring down at me.

I finally skid to a stop, drop my garments to the floor glaring back at him, arms folded across my chest defiantly.

“What?” I snap at him.

“And where do you think you are going?” He takes what is supposed to be a menacing step toward me.

I only roll my eyes at him, as if I could ever be scared of him. “Where does it look like I am going, dear Quillion?”

He sighs and runs his hands through his brown, shaggy hair. I bet he wants to strangle me right now, sad thing is, he can not.

“You can not just barge in there, Ita.” He nudges his head towards the door that is my father. “Your father is having a council meeting with the farmers and Harry is looking like he wants to chew you and spit you out in two seconds.” Quillion warns and I sneak a look towards one of my father’s personal guards who indeed looks like he wants to have a piece of me and not in the secret passionate terms I read in books.

“You do not tell me what to do.” I still mutter defiantly at him and he rolls his eyes in answer.

“I will drag you out of here screaming and kicking if it means you will not cause even more trouble for your father.” He says and I glare hard, taking a step closer to him in what I hope is scary and menacing even though I am feet smaller than him.

I am about to tell him just where he should shove his opinions, when nudges me, hard.

“Ow!” I almost double over.

Instead of apologizing, he only makes a familiar eye gesture at me and I immediately shift my attention from the slight pain in my stomach, to what he is busy gesturing to.

Just behind me, I notice Aelinana and her maidservant snickering at me.

I roll my eyes and turn with a mischievous grin to Quillion, pain king forgotten and whisper. “Here comes the ladies of the court.”

We both chuckle at the inside joke, hands covering our mouths.

“You are too much of a gossip for a noble lady, Ita.” He mumbles, still chuckling.

I just give him a sly smile. I look back again at Aeliana to see that she is no longer snickering, instead, she glares at me, looking like she could puff out smoke anytime soon.

I just shrug smiling, instead of returning my smile, she just huffs and walks away, leaving her maidservant to also stick her nose in the air, huff slightly, and scurry after her mistress.

I turn back to Quillion. “I have such a weird family.”

“You are not so normal yourself.” He deadpans and I shrug.

True.

I admit the Ambrose family really is a weird one. But how could it not be? Saddled with three daughters, a son and a second wife, my father tries hard to juggle the role of the chief of the clan and being the head of the Ambrose house.

It does not work out well most of the time since our clan is the most flourishing in the kingdom, this means my father is always busy and does not have much time for us.

Leaving his three daughters in the hands of his second wife, who makes sure that all our time is filled with governesses teaching us how to be proper ladies.

Maynard Ambrose, my father, lost his first wife, our mother, to a cold fifteen years ago and as the chief of the Kot Diji clan, he needed a wife to support him so he later married the beautiful and wicked Isolde, daughter of the chief of the Zhuzh clan.

After a year of their marriage, she birthed a boy, our young and mischievous stepbrother, Nyx Ambrose, who is the only boy in the family.