The Death of a Bachelor

Chapter sixty-three

Not everyone would be staying at Hammedatha Manor, but it was still packed even with half of them gone. The one who amused Elena the most as the way she made her uncomfortable was Marissa, the only pregnant one. And she’d started off the day with an odd conversation.

Elena nearly choked on her milk when Marissa asked her, “Did you hear me and Desmond shagging last night?”

She also had a colourful vocabulary.

“Oh goodness. I hope nobody heard,” Marissa continued, packing her plate with bagels. “I know it was memorial day, and it would be unscrupulous of me, wouldn’t it? But I cannot help it. When you need some, you have to go get some. You understand what I mean, don’t you, Elena?”

Elena opened her mouth to answer in the negative, but Marissa cut her off.

“It helps that Desmond’s got the stamina of a stallion. Otherwise, I don’t know what would have become of me.” She stuffed her mouth with a chunk of bread. “Then again, it must run in the Hammedatha bloodline. I mean, look at all these offspring, am I right?”

Elena gave her a feeble smile that was somewhere between a grimace and a nervous beam. What was she to reply to that? Marissa seemed to have gathered, quite incorrectly, that Kieran and she had been intimate before – actually, all the time. And each time Elena tried to correct that misunderstanding, it was a failure because Marissa never stopped talking.

Elena would be married to Kieran in two days. The two of them hadn’t had any private time since his family members arrived. The older generation had left on some kind of tour/visit, leaving behind a handful of Kieran’s cousins and his siblings. Once the older generation left, Ray suggested they throw a small party to which they all agreed.

As preparations were going on, Elena found Kieran in the main kitchen that afternoon. When she walked in, Kieran looked at her from top to bottom and asked, “Did you change your style?”

Elena was glad he’d noticed. With a self-accomplished smile, she twirled for him. She had worn a knee-length long-sleeved sky blue tunic-dress with slits on either side from the waist down. The bodice and sleeves were fitting, and she wore black leggings underneath. She’d done two braids in her front hair; one on either side. The rest of her hair was left flowing down her back.

“It’s a gift from Granny Cata,” she said and pointed to the feather earrings in her lobes. “Along with these. What do you think?”

Kieran was leaning against the table as Elena showed off infront of him.

“I like that she loves you,” he replied.

Elena pouted. “That is not what I asked.”

Kieran raised an eyebrow, but there was a playful smile on his face. “Well what do you want me to say?”

She huffed. “Say something about how I look.” She gestured down herself repeatedly. “About this!”

Kieran shrugged. “What about it?”

Elena glared at him. “This is not what I normally wear.”

“I can see that.”

Elena rolled her eyes in frustration. “Well what else can you see?” she snapped. “I am asking you how I look so tell me; how do I look?”

Kieran blinked. “You look like Elena.”

“You!” She thrust her index finger between his eyes. “Are a tactless fellow!”

Kieran tossed his head back and roared with laughter. Had his laughter always sounded that attractive? Lately she found lots of things about Kieran attractive.