Chapter 4

Leon Sterling was the son of my father's thirteenth mistress.

I couldn't remember who his mother was.

A merchant's daughter? The widow of some fallen nobleman?

Father had kept so many mistresses that I'd stopped counting a long time ago.

Leon was the only one he brought home when he was five, and he wasn't brought in as a bastard.

Father had my mother adopt Leon.

I don't know what he told her to make her agree. Maybe it was love. Maybe guilt. Maybe he simply told her that the family needed a boy.

Anyway, Leon became a real, legitimate heir of the family.

*****

The next morning, Leon knocked on my door.

"Vesper." He stood in the doorway wearing a neat riding outfit, a pair of gloves in his hand. "Father wants me to show you the estates."

"Okay," I said, grabbing my coat from the chair. "Thanks, Leon."

We rode side by side through the iron gates of Sterling Manor and headed east toward the pastureland.

Leon kept talking the whole way.

"Father bought this estate from Baron Carter fifteen years ago." He pointed with his riding crop toward the vineyard beside the road. "It was expanded once after that. It brings in about this much a year."

He held up a number.

"Okay," I said.

"That's the horse ranch over there," he said, pointing to a wide open field ahead. "Father said part of it will be given to you as a wedding gift after you get married."

"Alright," I said.

He kept going. He told me where the boundaries of the property lay, how many floors each house had, and how much hay was stored in the barns.

He sounded like a true heir giving his sister a final briefing before sending her off to another family.

He really was a model heir. He listened. He followed orders. He worked hard to learn how to run the family properly.

The only problem was that he'd never once had to wonder whether he deserved any of it.

No one had ever given him a reason to wonder.

Why him?

I'd been asking myself that ever since I learned that Leon had been adopted by my mother.

Why could he barely hold his own in swordsmanship, yet Father would clap him on the shoulder at a party and proudly introduce him as the future head of the Sterling family?

Why was his horsemanship so poor that even his horse seemed embarrassed for him, yet every spring he was the first to choose from the new horses that arrived?

Why could he barely read the accounts, couldn't tell how many the family properties were, and yet he could stand there holding that ledger and explain my wedding gifts to me as if he were doing me some great favor?

I had known the boundaries of every inch of these estates, these horse farms, and these lands since I was three.

When I was seven, I could tell what every room in the estate was used for. At thirteen, I was already checking the vineyard accounts for my father.

Leon couldn't tell when the numbers had been padded. He couldn't remember the name of the field that had produced the best harvest last year.

Still, none of that mattered.

He had been born a boy.

That was the whole answer.

Being born male was enough to give him an advantage before he'd done anything to earn it. He could stand there and do nothing, and the world would still make room for him.

I had to prove I deserved every step forward. I had to run the entire race and finish ahead of everyone else to reach the place where he had been allowed to start.

He could spend his whole life making messes around the estate, and someone would clean them up. He could say something stupid, and people would find a way to smooth things over.

However, if I made the smallest mistake, someone would be whispering behind my back before long. "Vesper, you really need to learn some manners."

He had been born standing on the higher side of the scale, yet he was naive enough to believe that balance came from his own weight.

I had been taught since childhood that I had to prove I deserved everything.

I was taught that every meal I ate, every piece of land beneath my feet, and every day I was allowed to hold my head high was something I had to earn.

I had to fight for it. I had to prove myself. I had to be better than everyone else to stand beside someone who had never needed to do anything at all.

And then they told me that standing beside him was already a gift, and that I should be grateful.

But all of this had always belonged to me, and it always would.

It should all be mine.

The land. The wind. The sky burning gold and crimson in the setting sun. Even the distant cries of the horses from the stables belonged to me.

These things had always been mine.

I had grown up here. Every inch of grass carried the memory of my footsteps.

I knew the boundaries of this estate better than anyone. I knew which fields produced the best grapes, which pastures turned green first when spring arrived.

However, Father had wrapped them up and presented them as a wedding gift, while a thief who understood none of it led me on one final tour of my own home.

Leon rode ahead of me, pointing out each piece of land with practiced confidence. He told me when it was acquired, who it once belonged to, and how much it was worth.

He stood on my land, turned around, and reached out a hand toward me, pointing at a pasture whose name he could barely remember. "Not bad, right?"

I stared at his outstretched hand.

Not bad?

Did you know that pasture lost thirty percent of its autumn harvest last year because of an infestation?

Did you know I watched them dig the drainage ditch along the northern edge of this field?

No, you didn't. You knew nothing.

He stood there with that gentle, polished smile, playing the role of the perfect older brother.

He had already ridden several steps ahead before realizing I wasn't following. Then he turned back. "What is it?"

I forced a smile. "Nothing."

I moved forward and caught up with him.

Leon escorted me back to the manor gates, then pulled on the reins and dismounted.

Standing on the steps, he looked up at me and said he would call the servants to take care of me.

"No need," I said. "I'm tired. I'll go back myself."

He didn't linger. He led his horse away and headed back toward the stable.