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I refused the immediate image brought to mind, of Mr. Evans trying to seduce and defile this young woman in pursuit of his own cause. She was still clean—barely even her own perfume hovered, and there was no greasy mark of his on her. But I didn't put it past Gryffyd Evans to take the chance for sex with a young omega before the selection if he thought he could get away with it. He was as notorious with the women he chose as my own father.
"I can't wander all day," she said, a dismal forced smile on her broad lips. I was about to encourage her to do just that when she turned on her heel and took the lead, continuing, "Sophia might suit you too. She's impossible to discourage. The most stubbornly cheerful creature you're ever likely to meet."
Mairwen Posy seemed to be about to wander right off now, without a curtsy or demure "my lord" or even a goodbye. I would see her tomorrow at the selection, an event whose outcome I was suddenly uncertain of. All I knew was that Adelaide wouldn't do. I didn't like her enough to try and persuade her not to kill me.
"I'd better walk you back," I said. "Clearly, I need your insight."
Mairwen hummed in agreement and then stopped, staring at me in horror. "But you can't walk me all the way to the house. If my mother saw you, she'd get all sorts of mad ideas. I know it's less than a day, but even in that amount of time she could—" She stopped herself abruptly, lips pressing flat, and shook her head, marching forward like a soldier. "Absurd," she muttered.
Mairwen's mother might see me at her daughter's side the day before the selection, might even catch a whiff of me on her after I'd manhandled her. Her mother might think I was preparing to choose Mairwen. The alpha choosing the tall, awkward, inappropriate, not clearly pretty, scentless omega.
Unlikely. Absurd, as Mairwen had said.
My lips twitched again.
"Francesca would not suit. She's very weepy and incredibly biddable. Someone like Gamesby would only have to suggest she open a door, and then the pair of you would end up playing a tug of war on her poor mind," Mairwen declared, a defense for Francesca more than a warning for my own sake.
It was a shame she was walking ahead of me. So few people ever saw me smile.