In my sleep-addled state, I’m not making sense. I pick up the brush and start dragging it through my tangled locks, hoping the soothing motion will help me organize my thoughts. Nana takes the brush and wrangles it through the thick waves that fall to my mid-back. That helps. I inhale a calming breath and start from the beginning.
“The queen has ordered me to attend Kai’s welcome-home banquet this evening.”
Nana’s mouth purses disapprovingly. “That will raise eyebrows. Has she no care for your reputation?”
I shake my head. The Queen Regent only cares about rescuing her son. We both know that one pathetic scullery maid is unimportant compared to the future of the country. Whatever “reward” she has in mind won’t be anywhere close to enough to compensate for the damage to my already-dented reputation.Even before his accident, people whispered about my close friendship with a prince.
I can ask for Kai’s hand if I succeed in this quest. But even if the queen grants my request, he would be wiser to make a political match and repair one of the many alliances he’s broken.
Then what would I do?
In truth, my future was forfeit the day I played in the dirt in the garret window box with the roses my grandmother had just helped me plant. I didn’t know, then, what the boy’s friendship would cost me.
I still would have paid the price.
Besides, if I can’t get Kai to remember himself, Nana will lose the home she’s made for us here in Montrace. My resolve firms.
“You shouldn’t go.” Nana’s strokes speed up. “It won’t help you.”
“I cannot ignore a direct order from my sovereign.”
Her mouth pinches sourly. She knows I can’t.
A thump on the rooftop above brings our chins up. Nana and I exchange glances. We both recognize the sound of boots on shingles. I know that step, though it’s different from the halting way Kai used to climb the slanting surface. This is heavier. Manlier. Aggressive. A quaver in my thighs as the footfalls thud closer.
I wait with bated breath. Maybe he’s come to his senses and wants to speak privately. I need to get dressed.
As if she reads my thoughts, Nana holds out a robe. I shrug into it, twisting the belt into a knot, fumbling it when the first heavythwackreverberates through the wooden sill. Startled, we rush to the window, tripping over one another in our haste to open the latches. The glass goes up. The wooden shutters push outward. Metal glints in the sunlight seconds before splinters and dirt fly in our faces.
“What are you doing, Kai?” Nana cries out.
I can only stare in disbelief as my beloved roses crash to the courtyard below.
How could he? He destroyed the symbol of our friendship. Our origin story lies in pieces on the stones below.
Disheveled and breathing hard, he rests the handle of his axe on one shoulder and gloats.
“That ought to teach you a lesson, my wicked little liar.”
Nana gasps. My skin turns cold. He wouldn’t tell her what I did with the watering can, would he? I stare at him, torn between outrage and a strange pulse of desire at his possessiveness.
My wicked little liar.He claimed me, and part of me likes that. Too much. Immediately, he ruins it.
“Next time you hang your titties out the window for everyone to see, make sure the view isn’t obstructed.”
Humiliation scorches through me. He strides away, climbing the sloped roof with the ease and sure-footedness of a goat.
“Gwendolyn, what did you do?” Nana asks, aghast.
“Don’t ask.” I swallow my tears.
Nana is silent for a moment before she says softly, “Be careful, Gwen.”
Chapter 7
Despite my grandmother’s warning,I am not careful. I can’t afford to be. But I can be smarter than I was this afternoon when I let my baser instincts drive me into making a foolish mistake. Just as I cannot melt Kai’s heart with coldness, I can’t drag him up from the gutter by sinking to his depths. I must be nobler than that.
Ironic, how I, the scullery maid, must uphold the standards of nobility while the aristocrat sinks deeper into depravity.
