I woke to Henry and May jumping on my bed, giggling as they shook me awake. “Willow! Willow! It’s here!”
I groaned and squinted at the clock. 7:30 in the morning. My head ached. I really shouldn’t have had that last glass…or three…of champagne with Zara.
I sat up, pressing a hand to my head.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s here!”
“What is?”
They had already climbed off my bed and were tugging me out from under the covers. I barely had time to stuff my feet into my slippers and comb my fingers through my hair as they dragged me into the hallway, past my bathroom, and into the great room.
“Look!” May squealed.
Sitting in the middle of the room, chewing a hole in the priceless oriental rug, making cute little whimpering play-growls, was a puppy. At first, I had to rub my eyes, sure I wasn’t seeing things correctly. I could only stare, speechless.
He had a wet, dark nose. Extremely floppy ears. And his fur was speckled with black dots on a white coat.
I started breathing hard, thinking I had to be dreaming, it was some fantasy come to life, that there couldn’tactuallybe a Dalmatian puppy in my apartment. I cried, “That’s not a fish!”
May giggled. “Duh.”
Henry dropped to his knees to pet the puppy, making cute little affectionate noises as he scratched his ears. The puppy groaned happily and started licking Henry all over.
May slipped her small hand in mine. “Come on, Willow. Meet him!” If she hadn’t pulled me forward, I don’t think I would have moved. I still couldn’t believe that this was happening. Where in the world had this dog come from? I again felt like I was in a dream. And then a rush of deeper, tamped-down emotions threatened to flood up. All my life, those lonely days as a kid, I had watched101 Dalmatiansand wished more than anything for a dog.
I crouched down and reached out a shaking hand to pet the dog. The puppy was silky soft, all wiggy tail and floppy ears. When I scratched it behind the ears, it pounced on me, licking my face as it had Henry.
“Where…” My voice faded as the puppy attacked me with licks again.
“Severn brought him this morning,” Henry said.
This jolted me out of my shock. I stared at Henry while the puppy sniffed all around my pajamas. “Severn?Severnbought a puppy?”
Henry grinned. “This is even better than a rat. We’re going to name him Puck.”
I watched them play with the puppy for a few minutes in something like shock. I was twenty-three years old, not an eight-year-old girl. I was beyond the age of obsession over puppies. But holding the wiggly dog in my lap, I couldn’t keep my feelings in anymore. I suddenly burst into tears.
May and Henry went quiet, exchanging a worried look. “Willow? Why are you crying? Aren’t you happy?”
“I am, I am.” I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. “It’s just…um…hay fever.” I couldn’t tell them about my rough childhood and about how badly I’d wanted a puppy. I tried to compose myself. “You two stay here. Don’t go anywhere, okay? I need to talk to Severn for a minute.”
As I grabbed my bag and headed for the lobby in a daze, I realized I was still wearing pajamas; I changed quickly and pulled my hair up in a messy ponytail. When Azalea opened the elevator, I hurled myself in, breathing hard. “Severn’s office, please.”
“Are you looking for Severn? He’s in his penthouse, not his office.”
“Can you take me there?”
She seemed hesitant—the prince regent of the New Court’s personal residence probably didn’t have an open-door policy, but when she saw the look on my face, she pressed some of the mysterious buttons.
“Did you know he bought the kids a puppy?” I blurted out.
She laughed. “Oh yes. Big news around here. The whole tower’s been talking about it this morning. Let’s just say the prince of the New Court isn’t often seen carrying puppies around.”
The elevator opened on the sixty-fifth floor, higher than I’d ever gone before. There was a small lobby with several doors, though one was framed in beautiful timber with intricate carvings.
I knocked on it, hard. I was trying not to think about how inappropriate it was for me to barge into my boss’s personal space, when the door opened and he stood there, frowning at me.
