“Thank you for such a pleasant evening,” I’d told him as I’d stepped down from the carriage.
“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” Bram had said, looking dead tired himself. “We’ll have to do it again.”
“We will.”
I smiled to myself as I walked down the hall reminiscing, and hummed under my breath as I recalled music fromFaust.
I stopped and pretended to tip an imaginary hat to a taxidermy lynx, ready to pounce upon an invisible intruder. Its eyes stared back at me without amusement, mouth yawning wide to showcase deadly teeth. “And would you like to dance, monsieur?” I asked it playfully. I reached out an arm to compare my hand to the feline’s massive paw and shuddered, imagining the damage its exposed nails could do.
“I’ll have to refuse a dance,” I told it, bemused. “I’ll be happy to reconsider once you’ve had those nails trimmed, but not a minute sooner.”
A shadow fell across the door, and I stiffened, pretending to dust the top of the lynx’s head. It likely came across like I was petting a dead cat.
“Was that the doctor’s apprentice who dropped you off last night?”
I swallowed, glancing up to find Henri watching me, arms crossed. I immediately scrambled into a bow. “My lord. Good morning.”
Henri raised an eyebrow. “So?”
I lifted my eyes to meet his. “Yes, sir. We went to seeFaust.”
“Faust.Interesting. And did you enjoy it?”
“Yes, my lord.”
Henri’s gaze lingered on me for another moment. “You look terrible. Tell Grimes I ordered you to take a nap before dinner tonight. We can’t have you serving like that.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, sir.”
He waved the apology away as he swept from the room before I straightened and stared after him. That had been odd. He’d seemed upset. Or perhaps jealous that I’d seenFaust? I tried to sort out what could have put him in such a mood, but then I figured that sometimes people merely woke up with a foul disposition. I doubted he actually concerned himself with me at all but was taking something out on me.
But I did take him up on his offer of a nap, to Grimes’s annoyance. An order was an order.
It was as I was tugging on my gloves in the kitchen, waiting to bring up the trays for dinner, that I considered perhaps Henri didn’t care for Bram. The family had their own doctor, after all, who dealt in traditional medicine. Maybe Henri felt threatened by Bram. Bram had hinted at a dislike for the family on his end just last night, so perhaps the feeling was mutual.
I didn’t have long to ponder the matter, however, as I was handed a tray of food to bring up to the dining room. My mouth watered as I smelled pheasant, recalling my dinner with Bram the previous evening. And then I recalled his dimples. And his smile. Those eyes that I felt pulled toward.
You need to get ahold of yourself,I chastised myself, lifting my chin and trying to focus on the task at hand. I pushed Bram from my mind, although I knew that he wouldn’t be banished for long. I liked Bram. A lot. Even if that meant that he was a companion, a friend, I wanted to be in his circle. When he’d spoken animatedly about the opera, or when he laughed, he was like a flame, burning so bright one couldn’t look away. I wanted that in my life, someone with so much passion and charm and …
I let out a breath, trying to clear my head again. Dinner. I was serving dinner. Daydreaming could wait.
The family was not hosting any guests this evening, so it was an easy enough dinner to navigate, even if they did still demand perfection from their servants.
Blanche smiled at me like an old friend as I served her but didn’t dare speak to me before her uncle, who seemed distracted this evening, poring over some documents in a reprieve from his usual good manners when in company. I tried to catch a glimpse of what interested him so, but he foiled my attempts at every turn, covering the papers with a sleeve, or turning to another page just as I approached. It was frustrating, but I had to appear uninterested so as not to arouse suspicion. Just when I’d resigned myself to failure, I managed to spy some articles pertaining to livestock, and I realized that it would have been too good to be true to find Montoni reading incriminating letters in the company of others. He wouldn’t be so careless.
“Uncle,” Henri said after I’d served him and had gone to the side table to wait silently to refill glasses, “have I mentioned how tedious Fournier was while we were gone? He was downright incompetent. Did you know he even ruined my favorite dinner jacket?”
“And what would you have me do about it?” was Montoni’s reply, not bothering to look up from his paperwork.
Henri exchanged a look with Blanche and winked at her, his eyes finding me briefly before straightening and clearing his throat. “I was thinking. Fournier is getting on in years, and I think it would be more appropriate to have someone who can keep up with me in his valet duties, someone closer to my age.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I propose I take the new servant, Dupont, on as valet. He seems smart enough on his feet. I’m sure I could train him easily.”
“Annette could help,” Blanche agreed, sneaking me a sly look.
I blinked at the proposal.Valet?I couldn’t be valet. I could hardly handle my duties as Second Man, and being a valet required much more skill. I stood frozen as I watched the proceedings. Were they going to even askmyopinion on the matter?
