Once guests began to file out of the dining room, Maxwell fetched me, escorting me to a waiting coach, where we were greeted by Melbourne and Cecelia.
“Are we ready?” Ambrose asked, stepping into the carriage and claiming a seat beside me. I angled my knees away so that they wouldn’t accidentally knock into his.
“Quite,” I said. “So long as the weather holds.” I tilted my head toward Cecelia. “I hear congratulations are in order. Three bullseyes?”
Cecelia smiled proudly. “I would say that it was luck, but it was actually a lot of practice. My mother is very skilled and taught me.”
“She’s done an amazing job,” Ambrose complimented. “I believe the duke would have been proud, if he’d witnessed your prowess.”
“I will have to ensure he gets the chance.”
I cleared my throat. “Since you have such an advantage, might I make a suggestion?”
Cecelia quirked an eyebrow. “You want my token, I suppose?”
I smiled sheepishly. “Well, I’m going to assume that you and Melbourne are planning to vote for each other.”
“You would assume correctly,” Melbourne agreed.
“And can you find it in your heart to give the new boy a chance? So many tokens are going to be predetermined. It’s hardly fair.”
“And you’re proposing you deserve them merely because you’re a novelty?”
I snorted. “Hardly. But if I were to vote for Cecelia, and Cecelia were to vote for Melbourne, and Melbourne votes for me to complete the loop, we would all three have tokens, rather than just you two. You’d hardly be out anything.”
Cecelia exchanged a look with Melbourne before shrugging. “That’s true. I don’t mind. Do you, Melbourne?”
Melbourne pursed his lips. “It’s not very strategic, but I suppose I’d rather have you remain in the competition than some of the others.”
“Good. Then it’s decided,” I said. I nodded my head to them. “Thank you.”
“What are friends for?” Cecelia said.
Friends. An interesting idea. I’d never really had friends in my life. My human servants had only served me in anticipation of reward. Raven had been my protégée. There hadn’t been room for friendship in that relationship. We were acquaintances of the moment, nothing more.
There were several minutes of silence as we watched the coach’s progress out the window. We followed the same road into town that I’d taken to the tailor’s, but soon pulled off onto a dark avenue canopied by trees.
“I haven’t been out to Old Mill Road in years,” Ambrose spoke up.
“It’s nearly in disrepair,” Cecelia said. “We only use it for shortcuts. It can be a bumpy ride. You risk breaking down if you go much over a crawl.”
“What’s out there?” I asked.
Melbourne shrugged. “There’s a bridge that runs over Cedar Mill River and an old cemetery, although I don’t think anyone’s been buried there in a very long time.”
“Gramercy House is off Old Mill Road,” Cecelia offered.
Maxwell’s face twisted into a grimace.
“What’s Gramercy House?” I asked.
“An old manor that hasn’t been lived in for decades,” Maxwell informed me. “The last family who lived there were driven out.”
“They were said to be vampires.” Ambrose nodded. “I believe there was a mob that burned them out. Pitchforks and torches and the like.”
I shuddered as I recalled the mob that had come for me in my castle.
“That’s just a story to scare people,” Cecelia said with a sniff. “I ventured into the house when I was little, on a dare. There was no sign that anything had burned.”
