Shifting in the driver’s seat of her little car, Zia tried not to sound guilty when she replied, “Nothing happened to me. I’ve just been busy with work, that’s all.”
Yes, busy breaking rules, almost getting fired, and then…
Well, she really couldn’t explain the rest. Being assigned a guard for days was bizarre enough, but coming into work yesterday to find a note from Mr. Bounds on her workbench, requesting an early morning tour of the rose garden, was utterly beyond her ability to explain.
She glanced at the time. He asked her to meet him at five-thirty, giving them almost two hours before it became too bright for Mr. Bounds to tolerate.
Ten minutes.
“It’s almost winter. Shouldn’t you be wrapping things up there?” Before she could answer, her mother pressed, “When are you coming home? I want to make sure everything is ready for you. Your brother has started putting his junk in your room, you know. He’ll have to find a place to put everything if you’re going to stay until the spring. I need to know when I should start forcing him to move everything.”
Zia rolled her eyes. She didn’t bother asking which brother was putting his shit in her room. Three of her five brothers lived at home. It could have been any one of them — if not all of them. Her mother did have a habit of referring to them collectively to save time, after all.
“I’m not sure when I’ll be home,Anne,”she said, steering the car around a sharp bend in the mountain road. “I’m on my way to the estate now. There’s a lot I have to do to prepare for the winter, and then I want to start working on my paper.”
“Why can’t you do that at home with your family? We miss you,gülüm!And it’s going to freeze up there in those awful mountains. You need to come home soon. I don’t want you driving in the snow.” Again, as she barely took a breath before she continued, “Why are you going to work so early? It’s barely even five! You are working too hard again, Zia. I can feel it.”
She tried to ignore the way her stomach dropped when she thought of being away from the estate for three months. The rose garden wouldn’t be accessible to her until the ground thawed, so there really was no reason to stay in her lonely little house for the winter, but…
Her gaze flickered to the time on the sleek dashboard.Six minutes.
She took a quick breath before she answered, “I can’t concentrate with all the noise. Besides, when I visit, I want to be able to spend time with you, not hide away on my tablet doing work.”
“You concentrated just fine for the first hundred years of your life. Why is it such a problem now?”
Because even though I hate how lonely my house is, it is nice to have my own space.There was no way she could say that to her mother, though. She’d throw a fit, thinking her daughter didn’t like being with her family.
Instead of addressing the question, Zia said, “I’ll come home for the Moon and help you cook. By then I’ll be done with work. Won’t that be nice?”
“Onlythe Moon?” her mother balked. “That’s a month!”
“I know,Anne,but I have a lot of writing to do.” Zia spied the turn off to the estate. Her pulse fluttered in her throat. “I have to go soon. I’m almost at work.”
Exasperated, her mother pressed, “Why are you soearly, gülüm?It’s still so dark.” Her concern bled through the speakers, making Zia’s chest ache with homesickness. It was a small thing, but she was grateful that her mother had never once made her feel silly for her fear of the dark. “Aren’t you worried about being out there on your own?”
Maybe a few days ago, sure. Zia liked to get a head start on things, but was early even for her. Normally she left the house at a much more reasonable hour, which got her to the estate just before sunrise. But things were different.
He wants me to give him a tour of the rose garden,she thought, breath quickening.
In sharp, jagged scrawl, Mr. Bounds requested her company. She had no idea what it meant — probably nothing — but seeing as she had resigned herself to going back to only catching glimpses of him through windows, she was almost beside herself with giddiness at the prospect of spending more time with Mr. Bounds.
And nerves. Definitely nerves.
“Mr. Bounds installed lights,” she explained, only barely holding back thefor methat almost slipped out at the end.
“Oh, it’s about time. Did he just figure out not all of his employees are vampires?” her mother said, sniffy on her daughter’s behalf.
Feeling defensive, Zia replied, “It was a very nice gesture.”
Her mother scoffed. “To provide light for his employees to work under? Certainly. I wonder what prompted him to be so very generous.”
Not wanting to get into exactly why Mr. Bounds decided it was time to put lights on his property, nor the very strange few days that had passed since then, she tactfully chose not to reply.
Zia pulled onto the road and slowed her speed, approaching the closed gates of the estate with a nervous swallow. “I’m sorry,Anne,but I have to go. Mr. Bounds asked me to give him a tour of the garden this morning and I’m nearly at the gate.”
“What? Zia, will there be other people with you?”
I hope not.
