1887!
Again, I was in my personal Nirvana.
I also began work on the Talyn family tree.
I’d programmed an alarm on my phone (smartening up), so I had plenty of time to get back to the house, go to my room, fluff my hair and refresh my makeup and perfume, and I was down in the plum parlor by six forty.
Dinner went off without a hitch.
There was no tablecloth or candelabra, and we were back to a three-course meal. Chelsea was subdued. Courtney brought seaside souvenirs she lugged into the dining room and passed around (mine was a famous motto ware puzzle jug, it was very cool, and I was touched).
We ended the night in the billiards room with Battle flirting brazenly as he tried (and failed, not his fault, I was hopeless) to teach me snooker with Prue giggling, Chastity almost laughing, Chelsea fuming, and Tempie finally getting up and wiping the floor in a set against Rally.
When the night was over, Battle walked me to my room again, but without Chelsea trailing.
Whether it was for that reason or not that he left me at my door with a chaste kiss on my cheek, I didn’t know.
But that was what he did.
My first kiss from Battle Talyn.
On my cheek.
Ugh.
Suffice it to say, yesterday, he was working, I was working, and as such, I had not had the time to corner him to find out what was happening between him and me.
I wasn’t sure that day would be the day either, because I intended to work, Battle shared he had some morning meetings, but after that, they were “taking the horses out,” and being a gal who didn’t grow up with horses in stables, I wasn’t sure if that was an all-afternoon activity or not.
I also didn’t know they had horses because I hadn’t had a complete tour of the grounds. Thus, I had to carve time out to ask Prue if she’d take me, and more time just to do that.
But for the now, I had to eat breakfast then I had crates of history awaiting me.
“Can I get up?” I asked Baby Blue.
She purred and didn’t bother opening her eyes.
I gave her time.
Then I gave her more time.
Then she got done with me and jumped off.
So I was free to get up.
I’d jumped ahead because I couldn’t wait.
I was reading Marie’s journals.
And yes, as Prue said, they were dry as a bone.
If there was ever a more boring woman in history, I did not know.
Discussions with the housekeeper. Lists of invitees to dinner parties. Complaints of rain ending picnics. An endless recitation of the meals she ate.
Ho-hum.
Though it finally got juicier when Harmony started pushing for the duchy to do its part in the war effort.
