His face was expressionless as he held my gaze and Goddess help me if a bloom of warmth didn’t grip my body, tingling all the way into my toes. The tips of his mouth lifted, the smallest crinkle appearing around the edges. I stared at him open-mouthed until he turned away and assumed his regular position, barring me from the prince while my thoughts gleefully danced around.
I rolled my shoulders. My muscles seized, aching as I forced them to relax. I must have been keeping them raised. Maybe that was why Lilyanna looked uncomfortable. It could just be the castle, not the prince. He’d been nothing but hospitable so far, but this place was not exactly warm and welcoming. He probably left a much finer palace behind down South to come up here and live his free life.
The prince and Lilyanna halted outside her room. I forced myself in beside Clement, ignoring their superficial conversation, my mind already firmly planted on this inn with a pint of frothing ale in front of me.
“Tam?”
Clement elbowed me, and I snapped to attention. “What?” When I realized it was the prince talking, the blush returned with a vengeance.
He smiled, his dimples popping. “Do you think you can navigate this labyrinth now?”
He swept his arm wide, and the silk of his shirt rustled against his honed chest as it stretched. Why was I noticing that? I was going to need more than one drink at this rate.
“Yes, they were suspiciously easy to navigate today.” It was kind of the truth. I had paid very little attention but even so, the dining room, ballroom, library, and gardens all appeared where they were supposed to be.
“Good.” He kissed Lilyanna’s hand again and held open the door for her.
Clement bent to whisper in my ear as I passed. “You probably weren’t paying attention before. It’s not like the walls move or anything.”
I swallowed my laugh and hurried in after Lilyanna. I glanced quickly at the prince, thanking him as I passed. His face had hardened, his smile fixed. He didn’t say anything further as he closed the door behind me, but I caught sight of the look he shot at Clement, and my muscles seized again as unease gripped me.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A CLOUDBURST OF ASH
After our tour, days passed without us seeing the prince. We spent the time cooped up in her room playing checkers. Meals were laid out for Lilyanna in the dining room and when nobody else joined her, I sat in the prince’s chair with my feet upon the lacquered surface, polishing off everything she didn’t want.
The only route I learned led from our chambers to the dining room. Whenever we tried to take a different path or see another area of the castle, the twists and turns of the corridor would shepherd us right back to where we started. Every time I thought I had the layout memorized, a new wall would appear to sever my view and corral me back to the start.
The only thing I now excelled at was being a maid.
Hair, check.
Drawing a decent bath, check.
Listening to state secrets from Lilyanna and hearing all about life in the Northwest, check.
But even my very amicable company did nothing to stop the drain on Lilyanna. She screamed my name multiple times throughout the night, waking me with a heart-pounding jolt each time. I ended up dragging my quilt upstairs to nestle outside her chamber.
Sometimes she would still be asleep like on the first night, but clawing at a pillow over her face, her screams muffled. Other times she would shoot out of bed, swatting at an invisible garrote that hung from the ceiling.
“It’s driving me insane,” she said on the third night, the dark circles under her eyes more pronounced by the day. She was seated in front of an ornate mirror watching me release the silken blonde strands of her hair from the twist. “I can’t sleep properly. I’m hearing things that aren’t there, seeing things even when I'm awake.”
I rubbed her shoulders, nodding in agreement. They were driving me mad too. Neither of us would last the remaining five weeks at this rate. “I can try and find you a doctor, maybe get a sleeping draught made.”
“No. I want to be prepared, be fully alert just in case...”
I agreed with her there. I didn’t want to let my guard down either. “Then why don’t you leave?” I ran the comb through her hair, the lingering scent of rosewater coating the bristles.
“I am in love with him. It is my duty.” The brush snagged, and she winced as I tugged it out. “Besides, you shouldn’t be listening to my rambling. I’m just homesick. This place is different, that’s all. It’s interfering with my sleep pattern.”
I grunted.
A rustle caught my attention, and I snapped my head to the door, gripping the comb as if it were a blade. A small scrap of paper was thrust under the threshold.
I picked it up, still clutching my comb-dagger. The prince’s blood-red seal congealed the fold. I tore it open, scanned it, and passed it to Lilyanna. “It’s nothing, he just wants to see you tomorrow for a fencing lesson.”
She clapped her hands, the worry erased from her face even though the ashen sheen remained. “Excellent. Perhaps he had business to attend to and now he’s back. I’ll make sure to tell him how much I missed him, but that I appreciate he’s a busy man with a town to run.”
