Drusilla swallowed the argument she longed to make when she realized that Seraphina wasn’t exactly wrong because ... Rhenick did make her nervous, or perhaps it wasn’t nervousnessshe felt when she was around him, but more along the lines of awareness.
She always knew exactly when he entered a room even if she wasn’t facing the door, quite as if there was something in him that was attuned with something in her, whether she wanted it to be or not, a feeling that was, in all honesty, rather unsettling.
“Want to try a few more times before we call it a day and head back to the castle?”
Drusilla glanced at the watch encircling her wrist and shook her head. “I told Annaliese I’d meet her at ten to finish tidying up what used to be the mummy room. It’s about quarter till, and I know she’ll come looking for me if I’m late, bringing Rhenick’s sisters with her since they seem to love Annaliese and stick beside her anytime they visit the castle.”
“And you don’t want to see the Whittenbecker girls today because ... ?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to see them—it’s that I don’t want to see them out here, where I’m putting on a completely lackluster show with my pistol.”
Seraphina frowned. “I have no idea why you’d be concerned about that as you’ve only just started learning how to operate a weapon, and it’s not unusual to lack proficiency with weaponry at first.”
“I’m soon to be the headmistress of the Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies. I can’t very well let future students see me being anything less than proficient with everything because, as you should very well know, having spent eons of time in a boarding school, headmistresses are held to a certain standard. I’d lose all respect from the students if it got around that I can’t figure out how to aim and shoot a pistol, especially when I’m relatively certain there are going to be a lot of our young ladies who’ve been shooting a variety of weapons since the time they could walk.”
“Coraline told me that her friend Norma Jean knows howto operate a cannon because her brother is some kind of mad inventor and seems to have a great interest in gadgets that blow things up.”
“Perhaps we should store our cannon somewhere besides the entranceway to avoid tempting Norma Jean.”
Seraphina grinned. “I’ve already had Norbert help me get it out of the castle, where it’s waiting for him to cart to the barn just as soon as he can convince Moe, Aunt Ottilie’s somewhat ornery donkey, to cooperate and allow him to attach a harness to him.”
“I think Moe’s contrariness is exactly why he must have appealed to Aunt Ottilie, but Moe’s contradictory nature aside, I really do need to get back to the castle.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
After taking a second to add three bullets to the chamber of her five-shot pistol since both Seraphina and Rhenick had suggested she make certain she was armed and ready at all times just in case a determined developer showed up with maleficence on his mind, Drusilla slipped the pistol into her pocket and entwined her arm with Seraphina’s as they turned and headed across the meadow.
“Do you and Annaliese need some help with the mummy room?” Seraphina asked.
“I think we’ll be fine because we have Rhenick’s sisters available to help us today. Annaliese never hesitates to arm them with mops, brooms, and feather dusters.” Drusilla smiled. “All of them seem to adore my sister, although that adoration may very well change once Annaliese gets down to the business of instructing them on how to paint the perfect watercolor, or worse yet, how to play a song on the piano without missing a note, something you and I both know will require hours and hours of practice on the girls’ part.”
“I always resented my music instructors ever so slightly because of all the practice time that’s required to turn proficient,but at least Annaliese and I aren’t going to be responsible for teaching the students proper posture, which always incurs resentment given the tedious nature of it.”
Drusilla smiled. “That resentment is exactly why I volunteered to teach those lessons, as resentment goes hand in hand with being a headmistress. With that said, though, it’s not as if either you or Annaliese are getting off easy, not when we already have almost sixty girls enrolled and we’ve had to divide them into thirds since it’ll just be the three of us instructing at first. Once we make certain the academy is going to be financially solvent, we’ll hire more teachers.”
Seraphina steered them to the right when Billy the Goat suddenly appeared with Mother Goose, followed by the rest of the goats, none of whom had proven themselves to be overly friendly and made it a habit to chase anyone who got too close.
“Irma still not coming around to the idea of teaching a few classes for us?” Seraphina asked as they gave the goats a wide berth.
“Mother hasn’t outright refused, but she hasn’t said yes either, probably because I think there’s a part of her that’s still hoping I’ll come to my senses, take Rhenick up on what wasn’t exactly a marriage proposal, and then allow him to whisk all of us away to a house in the city after vows are exchanged, where she can put all memories of the time spent in a supposedly haunted castle behind her.”
“It might be rather difficult to take Rhenick up on that offer of his since you told me earlier that he’s not mentioned the wordmarriageagain, obviously determined to honor your demand of him never broaching that particular topic again.”
A whisper of what felt like disappointment slid over her, disappointment she wouldn’t allow herself to consider too closely because it was absolutely ludicrous to feel any type of disappointment over the fact that Rhenick was abiding by a demand she’d made and avoiding the subject of marriage like the plague.
“Speaking of Rhenick, he’s heading our way, and look, the twins are with him,” Seraphina said, snapping Drusilla out of all thoughts of disappointment as she turned her attention to where Rhenick was rounding the castle.
Her heart took that moment to give a bit of a lurch, which she staunchly tried to ignore, albeit with little success, because Rhenick was carrying his niece, Hattie, who was looking remarkably grumpy, while Edwin walked at Rhenick’s side, his hands gesturing wildly about as if he were presenting some type of argument, perhaps one that was behind why his twin was looking less than happy.
Seeing a gentleman so completely comfortable in the company of small children was an unusual sight to be sure, and that Rhenick seemed to be trying his hardest to stifle a grin, something that suggested he didn’t want to offend the twins, well, it was little wonder her heart was acting a tad peculiar.
She drew in a breath in the hopes of alleviating the peculiarity and summoned up a smile when Rhenick drew to a stop once he reached her and Seraphina.
“Looks as if there might be some trouble in twin-ville” was all she could think to say, which wasn’t exactly a riveting opening for a conversation, something Seraphina clearly picked up on because she took to looking at Drusilla quite as if she’d lost her mind.
Thankfully, Rhenick didn’t seem to notice Seraphina’s look as he opened his mouth to respond, but before he could get a single word out, Hattie brushed dark curls out of her eyes and leaned forward.
“Fidget’s gone missing,” Hattie said. “She slipped into a vent, and she might be lost forever.”
