“Wealthy humans,” I murmured under my breath.Christabella would’ve laughed with me.Perhaps I’d see her sooner than both of us realized.
The kitten in my arms mewed.She was extraordinarily soft and had a rather sweet, winsome face.I set her down immediately, refusing to fall victim to her feline wiles.
Maddox set the cats into their respective baskets, each luxuriously cushioned, then gave them all a scratch behind the ears with a dutifulness that almost made me laugh.After he finished attending to them, he turned to me and spread his arms.“Ready to move in?”
Within fifteen minutes, a whirlwind of servants had selected a chamber for me, dusted it, and spread clean sheets on the canopied four-poster bed just as someone sent up a tray of tea.
I stood in the middle of the room, mildly appalled by the size of it and the lush furnishings within.As some of the servants passed, I thought I heard the phrase “Young Lord Greenwood’s lady friend” followed by a bout of giggling.
“How do you take your tea, milady?”a serving girl asked, hovering over the silver tea tray.
“With...”I stared at the frosted cubes of sugar and the boat of cream inside achingly lavish vessels.“Water.Thank you.And it’s just Giselle.Or Miss Giselle, if you must.”
The serving girl looked on with something akin to horror as I gulped down half the tea in the cup.Strongly steeped and smooth.Just how I liked it.I patted my mouth dry with my sleeve.“Say, is there any mending that needs to be done?I’d be happy to help during my stay.”
***
IF THERE WAS ANY MENDING, I didn’t see any of it.
I spent the rest of the day unpacking my things and taking inventory of the belongings I managed to recover from Mrs.Lewis’s building: packets of needles; a set of crochet hooks; scraps of fabric, hardly a yard of each; spools of brightly colored cotton thread; and a folio of paper pattern pieces, nearly bursting at the seams.
I pulled out an armful of white silk satin—the skirt portion of Narcissa’s wedding dress.I smoothed my hand over it in relief.At least I still had this.The wedding was five months away; there was plenty of time to redo the bodice.
I thought about the poor unfinished garment in Mrs.Lewis’s clutches.There was no saying what she’d do with it.Stick it in her dusty stash?Sell it to another dressmaker for a profit?
In any case, the design was compromised.I’d have to start from scratch.
The rest of the afternoon was spent doodling new dress concepts, none of which were good enough.After a few attempts that resulted in a pile of crumpled paper, I tossed everything back into my satchel and endeavored not to think about it until I was in a more creative headspace—whenever that might be.
There wasn’t much to do when dusk fell.A peek out the window confirmed that Maddox was down in the stables, no doubt preparing for a ride through the expansive fields behind Greenwood Abbey.I considered going to find him, but wandering through someone else’s massive home on my own held very little appeal, and it seemed Maddox didn’t intend on playing tour guide.So I stayed in my room until a tray was sent up to me for dinner.
It seemed that family meals were a rarity, since both Narcissa and Captain Greenwood were in the palace.Lady Vanessa Greenwood was absent too, said to be out traveling.I watched the sunset as I ate, until the last rays disappeared past the horizon, plunging my room into darkness.
Maddox, I decided, was a rather inconsiderate host.
In the morning, he burst into my chamber without warning.I had completely forgotten where I was until he threw open the curtains and set the room ablaze with white light.
“I’m going to be a novelist!”Maddox exclaimed.He threw himself on the edge of my bed, squashing the mattress with his dirt-streaked breeches.
I winced, though more so at the light than the impact of his landing.“What?”
“I was out riding and it hit me!Remember that romance novel we read this spring?”Maddox pulled out the massive volume seemingly from out of nowhere.“A Sailor’s Seduction: Tales of Romance at Seaby Erasmus Lenard.I could do something like that!”
“Erasmus?”I rubbed my eyes.“Isn’t that the royal inspector?”I recalled the overenthusiastic old man who had greeted each witch in the Witch Committee.
Maddox gaped, dropping the anthology with a thud.“Ishe?Then that’s proof!Anyonecan write a romance novel,” he crowed.“Now.All I have to do is find a publisher.Oh!I’llhaveto have it printed by Sternfeld Press—they’re the biggest in the business...”
His excited ramblings faded as I buried my head under the covers.
“...perhaps four volumes, or five!”
I sat up and threw the covers off.It was far too early for this.“Is this about your father again?”
Maddox shook his head, then paused.“Well, partly.Hehasbeen not-so-subtly mentioning the Royal Guard to me more.”
I gave a noncommittal grunt.
“Maybe you can help me brainstorm next week,” Maddox said, leaning back on his elbows.He didn’t seem to notice that I was still half asleep and in my nightgown.
