I joined her, pulling my knees to my chin.“What’s the point?She doesn’t listen to anything I say.Besides, it’s probably better she doesn’t know I’m carrying out a royal assignment.”
“Is your guard also working for them?”Christabella asked.
“In a way.”I told Christabella about Maddox’s position in the Royal Guard and his relation to Narcissa.
“So he’s practically a prince!”Christabella said with wide eyes.
I snorted.Maddox didn’t nearly have enough regal breeding to be a prince.
Chrissy hummed and rubbed her cheek.“Say, isn’t Greenwood a witch name?Maude Greenwood and her husband Manuel are weather witches.”
“Are they?”I asked, surprised.There were several witch families in charge of the weather enchantments in the village.I didn’t realize the Greenwoods were one of them.Ma never spoke of them, otherwise I would’ve remembered that detail.
“They’re in charge of the east weather tower.Heard they’re rather reclusive,” Chrissy said.“Is your guard related to them?”
“Must be.Maddox’s father, Captain Greenwood, was a witch, but he removed his magic and lived as a human for years.”
“Removed his magic?What a sacrifice,” she murmured.We sat in silence for a moment before she nudged my shoulder, her tone growing teasing.“So.Are you and Maddox together?”
“We are nothing of the sort.”
“Maybe if you weren’t buttoned to the neck all the time, he’ll pay you the right kind of attention,” Christabella sang.
I bristled.“It’s hardly the season for decolletage.Besides, I don’t want that kind of attention from him.”Sure, I tried to kiss him last winter, but that had been a passing infatuation and a very silly mistake.“What about you, hm?”I said, turning to her.“How did you become engaged to Alexander?”
It was Christabella’s turn to squirm.“A couple of months ago I was picking acorns from the oak tree.I lost my footing and Alexander caught me.”She sighed dreamily, then proceeded to wax poetic about how she never realized how handsome he was until she landed in his muscular arms.“Then he confessed that he had been in love with me for some time.On my birthday, he proposed.”
“And you said yes?Because you realized he wasn’t half bad to look at and he was in love with you?”
Christabella nodded.
“What else?”
She frowned.“What else is there?We’ll be married and happy.Not everyone wants to start a business like you, Gigi.”Her tone grew defensive.
I sighed, knowing many marriages were based on less.Ma and Pa had married for duty, to extend their family lines so witches didn’t die out shortly after the village was established.I didn’t even know if they ever liked each other.
“So...when are you going to tell Ma?”I asked.
“When the time is right,” Christabella said decidedly.
“Chrissy...”We both knew Ma would dig out the truth sooner or later, and it was better to fess up than be found out.
“Alright, after this whole weather debacle is over.When things are normal again.”
When things were normal again.That would be when Edmund, Maddox, and I went back aboveground.Who knew when I would see Christabella again?There was so much to tell her and so much more to share from the past nine months.
“I have something to show you,” I said, grabbing my satchel that I placed at my feet.
Christabella laughed in delight as I dug through it, my arm disappearing up to my shoulder.“You figured out the bottomless bag enchantment!”
“I did,” I said with a grin.I fished out the notebook, an overstuffed leather bound thing in which I kept track of my ideas and patterns, and flipped open to the page where I had doodled the first iteration of Narcissa’s wedding dress.
“That’s pretty,” Christabella said, looking over my shoulder at the sketch of the gown.It featured a structured bodice, floaty sleeves, and an elegant skirt made up of multiple flared panels.
“It’s the crown princess’s wedding dress,” I said proudly.Christabella’s eyes grew wide.The mockup had looked magnificent on Narcissa.“But I have to start over.My old landlady stole it.”
Christabella listened with rapt attention as I told her about my unceremonious eviction from Mrs.Lewis’s crumbling building.Then of my meeting with Mr.de Clare, meeting Edmund, and getting the emissary assignment.It felt good to talk about everything with Chrissy, who gasped and laughed at all the right moments.
