“Matea, dear, was that the door I heard?”
Looking up in the direction of the voiceI’djust heard, I watched as Lady Billie rounded the corner of the hallway to the left of us.
She stillhad onan apron, which was spotted with flour in random places. Her hair, which was mostly the same shade as Matea’s—aside from her gray roots—rested atop her head in a neatly braided bun. At the sight of me, she gave pause, her gaze lingering on my face,as if she could see the remains of her daughter there.
Seeming to suddenly remember herself, she bowed and said, “My queen. Thank you for honoring us by coming tonight.”
I forced myself to not outwardly cringe as she did so. Iwasn’tsureI’dever get used to that, but if I was hoping to start building something more meaningful here, then we had to start with that.
Crossing the space between us, I gently rested my hands on Lady Billie’s shoulders and guided her up from her bow.
“Please,” I said softly, “call me Aviva. We do share blood, after all. There is more to me than simply being your queen.”
When her eyes met mine, I could see her searching. Whether she was searching for her lostdaughter, orsimply wondering if I wasattemptingto trick her, Iwasn’tsure, but I held her gaze unwaveringly.
After a few heartbeats, she let out a heavy breath. Her green eyes—the same shade I remembered Mother having—still peered into my mismatched ones.
“I feel her in you,” Lady Billie said, her voice shaking slightly. “The same way I feel her in my Matea. Despite recent events and discoveries, she lives on in you two.”
When she mentioned Matea’s name, her gaze slid to my half-sister, her expressionsofteningtenfold.
I smiled gently as she looked towards me again, then reassured her, “She lives on in you, too. I see her in every piece of you. Despite what happens from here on, itdoesn’tchange the past. Itdoesn’tchange thatI’mdeeply sorry for the painyou’veendured.”
Lady Billie’s eyes began to water, but she lightly shook her head before any tears could fall. “Goodness me, we haven’t even made it past the entryway and I’m already emotional,”shelaughed softly.
“I told you that you wouldn’t last longer than halfway through dinner!” Matea chimed in, coming to stand beside us. Lady Billie lightly nudged her and playfully glared at her granddaughter, but the smile on her faceremained.
“Right this way, myqu—Aviva.We’llbe having dinner in the private dining room this evening.” Lady Billie led the way as she began walking down the corridorshe’dcome from, leaving Matea and me to follow.
As we walked leisurely toward the dining room, Lady Billie rattled off different dishesthey’dspent the day preparing. Theyranged from venison,to fruit Ihadn’teven heard of before,to a dessert croissant that Lady Billiesworetasted like it was sent from the Stars themselves.
As we stepped foot into the private room, the first thing my eyes were drawn towasthenumerousdishes that spanned the middle of the round table. There was everything Lady Billie had listed and more—platters of food innearly everycolor, the aroma of it all causing my mouth to water. Above the table, hanging in the center of the space, was another chandelier, like the one in the foyer, but on a smaller scale. It, too, had already been lit, making me endlesslycuriouswho there could fire wield—and what else they could control.
Itwasn’tuntil I turned toward the small fireplace on the far-left wall that I noticed the painting that hung above the fire.
There hung the largest, most detailed portrait of Mother I’d ever seen.
Her skin was tanner than I remembered, and there was a glimmer in her eye thatI’dnever seen before, but it was most definitely her. Her silky brown hair, the green of her eyes, the heart shape of her face—it was allher.
Back in the North, the only portraitsI’dbeen able to find of Mother—which were already difficult to come by—had all been painted in shades of gray. No color had graced the canvas, which I assumed helped Father hide the fact that she was Southern for as long as he did.
“I… probably should’ve mentioned that was in here,” Matea said, her tone apologetic.
I shook my head slightly, breaking out of the hazeI’dfound myself in.
Lady Billie, realizing what I’d been staring at, gasped softly. “I wasn’t thinking. You have my deepest apologies, my queen.” She hung her head.
“No, no, you misunderstand,” I said, stepping farther into the room, towards the two females before me. “Ihaven’tseen a portrait of my mother in full color, well,ever. Father ensured they wereall ingray-scale, likely to help hide her origins, if I had to guess. I just… was surprised, is all.”
Matea and her grandmother shared a skeptical glance, but before they could respond, I added, “And it’s justAviva.”
At that, Lady Billie smiled slightly and nodded. “Aviva it is.”
Just then, a whistling tune could be heard approaching from behind a closed door on the other side of the room. Through it came Lord Geoff, also adorned in aflour-spotted apron, holdingwhat I could only imagine were the dessert croissants. Somehow,he’devenmanaged to get just a bit of flour in his chocolate-colored hair, too.When he saw the three of us standing near the entryway, he paused, his whistling coming to a halt.
The silence stretched on as his guarded brown eyes settled on me. His expression shifted through different emotions, ranging from regret to relief.
“Well, what are you ladies waiting for?”heasked as he placed the dish on the table, breaking the silence heartbeats later. “Let’s eat!”
