I shake my head. “There’s nothing planned.”
“Shame. I thought it would be a fun date.” He leaves.
I blink and pick back up the mirror.
Chapter 13
Driving Home the Lesson
Mistress Vincenza pulls my hand off the wheel. “Your lesson can end here.”
I dejectedly lower my head. “Sorry, Mistress.”
“I’ve seen worse.” She leans over and fixes my hair. “We’re getting out here to grab supplies, and you’ll have an opportunity to improve before your next lesson.”
“Am I studying a book on steam cars?”
“No—experience is more practical for learning these skills—you’re sleeping for a full night.”
I graze my hand over my hair. “I think I might like to just keep it in a ponytail after today.”
“It would be less inconvenient for me,” she huffs.
I narrow my eyes.
Is she implying that she’ll keep doing my hair? I wouldn’t mind.
“Come on.” She steps out from the car. “You’re leading until you make a mistake.”
“Of course, Mistress.”
We find our way into a large warehouse of frozen goods, mostly bulk food. Technically the reagents we’re gettingarein bulk, but a bulk shipment of limestone powder is barely a jar, whereas everyone around us are carting carcasses larger than me.
“Stop.”
I freeze.
The wooden floor creeks under her steps. “While Ididinscribe ‘salt water,’ I intended for you to procure the extract.“ She places back the jug I grabbed and replaces it with several vials. “I also didn’t specify that it was the bromide I was interested in.”
“Am I going to have to memorize your shorthand on these lists?”
“Until you’re writing them.”
Just a few more decades then.
“Which I’d give only a season with your level of progress,” she adds.
“...Aren’t I progressing slowly? I haven’t even cast a spell yet.”
Without any hint of emotion or insincerity, she states, “I accounted for your lack of intelligence.”
I don’t even know how much shame I should feel for that. She didn’t hate me for it, but I don’t need her endorsement to hate myself. I just lower my head and follow down the list.
“Stop again,” she repeats.
“What is it?” I ask in a thin, dying voice.
“I was being facetious for an ill-thought joke. You are a surprisingly intelligent woman, and I don’t intend to imply otherwise.” Her monotone voice is hard to discern for anything genuinely apologetic.
