The Betrothed (The Betrothed #1) - Kiera Cass Page 0,30
me up as Nora pulled back the curtain to see into the antechamber. “Space for four or five, I think, should you want to go ahead and choose your ladies.”
“If it goes beyond the two of you, you can choose. But not today.”
“Nora, see if you can find some maids,” Delia Grace commanded. “I’m going to get her in bed and get the trimmings—firewood, flowers.”
“Should we go back to her room and move some more of her belongings?”
“The king said he’d do it in the morning. It can keep until then.”
They planned around me, like I wasn’t even there, like this wasn’t all happening for and because of me. And because I couldn’t bear to think of anything more for the day, I let them. The drapes were closed around my bed, making for a cozy and quiet space, but it didn’t entirely block out the sound of them moving around the apartments or the maids building a fire.
I didn’t go to sleep. But I heard when Delia Grace and Nora finally did. And that was when I found my shoes and quietly slipped out of the room.
Thirteen
BY THIS POINT IN THE night, I knew the moon would be shining through the stained-glass windows of the Great Room. I passed corners where couples whispered and giggled, and I was bowed to by guards and servants working at even this late hour.
In the Great Room, the fire from the wide hearth was down to glowing embers, and a lone servant was stoking it, getting the last bits of heat where he could. I stood in the middle of the archway, looking at the explosion of color on the floor. Nothing, of course, could match the way the colors danced in the roaring light of day, but there was something other, something almost sacred about the way they fell by moonlight. Still the same designs, the same patterns, and yet quieter, more deliberate.
“Is that you, Lady Hollis?”
I turned. The person I’d thought was a servant at the fire was actually Silas Eastoffe.
Of course he was here. In the moment when I was wondering if it would be worth abandoning my king, I ran into someone who’d done something similar to his. And who could say which of us was a better criminal?
He might be the worst person I could have come upon. Not just because he too had been tempted to the life of a traitor—tempted and succumbed—but because there was something about those blue eyes that made me think . . . I couldn’t even say what they made me think.
I tried to look dignified, as if my night robe was the same as a gown in my eyes. It was difficult under the weight of his stare. “Yes. What are you doing up at such an hour?”
He smiled. “I could ask the same of you.”
I stood taller. “I asked first.”
“You really are going to be queen, aren’t you?” he said in a teasing tone. “If you must know, someone thought it would be a good idea to make two matching pieces of metalwork for two great kings in a single day . . . Sullivan and I only stopped working about twenty minutes ago.”
I bit my lip, my attempts at being aloof vanishing before my guilt. “I’m so sorry. When I said that, the date of the visit had completely slipped my mind. It’s taken me by surprise as well.”
“Has it? My mother said you were quite a willing student today.” He crossed his arms and leaned sideways against the wall, as if this were an everyday meeting, as if he knew me so well.
“Willing, yes, but good? That remains to be seen.” I pulled my robe a little tighter. “I’ve never been the brightest of the girls at court. If I ever forget that fact, Delia Grace reminds me. Or my parents. But your mother and Scarlet were quite patient with me today. I may need them to come by again tomorrow. I mean, today, I suppose.”
“I can tell them if you like.”
“You’ll also have to tell them I’ve moved.”
“Moved? In a day?”
“In an hour.” I brushed my hair back and swallowed, trying not to sound as irritated as I felt. “King Jameson moved me into the queen’s apartments tonight. I don’t think my parents even know about it yet. I have no idea how the privy council is going to take it once the news becomes public.” I rubbed at my forehead, trying to smooth the wrinkles of