The broken, jagged panes of glass had been removed, and were in the process of being replaced one by one. By dawn, he was willing to bet, it would be all fixed.
Then again, Marquist always had been efficient at getting things done, hadn’t he—
Helania’s springtime scent was the first announcement of her arrival, and right on its heels was her physical form as she materialized beside him. Courtesy of her having fed from him, she could track his whereabouts anywhere, so he hadn’t had to give her an address.
As she looked at the mansion’s formal entrance, her eyes widened. And then she took a couple of steps back in the snow and stared up, way up, at the house’s refined and elegant exterior.
Her expression turned to flat-out shock. “When you said you lived in a big place . . . I had no idea.”
Boone shook his head and went over to open the heavy door. “It’s still just a roof and four walls at the end of the night.”
Stepping inside, he held the great oak panels wide and waited for her to join him. As she approached the doorway, she was careful to stomp the snow off the treads of her boots, and when she came across the threshold, she didn’t go far.
Her eyes bounced around the foyer, moving from the stairwell with its carved balustrade to the parlor where he’d had that Fade Ceremony to the open archway of his sire’s study. And the entire time she surveyed the grandeur, Boone felt like he wanted to apologize for the show of wealth.
“This is not me,” he heard himself say. “I am not this house.” Helania looked at him, and it was a while before she spoke. “But this is where you’re from. This is the world you live in.”
“Well, it’s not anymore.” Boone shrugged. “Come on, let’s grab a car so we can start looking for that house and get out of here—”
“Where is your room?”
“Upstairs. But it’s not important.”
“Oh. Okay.”
As he held out his hand, she came to him, and he led her through to the back of the house. Passing through the polishing room, she lost her momentum as she eyed the silver trays that were lined up and the uniformed doggen who was rubbing them with a pink paste that gradually turned gray.
“Oh, my Lord!” The maid dropped the sponge she was using and bowed low to Boone. “It is my honor—”
“It’s okay, not to worry, it’s fine—” Boone cut himself off and wished he could get the doggen to stand up straight again. Turning to Helania, he said, “I’d like to introduce my—”
“Friend,” Helania said as she put out her hand. “I’m his friend.”
The doggen stared at the palm that had been offered to her with utter shock. Then she glanced at Boone in confusion. “My Lord?”
Boone stepped in and discreetly lowered Helania’s arm. “You’re doing a wonderful job, Susette. Thank you so much. We’ll just be going the now.”
As he whisked Helania away into the pantry, she tugged at his sleeve. “What did I do wrong? I don’t understand?”
Boone paused in the staging area with all of its counter space taken up with stacks of porcelain dishes. As he eyed the dinner plates, he wondered, given those trays that were being worked on in the other room, whether Marquist was going to try to throw himself a congratulatory party.
Good luck with that, Boone thought as he refocused on Helania. “Have you ever met a doggen before? Apart from Fritz?” he asked.
“And I don’t mean to be disrespectful, I really don’t.”
“Um . . . no. I’ve never even been in a household like this.”
“Okay, so, doggen are very old school and all they want to do is take care of their family. They don’t believe they are on our level, and so for you to offer your hand, they don’t know how to handle being acknowledged like that. It’s unfathomable to them. I personally have never agreed with it, but they have chosen their way, and it is an argument I haven’t even tried to broach out of respect for their traditions.”
“Oh. I didn’t know.”
“It’s all right. It’s forgotten.” He smiled darkly. “Besides, it’s out of my life now, too, so we don’t have to worry about it.”
Pulling her into the kitchen, he figured the explanation had good timing given all the doggen who were cooking and preparing Last Meal. As Boone checked out the quantities, there wasn’t enough to suggest other people were coming