“Master, not like that!” Piffle grew two sizes too large, towering over me and ducking his head to miss the ceiling. Enormous hands adjusted my cravat, fixing whatever mess I’d done to it in nerves and heartbreak.
He shrank back down to his usual size with a satisfied grin on his face.
“That was excessive,” I grumbled, checking in the mirror at his work.
“I’ve been practicing that one,” he said with pride, darting around my rooms, picking up books and stacking them on tables. “How else will I reach the edge where the ceiling meets the walls in the corridors to hang the tapestries?”
“Tapestries?”
He nodded, picking up the black leather shoes he’d found for me to wear for the evening. “Mistress requested them. Said they’d bring color to the halls while she is away.” He looked up at me with a raised brow. “Said they’d remind you not to lose hope.”
“You know she’s leaving, Piff.”
“Yes.”
“And she’s not coming back.”
With a slight shrug, he continued his work, placing the shoes down beside the bed where I slipped them on. “Dinner is about to be served. I must excuse myself. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No. Thank you for watching over me, Piff. But most importantly, for watching over her.”
He made an aggravated grunt before I heard a thunk. “Perk up!” The words came from a little golden clock set on the table by the fire, its pendulum swinging back and forth dramatically.
I frowned in deep annoyance, ignoring his antics and adjusting my cuffs.
The clock didn’t stop there, however. “You’ve pined after this Goddess for so long, and yet you let her poison you and leave?”
“I’m not forcing her to stay here.”
“Then stop moping about it and spend your last minutes with her!” He pointed to his own clock face. “Look at the time, man! She’s there in the dining hall already, waiting for you, and yetyou are here, fretting over your collar! If it is she who you want, let it be known!”
I stood in a heavy sigh. “I can’t tell her what she means to me. I won’t be the cause of any guilt she might feel in leaving.”
“By the Goddess, Arthur, you are a martyr of your own making, through and through! First with your mother, then with that business in Havenshire, now this! Do not let her go without telling her why she should stay!”
I left the bedside, shaking my head at a clock telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. “One last time I’ll sacrifice my needs.” I swept through the room and headed up the stairs, listening to my one friend scramble behind me. “One last time I’ll sacrifice them for her.”
I stoodin the archway of the dining room, ready to sink into the stonework. Reshina busied herself around the table, her back to me with glorious black wings tipped in silver. She wore one of my favorite gowns so far with long black layers in the skirt that pooled at her heeled feet. A beaded cape of sorts hung at her shoulders, detailed with intricate patterns on each of her arms and shimmering black beads hanging from one shoulder to the other across her back. I understood my own attire now, a compliment to what Piffle had sewn for her.
Her long black hair was pinned at the top of her head, the silvery branches of her crown catching in the candlelight. She was adjusting our plates, I finally realized, taking the silverware from my setting and adding them to the space next to hers. She finished with my glass before turning to pick up my chair.
“Arthur!” she cried, facing me with a blooming flush to her cheeks.
I was wrong. This gownwasmy favorite.
The black bodice curved to her figure, shaped over her breasts with an ample ode to the voluptuous nature of them. The beading at her shoulders hung around her neck, leaving free the small pinpricks of teethmarks at her collar bone.
“You are stunning,” I praised, leaving the archway to take her hand and bring her knuckles to my lips.
“Thank you. I see Piffle has dabbled in matching att?—”
She gasped as I turned her wrist, placing a light kiss at the bite marks along the underside. Instant heat filled the room, present in my stare, in the way her chest began to heave and her skin flushed red.
TAKE HER.
I agreed with the Beast’s demand, but managed to remove my mouth, pulling her chair out for her instead.
As soon as we were seated side-by-side, the telling squeak of Piffle’s cart sounded in the hall behind us. He wheeled it in, practically giggling in delight.
