“I am in total agreement there.” Rose essayed a reassuring smile, pretty sure it came out wobbly. “I knew I had a twin, but I was told she died at birth. On the day we were born, anyway.”
“Oh.” Thorn looked stricken, as if she had indeed been struck down and just now heard the news. “I think I’m not dead.”
Rose cocked her head, uncertain if she’d heard correctly. “You’re not sure?”
Thorn gave a rueful smile. “I sometimes feel like a ghost. I live this half life, where no one even knows I exist.”
“You’re alive, Thorn,” Rose told her emphatically. “I know you exist.”
“Thank you.” Tears welled in Thorn’s eyes and she dashed them away, smearing flour on her cheeks. “I cry all the time these last couple of days. It’s not normal for me. Or it didn’t used to be.” The teakettle whistled and Thorn whirled gratefully, busying herself with the kettle.
Though she really wanted to hear what had happened with Sebastien, Rose decided to start with less fraught subjects. “How long have you lived here?”
“All my life,” Thorn answered with a shrug. “But not really alone. My guardian and mentor, Jada, lives here. Usually. She’s been gone awhile. She might still come back at any moment. Idon’t know.” Thorn’s shoulders hunched, and she paled, looking apprehensively out the window. “She would be very angry to find you here.”
“It’s not as if you invited me,” Rose replied, surprised to find herself annoyed on Thorn’s behalf. Who was this Jada who clearly treated Thorn unkindly enough that the girl lived in terror of her?Woman, Rose mentally corrected herself. She needed to stop thinking of Thorn as younger. “If this Jada does return, I’ll deal with her.”
“Oh, would you?” Thorn beamed at her, then sobered, worrying her lip. “Canyou?”
“I’m a powerful sorceress,” Rose assured her. “And I have rank.” Not a lot of rank, not yet, but almost certainly more than this Jada.
“I see,” Thorn replied, clearly not understanding. She set a plate before Rose. “Some toasted bread from yesterday’s baking. And honey. What kind of tea do you like?”
“What are my options?”
“There’s a shelf of teas in the pantry there, if you don’t mind looking for yourself.”
Rose didn’t mind at all, as she’d been feeling increasingly uncomfortable having Thorn wait on her like she was a lady to Thorn’s maidservant. She surveyed the contents of the pantry with considerable surprise. For a rustic cottage in the deep woods, far from the nearest center of civilization, they enjoyed a wide array of luxury items. Exotic teas from distant lands. Sugar in glass jars. Expensive and rare truffles. A wrapped packet of chocolate cookies imported from the equatorial islands.
Rose spotted her favorite tea, one even the academy didn’t carry, and pulled it out. “Ooh, let’s do this one.” She handed the tin to Thorn, who took it and held it gingerly, as if it were too hot to handle.
“This is Jada’s tea,” Thorn offered tentatively. “I’m not supposed to drink it.”
Rose was beginning to loathe this Jada. “Well,” she said with a grin, “Jada isn’t here, is she? We’ll both have it.”
Thorn smiled back tentatively, watery sun peeking through a ten-day overcast. “You are wicked.” Then she clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—I shouldn’t have said that.”
Rose laughed and snagged the expensive packet of imported chocolate cookies. “You’re not wrong. I am occasionally wicked, and there is a place for wickedness in this world, especially if the alternative is being a doormat.”
Thorn was staring at the packet of cookies Rose was gleefully tearing open. “Those are—”
“Let me guess. The absent Jada’s personal, special cookies.”
Thorn nodded and Rose offered the open package. “Have one.”
“Oh, I couldn’t.”
“Well, I’m going to. Are you going to watch me devour them all without even tasting one for yourself?”
A worried line between her brows, Thorn glanced out the window again, then squared her shoulders and delicately plucked out a single cookie. Watching Rose like a fawn that might bolt if she moved the tiniest bit, Thorn nibbled at the cookie, her dark eyes going wide and soft, her face a picture of sheer ecstasy. “It’s so good,” she marveled, her mouth full of another bite.
“Told you.” Rose took one for herself and set the packet on the table. “Now, how can I help? I warn you, I’m not much use in the kitchen.”
“Oh, no. I’d much rather that you sit.”
“Because I’d be in the way that much?”
“Yes. I mean, no. That is, I’m used to doing things this way. If you don’t mind.”
