Page 62 of The Trick of It

“My, but you are strapping,” Nini replied, batting her lashes at him. “I bet you could’ve pulled that carriage here with those shoulders alone.”

Errol then turned a shade of pink that was apparently compatible with silence.

“That’s why I take his meat,” Rhys volunteered merrily. “I’m still a growing lad.”

“Rhys,” Seph hissed, coloring at the way his grin only widened.

“It is lucky the two of you arrived whilst the rest of them are distracted,” Nini continued without acknowledging the aside. “I’ve known Merlin a long time, as you may have guessed, and am invested in making certain we do well in this little bon voyage for him. You two were the only double act we invited, or at least the only one where both parties are adults. I’ve still got questions about the fortune-tellers.”

“Oh, indeed?” Rhys said in a tone that made it clear he simply felt he had gone too long without talking. Seph cut him a glance and he grinned at her with a pickle between his front teeth, then bit it in half.

“Indeed, indeed,” Nini echoed, her American accent hitting each syllable like the strike of a timpani. “So, we had intended to put you in the old master suite, two conjoining chambers with a little sitting room in between that you could use for private rehearsal space. That suite is still reserved for the two of you. The only problem is that … Well, we had to take one of the beds for the mesmerist.”

The three others at the table stared at her in silence.

She giggled, pressing her fingers over her lips. “I know,” she said. “We found a trundle for the granny and babe but weren’t prepared at all for the entire additional man. So, I’m afraid you have a few options, and none of them are optimal.”

“Well?” said Rhys. “What are they?”

“Patience, you little ferret,” she said fondly. “I’m afraid none of the men are willing to share, as they would have to share the bed itself, rather than simply the room, and men are fussy about such things.”

“We are,” Rhys agreed, winking at Errol, who slumped lower in his chair.

“Of the women,” Nini continued, “Madame Ivanova would be willing to share with you, Miss Boswell. She has a large bed in her chambers but has already very much unpacked and made the place her own.”

Seph frowned. “I don’t require much space,” she said. “That sounds like a reasonable compromise.”

“Oh, good,” Nini answered, dropping her voice an octave with a tone that immediately made Seph suspicious. “Let me just show you the chamber. We’ll be back in a tick.”

Seph glanced at Rhys and Errol and shrugged, twisting a piece of sourdough off her plate to pop in her mouth as she followed Nini through the servants’ corridor and up into the halls that made up the house proper.

“It’s just that room,” said Nini, pointing to an open door a few feet ahead of them. “The one that smells like sweet, Byzantine incense.”

Seph tossed the other woman a sigh and a roll of her eyes at this detail, gleaned without a doubt from tired stereotypes and children’s stories. The expression got a giggle out of Nini. She walked forward and peered inside, intending to make a cursory sweep of the chamber and assure everyone that she’d settled into far smaller and less luxurious spaces in her life.

However, Nini hadn’t been exaggerating about the room having succumbed to Madame Ivanova’s particular aesthetic.

It was lined door to window to wall with beaded curtains, silk drapes, and an ungodly amount of peacock feathers in vases on multiple surfaces. It was the feathers that immediately gave Seph a recoiling wave of gooseflesh.

“No,” she said, stepping rapidly back. “Absolutely bloody not.”

“Yes, I thought as much,” Nini said with another little bout of giggles and a lean back against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re one of the Walking People, aren’t you? A Traveller?”

Seph grimaced. “I was,” she said. “And still am enough of one to know better than that.”

“Mm,” said Nini, nodding. “We have many Pavees and Romani in the circus. They all hate the feathers too. Something about eyes, isn’t it?”

Seph nodded. “Evil eyes.”

“You could ask her to remove them,” Nini suggested, in a tone that made it clear that she knew Seph would not.

“And hide them under the bed or in the closet?” Seph returned, shivering. “No, thank you. No. I shan’t be setting foot in that room. Grace to God.”

“Well, let’s go back to the gents, then,” Nini said with a theatrical sigh. “And explore the remaining option.”

Seph narrowed her eyes at Nini. “Why can’t I share with you?” she asked pointedly.

Nini blinked a few times, looking down at herself and patting her hands down her four-foot frame like she were remembering her own person. “Oh, not an option,” she said regretfully. “I’m afraid I take up far too much space.”