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“Thank you.” I tucked it into my skirt pocket.

I turned around and found the Duke’s nephew three feet away with his hands clasped behind his back and his face composed into a sneer. His dark eyes went to the window of his own office, then back to me.

He was worried I’d seen his letters. And, oh, how I wished I had. I wanted to know who else was writing to him.

“What, may I ask, are you doing, Miss Ravenwood?”

The tapestry beside the window moved, and Adrien jumped out from behind it. The sneaky little vampire.

“I was looking for Adrien, of course,” I said, putting an arm around his shoulders. “We’re playing a game of hide and seek.”

Severin looked from Adrien to me, to Della on her ledge, and suspicion passed behind his dark eyes.

“You have an engagement on the east terrace, I believe. Do you not?”

Tea with Lady Christine. I almost forgot. “I do.”

“Remember what I said about our guests.”

I recalled his warning before they arrived. Be mindful of what you say in front of Rochefort. And Lady Christine. It was the same warning Yves had given me.

“Adrien, you will remain with me while Miss Ravenwood prepares for tea.” Severin gave me a once-over, inspecting my gown and my ink-stained, gloveless hands. Evidence of my night of spell crafting. “Something tells me it will take some time before she’s properly dressed.”

I narrowed my eyes. I was trying to help Valemer just as much as Severin claimed to be. I didn’t understand why he hated me so openly. I had done nothing to him.

But I would. When I discovered who else was writing to him.

Chapter 28

Toisée

CORA

Adrien grumbled about needing to stay with Severin, and I couldn’t blame him, but I told him he could keep Della with him, and he brightened considerably.

When I returned, my room door was open, and Mrs. Crowe, the lady’s maid, was directing a line of servants carrying beautiful boxes inside my room. My stomach dropped at the sight of so many people inside my personal space.

“What is going on?” I asked.

“The first gowns have arrived. The court atelier worked around the clock to have them ready in time.”

Rushing inside, I found stacks of boxes sitting in neat piles. But it wasn’t the boxes I was concerned with; it was my relics.

Mrs. Crowe excused the remaining staff, save for the woman who had helped me previously, and shut the door. “First a bath. Then hair and nails.”

The water was scalding, and the hairpins were worse, but when Mrs. Crowe went out to fetch the curling iron, I chose that moment to ask the younger maid, whose knuckles were cracked and dry, if she wanted a salve to help.

She gave me a curious look, and I offered her the small tub Adrien had made. “Put a bit of this on before bed, and it will be healed by morning.”

“Thank you, Miss Ravenwood.”

She went to grab it, but I held it just out of her reach. “In return, you need to do something for me.”

Her brows lifted. “And what is that, Miss?”

“Ask the footman who delivers Lord Severin’s mail who has been writing to him regularly beside his father, and report back to me. Speak to no one else about this task. Especially not Mrs. Crowe.”

The maid looked terrified for a moment, then nodded, and I passed her the salve. She pocketed it into her apron just as old Mrs. Crowe came rushing back in, hot iron in hand.