Page 35

She glowed in the afternoon hue pouring through the windows, blonde hair shining and blue eyes bright with welcome as she came to greet me.

“Welcome!” She wove through the chairs encircling a table laden with covered dishes. Claiming my hands in hers, she smiled warmly at me. “I am so glad you could join me.”

She guided me to a chair next to her own. Urging me to sit, she reclaimed her place and started uncovering dishes. “I hope we have something you enjoy. My new chef isn’t familiar with human fare, and I grew up mostly within the fae realm, so all things fae are very familiar to me. It was all I ate in my master’s household.”

“It all looks delicious,” I assured her. My empty stomach agreed.

She insisted on serving me, and within minutes, she set a heaping plate of hot food before me. “Eat.”

“I—” But I found myself at a loss to say anything further. Her generosity astounded me.

She waved off my half-spoken gratitude with a gracious gesture. “Don’t express thanks to fae. They tend to use it against you. Regardless, you are very welcome. We—Greyson and myself—are delighted that Kent agreed to come. Also, that he brought you. The Unseelie grow increasingly unstable each year since our king cursed the Seelie king. You two give us hope that the nation might recover.”

I paused with a bite of tender meat halfway to my mouth. “Why are you including me? I am not important.”

Lady Lyra smiled softly as though she disagreed but was too polite to say. “Everyone needs friends around them whom they can trust. Those in power need that kind of support doubly so. The fact you are willing to follow Kent into an uncertain situation means a great deal.”

Little did she know Mela and I had no other alternative.

She began filling a clean plate with more food. “Your little one is quite a firebrand.”

Instant apprehension settled over me. “Where is Mela?”

“Napping in the nursery with my Jasmine, I suspect.” Lady Lyra began eating. “Mela thoroughly delighted my daughter. Hettie—the nursemaid—says that Mela entertained Jas all morning. My son found her very trying, which is good. The staff spoils the boy entirely too much. He needs more opposition in his life.” She laughed.

“I hope she wasn’t too much trouble.” It sounded like Mela had made herself a bit too much at home among the fae.

“None at all. The only difficulty was convincing her to take a nap when Jasmine did. However, when she learned that we planned a meal after nap time, she complied easily enough.”

Lyra reached across the table a put hand over mine as she added, “Don’t worry. She is well and good. The nursery staff and I remember well when Heath was of the age when naps were still necessary despite his defiant insistence he was too old for them. We have plenty of tricks for getting a child to lay still long enough for sleep to catch up with them.”

“Uninterrupted sleep will be very welcome,” I said with great relief. I had been dreading a repeat of the previous night. Mela occasionally went through sleep regressions that made it impossible for me to sleep because I had to keep her quiet all night or suffer the wrath of Mistress Prout. The days following those nights were a struggle.

“You have done very well with her. She is a bright and inquisitive child. How long has she been with you?”

I had to pause a moment and count years. “She was abandoned at the local mill about two years ago. According to the note pinned to her, her parents had died in a recent outbreak of the sweating sickness, and her caretakers couldn’t keep her anymore.”

I swallowed my bite of honeyed carrot around a lump in my throat. Drawing in a sharp breath through my nose, I blinked back the moisture filling my eyes. “I must be wearier than I thought. I rarely cry.”

“Tears are allowed,” Lady Lyra assured me. “Especially if they are for a good reason. How did you end up taking care of Mela? I thought foundling homes had overseers. Surely you weren’t the one running the home.”

I shook my head. “No, Mistress Prout runs the home. I was a foundling still living there after reaching my majority. I supported myself by working at a local tavern. Mela arrived sick. Mistress Prout hates dealing with sick children.”

“Surely that is simply part of the job,” Lady Lyra protested. “Sniffles and coughs are part of growing up.”

“Mela’s cough became croup, and Mistress Prout refused to send for a doctor. I insisted. We argued.” The word didn’t really encompass those horrific days filled with Prout’s sharp words and Mela’s dreadful coughing fits, nor the immense terror of those moments when I feared she wouldn’t breathe again. Those nights had been filled with long hours of bending the child over steaming water and trying to calm her. The days that followed were worse, as I stumbled through my work at the tavern only to return home to do it all again. I often feared I would return in the night to my belongings and Mela on the front step.

“In the end, Mela recovered.”

“Evidently… She was capering around the gardens earlier without a single sign of malady. Did the overseer come around to her in the end?”

“No.” I stared down at the food before me. “Mistress Prout was glad to see both of us go.”

“Well,” Lady Lyra declared as she sat back and adjusted the napkin on her lap. “We are delighted that you two have joined us. Tell me. What do you enjoy doing?”

Setting down my spoon and knife on my empty plate, I mulled over the question. No one had ever asked me what I wanted to do, what I preferred. I had always been ordered about, slotted into roles where I would most benefit others. My preferences—I wasn’t sure what my preferences were.

Before my hesitation could turn into an awkward confession, the doors of the conservatory opened. Lord Greyson’s gruff timber heralded his arrival before he appeared among the greenery with Kent at his side. A few servants followed, the majordomo and a very tall man dressed in the same livery colors I had seen other servants wear. However, a tall man walked just behind Kent, and I could see threads of connection between them.