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“What? No! There was Dragonfly, but she’s gone and I’m fine without servants. Now what are you doing?”
Starling had carelessly tossed her cape onto my workbench, tapped the rubber ducky on the head with a cooed “How cute!” and swooped down behind me.
“Washing your hair for you. And super-neat pillows! Now dunk to wet your hair.”
“I’m still soaking.”
“No, you’re not. Your page said you have dinner with the general. You have to get ready.”
Resigned, I dunked. Starling immediately started in on my hair with Blackbird’s nutty shampoos. The scent made me smile, remembering that day she’d washed my hair in my tower room at Rogue’s. “Who diverted you from where, once you heard what?”
“Lord Rogue. He’d already sent for me to meet you at his castle, to help you settle in, when he sent word that you were staying here and needed me.”
“So you were on your way to Castle Mistiness to meet me? I thought you had to reach your majority before you could…come serve me.”
“Dispensation,” she sang out. “Oh, and you didn’t notice!” Starling pranced into view, tossing her hair like a young starlet.
I wiped the soap out of my eyes. “I did so notice. Blond and beautiful.”
“I know!” She nearly squealed it. “It’ssosticking. Your advice wasperfect.”
“Well, it’s only been, what, a week now?” So much had happened. I dunked again, rinsing my hair, and climbed out. Starling met me with a drying cloth and started to rub me down. “Starling, you don’t need to do this.”
She stopped. Stared with glistening dark eyes. “You won’t let me serve you?”
This again.
“No. I mean, yes. Stay. Love having you here.” I wrapped myself in the cloth and sat at the vanity, taking up my comb.
She sagged in exaggerated relief. “Oh good. We’ll have the best time.”
“You talked to Rogue then?” I tried to sound casual as I combed out the tangles in my hair. Starling slipped the comb from my fingers and took over the task. I sat back and enjoyed the sensation. There was something wonderful about being tended to.
“Mmm,” Starling hummed a noncommittal answer, her thoughts very blank.
“What does that mean?”
“My lady sorceress,” Larch intoned from the doorway, “Lord Falcon awaits you.”
“I’m hurrying.”
Starling selected a gown for me—a lovely gold one with a soft Marilyn Monroe bodice. Even though I protested that it was too much, she insisted that I needed to look my best and just to put it on already.
“Why are all your dresses in the trunk still?” Starling complained. “Why haven’t your servant girls gotten you a wardrobe and hung these up?”
“I can just wish the wrinkles out—don’t fret.”
A quick look in the mirror showed that the gently gathered bodice flattered me. I wished it to the right length along with a bit of wrinkle-removal. But now the black pumps were just too low-heeled for the dress. I looked clunky, dammit. And the outfit needed jewelry. Mine had been in the purse I left behind at Devils Tower. Left behind with the other relics of who I used to be.
I had too many weird feelings about jewelry now, to think about wishing up any, but with a judicious thought, I grew my heels, picturing the sleek, stiletto look I wanted. Maybe I didn’t have gazelle-like legs, but I could hold my head up high.
“You shortened your dress? It’s really not appropriate for a lady…”
“Starling—I am just so not a lady, you can’t even imagine.”
“Yes, but the others…”
“Call me eccentric, whatever, I don’t care. Tell them it’s not proper in my land for dresses to be long.”
