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She pouted at him. “If you must.”
Noah gave her a brief smile before turning to me. “Are you ready?”
I blinked at him, not remembering any weapons training on the books right now with the captain. Although Noah hadn’t bothered to keep me apprised of his schedule as of late.
“Oh no, no, Noah. I need my lady's maid. She can’t possibly be expected to train with you.” Vanessa touched his arm, looking at him like she was some lost puppy.
Ah, there was the talking about me like I wasn’t in the room. Heaven forbid the duchess be without someone to boss around.
“I’m sorry, my lady. I do train with the prince in case there is ever a battle and he needs assistance. Feeders go with the fae to help how we can.” The effort to keep an even and respectful tone to Vanessa was difficult, but if I could continue this acting, I might get away with surviving this.
Vanessa threw her head back and laughed. “Oh dear. Isn’t she the absolute cutest thing? She thinks that she’ll need to fight with you. I admire how you have made your staff so loyal.” She reached up and placed her hand on Noah’s chest. “Sweetheart, don’t waste your time training someone so expendable! You can always just get a new feeder when this one dies.”
The shock of the casual way she spoke about my death right in front of me was overwhelming. Vanessa had crossed a pretty big line here, treating people that worked for Noah as expendable, or even making the implication. Especially not knowing that at the very least, Noah was a friend. I almost wanted to laugh at how she’d shown her true colors so quickly. Now she was going to get it.
I looked to Noah, getting ready to throw him an “are you going to take this, or am I” look. His eyes flashed pity and an unspoken apology, and then my stomach dropped.
He laughed.
He actually laughed alongside Vanessa and kissed her forehead. “As you wish.”
Noah had the intelligence not to look at me as he took his leave through her door and left me standing with Vanessa, alone.
I watched his retreating figure before turning to face the grinning duchess before me.
Noah said nothing. No admonishment. No shock at the fact that Vanessa had so cruelly dismissed all of us as nothing.
If Noah was okay with Vanessa talking about my expendability and wouldn’t correct her about how hard the feeders and the staff worked to train for the fae, then maybe I never knew the prince at all. I couldn’t have. The Noah that I’d gotten to know would have been appalled and put the vile Vanessa in her place at a comment like that.
But he’d laughed. Not only laughed but didn’t correct her at all. So maybe I really didn’t know him as well as I thought I did.
And that, more than knowing he was with someone else, engaged, ignoring me—that broke my heart the most.
