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Before I could, a muffled male voice came from the other side of the door.
Great. Noah was already here.
I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but that was fine. I didn’t want to.
Vanessa’s voice wasn’t nearly as muffled. “It’s a piece of cake. He’s such a little crybaby bitch, doing what his mother wants. He doesn’t suspect a thing, he’ll never see it coming.”
I took a step toward the door, leaning my ear against it. Who was in there with Vanessa?
“He’ll never say no to me. The king may have overstepped today, but when it comes down to it, the only one in that family who could threaten my reign is his mother. And if that happens…well, she’d just better hope that doesn’t happen. I know how to deal with people who stand in my way.”
The voice I’d heard earlier that I was sure was male, now was so quiet I couldn’t tell. Maybe it was female, not male.
There was shuffling behind the door and footsteps on the marble floor. My heart ratcheted and my panic that the interloper was leaving had me jumping backward away from the door. I crouched on the ground, towels still to my chest as I prayed I’d landed softly enough to be unheard.
I rose, desperately searching around for some place to hide that would keep me concealed enough from whoever was about to leave. Damn it, I screamed internally. I moved to the wardrobe, hoping I could close the doors in time.
But the person who’d been with Vanessa never emerged from the bathroom. Instead I heard her dreadful voice. “Where is that girl? Honestly. I’m turning into a prune.”
I stepped out of the wardrobe trying to think and shake off what I’d heard. I tiptoed across the room and closed the main bedroom door louder than I needed to in order to sound like I was just arriving.
Moving toward the bathroom door, I only knocked once before I heard Vanessa shout, “Finally!”
I entered and saw only Vanessa, impatiently grumbling. Looking around, I wondered where the other voice had gone. There wasn’t a way out of here, was there?
“Hello, towel?” Vanessa snapped.
I held it up, shaking my head and refocusing my attention on her.
I forced myself to push yet another moment down, deep inside. Another thing that would keep me up tonight beyond my humiliation. An ounce more of fear and worry about what Vanessa was truly up to, something I’d practically forgotten after everything that had happened since unpacking her bags.
But with the conversation that took place behind the bathroom door, the thought of that small unmarked vile swirled uninterrupted in my mind.
Vanessa’s threatening promise of what she’d do to people who got in her way was followed in my head only by the words I’d read that had been burned into my brain.
If it all goes sideways…
