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“Sera will need your help to ready the princess with haste,” Mareleau said.
“Don’tyouneed our help?” Ann asked. “Surely you want to change into a new gown for dinner.”
“Why? Is there something wrong with how I look now?” She knew it was only habit that drove her maids to expect a change of clothes, but she needed them to stop their whining. “I can manage looking appropriate for dinner just fine. The princess, on the other hand, needs all the help she can get. I won’t have her making a mockery of all the hard work I did tonight. Now go. Follow after Sera and make certain the princess is presentable in the next half hour. Understand?”
The girls bobbed into curtsies before making their grudging departure. Meanwhile, Mareleau ascended the stairs to the keep. She had every intention of heading straight for her room, but when she passed the door she knew belonged to Teryn’s guest quarters, she paused.
Again, that irritating feeling fluttered in her chest. It was less about sympathy this time and more about…was it care? Pride? All she knew was that she wanted to brag to Teryn that tonight’s dinner was going to be fabulous, thanks to her. With her chin held high, she marched to his door and rapped on it with her gloved hand. The lamps illuminating the hall revealed several smudges of dirt on the white silk. She certainly wasn’t used to seeing that.
The door opened in a rush, tearing her from her thoughts. Teryn’s form stood on the other side of the doorway, but she could hardly separate him from the shadows. She frowned, wondering why he was in a dark room.
Some of her excitement waned, and she took a step back, folding her arms over her chest. “You better not tell me you’ve been napping while I’ve been doing all the hard work for you, brother.”
“Brother,” he echoed, a hint of taunting in his tone.
She frowned. That hadn’t been the first time she’d used that word to his face, and he was the one who’d started it, calling hersister. Why did he sound so amused?
He stepped out of the doorway and into the light of the hall.
Mareleau’s eyes went wide as she noted the gash on his cheek, then the way he cradled his hand. A white cloth—his missing cravat, perhaps—was wrapped around it like a bandage.
“Teryn, what the seven devils happened to you?”
He glanced down at his hand and huffed a chuckle. “Ah, that. I broke a glass.”
It must have been quite the violent break for it to have sliced his cheek. And…was there a portion of his shirt missing? His ruffled collar appeared to have been torn. Maybe that was what he’d used to tie his hand. Whatever the case, he looked quite the mess.
She waved at him, motioning him back toward his room. “Clean yourself up at once. You can’t meet Princess Aveline looking like this.”
He narrowed his eyes, as if trying to decipher the meaning of her words. Then, with a shake of his head, he said, “For dinner tonight. The one I asked you to help me with.”
There was something strange about the way he spoke, uttering each word slowly as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was saying. “Are you still asleep? Go! Get changed. Princess Aveline will be coming by at any moment to do the same. I didn’t offer my maids to her for nothing, and I’ll be damned if the both of you embarrass me.”
“Who are we embarrassing you before?”
Mareleau pulled her head back with a scoff. “Me, of course. For two people so madly in love, neither of you seem to know how to impress the other. Perhaps I’ll have to play the mentor to you both.”
He narrowed his eyes again. “Because you’re at Ridine Castle to mentor Princess Aveline.”
Once more with that careful way of talking. It almost seemed like he was asking a question rather than stating a fact. What was wrong with him?
“You know this,” she said. “Now go before I lose my mind and promise never to help you again.”
Teryn watched her with a probing look that was almost unsettling. Then he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. “I regret that your aid will come to naught. The princess will not be joining me for dinner tonight.”
“No, she’s simply running behind. My ladies will return with her soon and have her dressed and ready in no time.”
“You don’t understand,” Teryn said with a sigh. “I’ve already been to see her tonight and she refused to come to dinner with me.”
“But…but my ladies—”
“She will refuse them. Trust me.”
Disappointment sank her stomach. Then anger took its place. “Don’t you dare tell me you’re going to waste the wine I picked out for you. And the cake!” She clenched her jaw with a growl. It wasn’t chocolate cake, but it was lemon chiffon. Mareleau had nearly burst into an inferno of rage when the baker told Teryn she’d make a small cake just for him and Aveline. Where was Mareleau’s cake?
A corner of Teryn’s mouth lifted into a smirk she’d never seen grace his face before. “Wine and cake, you say? Well, we certainly can’t let that go to waste.”
She huffed. “You seem awfully buoyant for a man whose dinner offer was rejected by his beloved. I would have expected you to be more upset.” Or maybe she just didn’t know Teryn well at all. She was finally beginning to warm up to him, but the way he was acting now…it didn’t seem quite right.
