The footmen let us inside. I hardly noticed the castle’s grand entrance, high ceilings, or the tapestries hanging from the walls. My mind was dissecting Ronan’s first reaction to seeing me and every look and word since. Perhaps he was ashamed of ever associating with a servant and wanted distance. Or worse, perhaps he thought I’d somehow come here to pursue him.
Well, if that was his fear, he would soon be at ease. I had no intention of even speaking to him again.
CHAPTER 12
While we waited for our trunks to be taken to our room, a dignified woman—some branch of the housekeeping staff—showed us around the pertinent parts of the first floor. The dining hall was a huge room with an arching roof and so many wizards’ orbs dangling there, they looked like an army of moons hovering against a night sky. Rows of tables and benches crowded the room, all finely made and polished. A dais stood in the front of the room, away from and above the lesser tables. The king’s chair presided there, with ornately carved lions on each side. Carvings of white blossoms, a symbol of Odeway, wound around the queen-to-be’s chair.
Most lords used their dining halls for ballrooms when the need arose. Valistowe had a separate ballroom, just as grand, with an inlaid floor of light and dark wood which made it like an enormous chessboard.
Eight sitting rooms were located on the first floor, all with large stone fireplaces, shelves full of books, comfortable chairs, and tables for games. Our guide took us outside and pointed out the extensive gardens, complete with walking paths, ponds, bowers, and a hedgerow maze. If we didn’t find those divertingenough, a menagerie of exotic animals was kept in cages on one side of the castle.
The dining hall and ballroom had been impressive, but the beauty of the gardens made me want to weep. I’d never seen such a profusion of flowers, all placed picturesquely between trees and bushes as though by some artist’s hand.
As soon as I saw the draping bowers, a part of me, some deep, foolish, unthinking part, began to devise ways I could stay at the castle. I could live here quite happily as a gardener.
But of course, that was a ridiculous notion. I couldn’t stay at the royal palace, and I shouldn’t even want to. Still, I tried to memorize the way the gardens were laid out so I could attempt to replicate some little piece of them on Lady Edith’s estate.
After the woman finished showing us around, she took us back to the castle. We climbed the stairs to the third floor and went down ever-diminishing hallways, each one less adorned than the last, until we reached our rooms. One for Lady Edith and Joanne, an adjoining one for Gwenyth and me.
Before going inside, I turned to our guide. “Can you show my lady’s maid to the kitchen?” I had kept an eye out for the number of sentries and where they were located during our tour. I wanted Gwenyth to check the servants’ areas as well.
“My lady?” the woman said as though she hadn’t heard me right.
“In case Gwenyth needs to fetch me something. When I can’t sleep, eating soothes my nerves.”
“No need,” the woman said. “Servants are stationed in the hallways. You may make your requests to them.”
I waved the notion away as if her solution was insufficient. That was the benefit of being a noble. I could be completely unreasonable without seeming at all out of the ordinary. “I’m particular about my food, and my lady’s maid knows my tastesprecisely. You can show her the way now, as I’ll be resting for a bit and don’t want the noise of her unpacking.”
The woman smiled tolerantly, deemed it best not to argue with me, and motioned for Gwenyth to follow her.
While Gwenyth was gone, I set about retrieving the different parts of the daggers. I straightened the blades and put them and the pommels into a water basin so the jewels would soak off. I was trying to busy myself in an attempt to ignore the overriding thought that ran through my mind: Ronan was here.
This fact complicated so many others. He knew I could do magic. Granted, he thought my powers to be small and my knowledge of magic limited to three spells. When the king’s wizards lost their marks, he wouldn’t suspect me. Although if the other wizards all had alibis, he would have to consider me as a possibility. Would he reveal my secret to anyone?
Doing so would force him to confess he was the one who gave me my mark. He wouldn’t endanger himself that way…unless he was very loyal to the king and willing to sacrifice himself to bring me to justice.
Surely, he wasn’tthatnoble. Wizards protected themselves. Hadn’t I already learned that?
I unpacked my gowns and hung them in the wardrobe. Despite our care in folding them, they were wrinkled, including the one I was to wear tonight. Gwenyth would have to iron it. I left it sprawled over my bed, looking like it had just fainted.
I snipped the threads holding the dagger handles to the gowns. On one, the material was unmarred, but the other had two small holes that dotted the fabric. Clearly, something had been removed from the gown, and I didn’t want anyone to wonder what. Besides, a lady couldn’t wear anything but her finest here. Holes wouldn’t do.
When Gwenyth came back to the room, I was slumped on the bed with the dress in my lap, near tears, as I embroidered flowers over the area where the holes had been.
Gwenyth gawked at the disarray of the room and my attempt to blink away my emotions. “Whatever is the matter?”
“One of the wizards I knew at Docendum is here.” I didn’t think that anyone could hear me through the walls, but still, I kept my voice to a whisper.
“That handsome one we met?”
“Ronan, yes. He knows I can do magic. He believes me capable of only three spells, but if the other wizards have alibis during the night, he may suspect me.”
She sat down on the bed beside me, keeping her words as hushed as mine. “You needn’t worry. What alibis will the wizards have in the middle of the night?”
“Some of them must be friends and will steal off together after the nobles are asleep to renew acquaintances.” That’s what the servants of the visiting nobles always did when they visited Docendum or Carendale Castle.
Gwenyth scoffed. “Do you expect the wizards to break out a bottle and exchange their spells the way women exchange recipes? Bah, they hoard their secrets.”