Page 158 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Adeline nodded, although her gut twisted with disappointment. She had been hoping to speak with him.Neededto speak with him.
Oh well. There was always tomorrow.
“Thank you,” said Mrs Minton, not looking her in the eye. “I’m not entirely sure what you did, but whatever it was,thank you.From the bottom of my heart.”
“You… you don’t need to thank me for saving him.”
“Oh, but I do, you see, I do.”
A quiet moment passed between the two of them. Adeline drank her second glass, wondering how many more she’d need to drift off entirely, to bring about tomorrow quicker.
I have to see Dimitri.
“Mrs Minton?” she started.
“Yes?”
“You hired me because you thought I could break the curse, didn’t you?”
Mrs Minton fell silent. “There are many types of curses,” she said eventually. “And for years I researched the wrong ones. He didn’t need a maid. He needed a friend. Someone to get to know him. We’d tried inviting young noble girls, people who he’d be allowed to… to have a future with. But they could never see past his face, or his temper. When you’ve grown up surrounded by beauty, it’s hard to look beneath the surface, to see someone for who they are, especially when that someone is almost as prickly inside as out. He needed time and patience. Then this young midwife’s apprentice walks in, someone who liked to read, who’d known pain and loss—”
Adeline stumbled. “You knew?”
“I thoroughly vetted all applicants.”
“The other girls that left—”
“Some willingly. Some he turned away. Others I asked to leave when I knew they weren’t right. Generous severance packages, all of them.”
“And me?”
“I—”
“Curse is broken, right? What am I needed for now?”
“For him,” she said. “And for you.”
“But I’m not—”
“No. I know.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Adeline. There was no other way. And I can’t be sorry for doing everything I could to save him.” She crossed the room, squeezing Adeline’s shoulder. “Get some sleep,” she said. “Tomorrow will be here soon.”
When Adeline woke the next morning, it was almost midday, her eyes sticky with sleep, her body heavy. She remembered being plied with something warm and sweet to drink, Elliott stroking her hair as she fell asleep. He was gone now. Good. Leonie would have been worried sick.
Slowly, she pulled herself out of bed and into the fresh clothes someone had left for her, the night before coming back in bits and pieces.
The monster, the fight, the blood—
The curse. The curse was broken.
Dimitri.
She bolted from her spot and hurtled into the corridor, almost running straight into Mrs Minton.
“Ah, Adeline,” she said cheerily. “You’re up. I was just coming to get you. His Grace requests your presence.”
Adeline froze.
“Don’t worry,” Mrs Minton said hastily. “He surely wants to just offer you a reward for your services to his family. And… I’ll wait outside, just in case. You can see the Young Lord afterwards.”
