Page 165 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“And when she first saw you transform, Thomas had to pull her away, sobbing and screaming. Not because she was afraid of you, but because she was afraidforyou. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person so upset.”
He swallowed. It had never occurred to him that anyone aside from maybe his mother would ever witness his transformations like that.
“And when you were injured, she didn’t leave your side. Not for a moment.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I don’t know what she told you, but I don’t think it was the full truth. I think you’re her person, and I don’t think you should go before you have a chance to speak to her.”
“She doesn’t want to see me.”
“I don’t think that’s true, either,” said Posey quietly. “Because you’ve never seen her face when she came back from her days off, how eager she was to get upstairs. You’ve seen some of her smiles, I’m sure, but perhaps you can’t see the way she smiles just for you. Anyone who sees it wishes they could find someone to smile that way for them.” She waited again, eyes glancing down the corridor. “I won’t tell you what to do—”
“Good.”
“But ask yourself: what will you regret most, at the end of the day?”
Before he could think of a reply, Thomas returned, and she slunk away to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
Adeline was accustomed to misery. She was accustomed to grief, and to pain. This—this was something else entirely. Something that sheared through her chest and down to her bones.
Life without her parents had been awful.
Days without Dimitri were unbearable.
And worse, still, was knowing how much he was hurting. How much she had hurthim.
Still, every morning she rose with a smile, and helped with the breakfast. She walked her siblings to school. She helped the boys with their homework and watched Edie. She spent hours gazing at her as she slept.
I have missed this.
Her new position was not a live-in one. She could be home every day, watching her grow, marvelling at the next remarkable thing she did and sighing at the ridiculous ones.
“You’re doing what you did after Mother died,” Elliott remarked one morning.
“Doing what?”
“Putting on a smile.”
“But it’s such a pretty smile—”
“Adeline, don’t. Stop. Just stop. For once, for once in your life, would you just tell me what is going on, andfeel thingsbefore I actually throw something at you.”
Adeline blinked. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would. And not a soft thing, either.A hard thing.”
Adeline sighed, and told him everything. The details from the night of the ball, everything that happened between her and Dimitri, her run-in with the Duke. She told him about what happened after the curse was broken, about the Duke’s offer, and her desire to stay. She told him what the Duke had made her say, and how Dimitri had reacted.
For a long, solid minute after she was done, Elliott said nothing. Then he got up, removed himself to the kitchen, and necked back a lukewarm cup of tea like it was hard liquor.
He walked towards the coat rack.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting your coat.”
“I’m not sure it’ll fit you.”
