Page 20 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Adeline shook her head.
“Good. I’m glad. I think he’s growing fond of you.”
“Mrs Minton?”
“Yes?”
“You didn’t just want a maid for him, did you?”
It would have been easy enough to have one of the others attend to him, her daily tasks split between them, but instead Mrs Minton had opted to have one person at his beck and call, and bored out of her mind if she wasn’t.
“No,” said Mrs Minton carefully. “I wanted him to have…”
“Yes?”
“A companion, I suppose? A friend, if he’s willing. Ifyouare.” She sighed, shaking her head, and slid from her seat. “Wash up when you’re done, and get some rest. Goodnight, Adeline.”
The next morning, Adeline managed to coax Dimitri from his room to the library on a quest for books. He trailed awkwardly behind her the whole way, like an intruder in his own home. She wondered how long it had been since he’d really left the dark comfort of his room, but she wasn’t sure it was right to ask.
She still hadn’t had the opportunity to visit the library herself, being swept up in conversation each night and forgetting to ask Mrs Minton. But the thrill of now being allowed to visit the place filled her veins, making her bounce along the corridors.
“Why are you so happy?” Dimitri grumbled.
“I’m excited by the prospect of books!”
“Have you not been to the library yet?”
“I have not,” she declared. “I wasn’t sure if staff were allowed there.”
“Borrow whatever you like, whenever you like,” he said, as if the offer meant nothing. “Build yourself a fortress out of them. I don’t care.”
“A fortress of books…” Adeline sighed longingly, almost hoping he’d go back to barking at her to sit outside his room so she could have time to read them all.
“I’ve never seen someone so excited by reading.”
“You like to read too.”
“Yes, but you’re acting like… some sort of lovestruck child.”
“If I am, I heartily encourage it. It’s way more fun than being a brooding hero.”
Dimitri paused. “You think I could be the hero?”
“Hmm, maybe. In a gothic tale. If you were a little nicer.”
She was probably mistaken, but for a moment, she thought he might have smiled.
They slipped into the library.
Adeline stifled a gasp. It was a land of paper and gold and white. She was quite sure you could have taken the entire village and folded it inside the room, it was so impossibly large. Her friends would have thought the decadence over the top, that it was ridiculous, foolish even, to have a room so beautiful dedicated to books, but she adored it. It was like a gallery, a treasure trove, a palace of books. She never thought it possible that one could fall in love with a room, but she felt in that moment she could have spent the rest of her life there quite cheerfully.
“Don’t look so happy,” Dimitri snapped.
“Don’t look so miserable.”
“Default expression, alas.”
“That isnottrue.”
