Page 92 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
Adeline swallowed. She wasn’t sure quite how far Posey’s version of niceness could have extended, but she believed everyone had tried.
“Maybe I didn’t do anything differently,” she said softly. “Maybe I just came at the right time. When he was ready.”WhenIwas.
Because the her of a year ago would not have had the patience, or the time, or the energy. Not when she was still wading through her own grief, when Edie was still waking up in the night, when she’d felt like a scarecrow, propped up, stood in a field of chaos. She would not have had it in her to care for him.
But they’d met when she was ready, when she needed him too, when she was ready to let someone stand beside her in that field.
Posey sighed, sliding the tray to the table. “There’s truly nothing between you?”
It would have been easy to say no, but this was one lie Adeline could not summon. “He’s my friend,” she said. “There’s… there’s a connection. But nothing untoward has happened. I won’tlet ithappen. I can’t.”
“We need to know our place, here,” Posey warned, unloading the plates. “It doesn’t do well to dream of things above our station.”
“I know,” said Adeline, assisting her with the food.
“I won’t tell anyone. Not that there’s really anyone to tell. Minty doesn’t seem bothered with how close the two of you are… not unless it’stooclose.”
Adeline breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Posey.”
“Don’t let it go any further,” the girl warned. “These sort of things… they never end well for the girls.”
“I know.”
Posey looked down at the tray. “There’s a letter for him there. Minty said he should read it.”
“I’ll give it to him as soon as he wakes.”
Posey turned to go.
“Posey?”
“Yes?”
“Have you ever dreamed of more than this?”
Posey snorted. “No one wants to be a maid forever,” she said. “But what dreams of ours will ever come true?”
The weight of her words fell uneasy around Adeline’s shoulders as the door closed. She wondered what Posey had dreamed of, once, and what she, Adeline, would dream of eventually. Dimitri had said she was wasted as a maid, but she had promised to stay with him. The work had long since stopped feeling like a job, but Adelinelikedwork.
Would this always be enough for her?
She turned her gaze back to Dimitri’s slumbering form, resisting the urge to stroke his hair, an action that felt far too intimate now that Posey had seen them together.
You are enough for me,she told herself, and prayed that he would always be.
His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled at her, in a way that warmed her chest.
“Did I hear the door?” he asked.
“Posey brought a letter,” she explained, not willing to go into the rest and knowing he wouldn’t be ready for the food. “She said Minty said you should read it.”
Dimitri frowned, gesturing for her to pass it over. The seal was already broken; it was addressed to Minty. Adeline watched as he read, his eyes widening.
“What? What is it?”
“It’s from my father,” he announced. “He’s hosting a ball here in a few weeks’ time. He’s… he’s coming home.”
Chapter Twenty-Two: Preparations
