Page 52 of A Slipper in the Smoke
And you left her there.
He didn’t just hate her stepmother. He hated himself.
Somehow, Pip made it back to the palace and towards his rooms. He was late for dinner, but not dreadfully so. He doubted Lucia had sent out the alarm just yet. There was still time to change and head downstairs, although how he could possibly act normal again after what he’d just seen—
He clicked open his door and slid inside, heading immediately to the wash basin to rinse his face. He was covered in grime, his skin thick with it.
“Good evening, Prince Phillippe.”
Pip jumped. Susan was sitting in the large wingback chair by the fire. “Ah! Susan!”
“You.” She glared at him, her voice venomous. “Where have you been?”
“With Princess Lucia, as I said—”
“You have not been with Princess Lucia!” Susan hissed. “On account of the fact I found her kissing a rather fetching young servant girl in the library an hour ago.”
“Oh.”
“Oh? Phillippe Edwarde Alexander II, if you don’t tell me where you’ve been in the next three seconds, I will march you straight back to Toulouse and make you explain yourself to your mother—”
“I’m quite sure she—”
“And your grandmother.”
Pip’s throat bobbed. “I’ll tell you,” he said, “but you have to promise not to be too mad.”
Susan pursed her lips. “I make no such promises.”
Pip supposed that was to be expected. “I… I’ve met someone. A friend.”
“You met a friend?”
“I’ve met someone who’s become a friend and I was with them today.”
Susan narrowed her eyes. “And is thisfriendof yours pretty?”
“I fail to see why that’s relevant.”
“That’s a yes, then.”
Pip thought of Elena’s dark, green-flecked eyes and her soft-looking lips and the smell of her skin under the oil and cinders.Becauseof the oil and cinders. Her generous figure had not escaped his notice either. It had been agony in the gardens the other day, imagining her changing behind him, desperately trying not to imagine her thighs wriggling into those trousers…
“She’s a lovely person, Sue. That’s really all that matters. And she was in trouble—”
“Trouble?” Susan’s voice pitched. “What kind of trouble?”
“Er, she got caught up in a riot in the outer ring—”
“You went to the outer ring? During ariot?”
“After!Aftera riot!”
“How did you even get out—Wait, what was this girl of yours doing in the outer ring?”
“She works there.”
“She works…doing what?!”
