Page 59 of A Slipper in the Smoke
A doctor arrived to check up on Elena shortly after she’d finished breakfast. She wished Pip had been the one to bring up the tray, but instead it was a Petragradian girl not far off her own age, who smiled knowingly at Elena as she laid out the steaming plate of porridge and honey. Elena wondered if Pip had been talking about her in the kitchens, and if so, what had he been saying? She did not want to be the source of gossip.
The doctor approved of Elena’s progress, but prescribed another three days of bed rest and then “taking it easy”—an expression Elena was convinced was coined by the upper classes because who in the real world ever had that option?
He suggested Elena remain at the palace until the end of the week.
Elena’s stomach coiled at the loss of time, worrying about Snowdrop and the rebels and the prince.
Theprince.This could be an ideal time to learn more about him, and seeing as Pip couldn’t remain beside her all day, she’d be able to sneak around as soon as she could stand.
Her heart lightened. Maybe there was a reason she’d fallen ill, a reason she’d been placed here. She was determined to make the most of it.
“I’m sorry I can’t stay with you,” Pip said that evening. “I’ve other duties to attend to, many of which I’ve been neglecting these last few days.” He bit his lip. “What did Susan say?”
“Not much. I got the impression she was just trying to work out if she thought I was worthy of you. I hope I passed.”
Pip smiled, although he did not look relieved. He leant over and kissed Elena’s cheek, skirting dangerously close to her mouth. If she’d had a little more strength—and a little more courage—she’d have grabbed the lapels of his rather fine corset jacket and tugged him down into bed with her.
Her entire body flushed at the thought. It had been so long since she’d kissed anyone, let alone done anything more…
Thatwas all a hot mystery to her, but one she was increasingly interested in solving.
“You’re worth ten of me, Elena,” Pip told her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
WatchingElenacollapsehadbeen the single most terrifying moment of Pip’s life, followed only by the awful, wretched period waiting for the dread doctors to utter their verdict.
Only they didn’t. The damned things didn’t speak at all, passing their scanners instead to the doctor in white, who pronounced her clear. There was a diagnosis, at some point, but it basically came down to exhaustion. She was so tired that her body had broken, as surely as one of the automatons in her workshop.
Pip was not adept at hating people. Being afraid of them, sure. Wary, of course. Disliking—maybe. Buthating?Hate was a new emotion.
And he felt it entirely towards Elena’s stepmother.
He couldn’t believe there was anyone in the world that could be so callous. He wasn’t sure if she’d ever hit her stepdaughter—he didn’t know what he would do if she had—but she’d broken Elena as surely as if she’d taken a sledgehammer to her skull.
Waiting for Elena to wake up, even when the doctor assured him that she would, had been a unique kind of torture, worse when she cried out for someone who couldn’t answer or begged him to take her home. Susan had forced him away from her bedside on several occasions, making him take part in meetings and festivities, partly to stop the servants from talking—and they would definitely be talking now, after his insistence that she be placed in the room next to his—and partly to distract him.
“You can’t help her,” she’d told him, “and I’m worried that you’re going to hurt yourself.”
But I can’t leave her,he thought,how can I leave her?
It was almost worse now that she was awake, now that he could be with her, and could be making her laugh again, but was instead forced to sit through painful meetings and formal dinners.
“I hear your guest has woken up,” said Lucia, dabbing the corners of her mouth with a napkin.
Pip groaned. “Doeseveryoneknow?”
“Everyone who talks to the servants. I imagine the rest of the guests might catch on soon, however. But they won’t hear it from me.”
“Thank you.”
“Who is she?”
“A friend,” he said, though it felt a false, empty word compared to what she really was. “One of the palace’s mechanics.”
Lucia shook her head fondly. “People don’t act this way around theirfriends,Pip.”
“What do you want me to say, Lucia?” His knife and fork clattered loudly against the plate.
Lucia looked taken aback. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I only meant to tease, not to offend. I’ve never seen you like this over anyone before.”
