Page 67 of A Fearless Heart
Gabe strolled away. It was late, but he had plenty of work ahead of him tonight. Report to the Zodiac, plan his next moves, and most importantly: make Gabe Court disappear.
Chapter 24
“Welcome home, my lady,” saidthe boy who held open the door for Cady.
“Thank you. Who are you?”
“Name’s Rook, my lady.”
Rook was a skinny thing, but quick with a smile. A maid appeared next to him and offered to take Cady’s hat, cloak, and gloves. “When would you like dinner, my lady? Cook has everything ready for your arrival, but if you’d like to freshen up first, she’ll keep things warm.”
Cady was so used to Martha bringing a tray to her room that she was momentarily not sure what she wanted. “Ah, I’ll freshen up, thank you. Who are you?”
“I’m Judith, my lady. And Bond, your lady’s maid, is waiting upstairs in your room.”
Judith directed her up the staircase with a gentle shooing motion, as if Cady were a small duckling instead of the lady of the house. Upstairs, she was startled to learn that “her” room was the master suite, though of course she couldn’t use the nursery that she slept in as a child.
She could count the number of times she’d been in this room on one hand, but when she stepped inside, the faint aroma of jasmine—a perfume last used here over a decade ago—wafted over her. She had a vague memory of kissing her mother goodnight before being sent off for bed. Her mother had been dressed in a sumptuous gown for some glittering party, the old-fashioned kind with the tightly laced long bodice and the huge, wide skirts. Cady remembered it as being almost entirely gold lace and jewels, which was surely a little girl’s vivid imagination, making her mother into a fairy queen. Her mother had leaned over, smelling of jasmine, and kissed her cheek.
“Sleep well, my darling girl. In your dreams, you can always be in Arcadia.” That was her line, the ritual they went through each night.
“Welcome home, my lady!” a very real voice said.
Cady blinked, seeing a young woman walking toward her from the direction of the dressing room.
“I’m Lucy Bond, and I’m to be your lady’s maid while you’re in town. I’ve just drawn a bath for you. Why don’t you have a soak while I unpack your things and find you something to wear down to dinner.”
“I usually just eat in my room,” Cady said.
“Surely not in town, my lady,” Bond said, easily countermanding her suggestion without seeming to. Martha had done that too, but Bond was much more lighthearted when she did it. “Now you get in that bath before the water gets cold. Travel is dirty, no matter how nice the carriage.”
So Cady soaked in the bath, and then was dressed in an evening gown, and her hair put up in a simple style, then sent down to the dining room, where she discovered that she was famished.
Her meal was served by Judith and Rook, who worked with that magical efficiency unique to well-trained servants. As Cady ate her delicious meal, she found herself wishing that she had someone to share it with. The only people she really knew in the whole city were Trevor and Gabe. Her brother, and a man who had lied himself into a job on her estate. Had she isolated herself so much that she had no friends at all?
All at once, halfway through the creamed spinach, Cady wanted to cry. The panic crashed into her: the urge to flee, the tightening of her throat, the struggle to breathe. As she pushed away from the table, she dropped her fork with a clatter.
“Ready for the next course, my la—” Judith said as she walked in, but then stopped on seeing Cady. “My lady, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I need to go to my room. Now.” Cady tried to push past her, but Judith pivoted to walk beside her, placing one arm about Cady’s shoulders when she stumbled.
“There now, my lady. Just one step at a time. Very good, up the stairs. One at time.”
“I’m…I’m…” Cady wanted to say that she was fine, that she didn’t need help, except that she clearly did need help, since she was clutching at the banister and felt so dizzy and light-headed that getting to the top of the steps seemed impossible. “I get like this,” she gasped out.
“No need to explain, my lady. Certainly not now. Just keep walking, and we’ll get you into bed.”
“I need to be alone. Alone where no one can get to me…can see me like this.”
“Poor lamb, we’ll do just that,” Judith said in a soothing tone. “Up a few more steps, there you are.” She seemed remarkably calm about Cady’s weird behavior.
Cady wasn’t sure how she managed to get to the bedroom, though Judith probably half lifted her along. Oscar arched his back and darted out, alarmed by the sudden entry of humans. Amid heaving breaths and bouts of crying where she felt like she was about to die, she was degowned and bundled into the huge four-poster bed, then tucked under a fluffy down blanket.
“Have Cook make a tisane,” Bond told Judith as she reached the last side of the bed. Then she bent down to Cady’s level. “My lady?”
Cady, now curled on her side like a baby, peeked at her from under the mass of down. “What?” she asked miserably, tears running freely.
“What do you need?” Bond asked.
