Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Then I get to work “making” their beds again.
I flip the mattresses and feel all along the undersides, looking for holes. I shake out the blankets. I beat the pillows. I peer under the beds. When none of that leads anywhere, I dig through Hemmen’s bag, and then Arrod’s. There’s nothing of interest. Hemmen’s bag just has a couple of books in it and a box of old letters, and Arrod’s has nothing but clothing and what might be the ugliest velvet hat I’ve ever seen. Annoyed, I move to shove everything back into Arrod’s bag when I notice Kipp standing by the double doors. He has another berry in his hand, casually eating it as he watches me ransack their things.
“Lost a sock,” I tell him to explain away my actions. Never mind that Taurians don’t wear socks. Or shoes.
He just licks his eyeball with that long tongue of his and goes back to eating his berry. When he finishes it, he turns and walks away. Huh.
I’m tempted to check his bed, too, but whatever he has of value would be in his shell, and it’s currently in the kitchen. I toss Arrod’s bag back into its spot by the head of the bed just as Gwenna enters the room, wearing a pretty dress and a tightly fitting bodice over a fluffy white chemise. She touches her black hair, which has been braided into a crown atop her head, and her cheeks grow pink as I regard her. “Is my braid crooked?” she asks. “It’s bloody hard to braid without a mirror.”
“Come here and I’ll check it for you,” I say, waving her toward me.
She approaches without hesitation, sitting on the edge of my bed. She smells like flowers, soap, and fresh cotton, the tang of blood only a slight note now. I don’t mind it, as long as I know she’s not in pain. Even so, I’m aware of her tears from yesterday, and I play with how to approach that in my mind even as I unbraid her hair for her. “Let me redo this for you.”
“I don’t mean to be a bother.”
“You say that a lot.”
She hesitates. “It’s a bad habit of mine. I worked as a maid for a very long time before coming here.”
“Ah. So you’re more comfortable being invisible.” I finish unbraiding her hair and shake it loose.
“Precisely. Invisible is safe in a lot of ways. If you’re invisible, no one points out that the shelves need dusting. No handing you chores just because you happen to be standing nearby. No men deciding that because you’re a servant, you’re fair game.”
I bite back a growl.
“It’s a difficult habit to break.” She tilts her head slightly, leaning into my touch. “I had no idea you were so good at braiding.”
“I have three younger sisters, and they liked ribbons braided into their manes,” I tell her, my fingers brushing against her scalp. Her hair is softer and silkier than that of my sisters, but it also has a lot less body to it. It’s fine and clings to my calluses like cobwebs. “And occasionally there’s a tunnel rope that has to be braided to reinforce it.”
“Well, thank you.” She sits tall and straight. “Where are your sisters now? And your parents?”
“Living in a farming village over in the Southwind Plains. It’s called Clover Hollow.”
“It sounds very pastoral.”
“It is, and that’s why I couldn’t wait to leave when I was younger.” I twine her hair around my fingers as I braid, easily working her smooth locks into a crown once more. “I wasn’t cut out to be a farmer. I wanted adventure, so I left for here as soon as one of my sisters mated and her mate took over the farm. My parents live there with them, but they’re both older and don’t quite get the need for adventure.”
“It’s hard when you don’t want the same thing as your parents,” she agrees.
“Is that your story?” I ask. “Why you’re here?”
“I’m here since someone needed to follow Aspeth—sorry, Sparrow—because I didn’t want her going to Vastwarren alone. She’s very trusting, and I worried someone would take advantage of her.” Her hands are clasped calmly in her lap. “It didn’t occur to me until we stepped foot in the city that I could become an artificer, too. I thought I’d spend my entire life working at Honori Hold. The highest I’d be able to reach would be that I might end up as a chambermaid to whatever lady Lord Honori remarried.”
“Sounds…dull.”
“Oh, it is.” She chuckles, the sound soft and rueful. “In a way, coming here has ruined me. Now that I see I can be something other than a maid, it’ll break me if I have to go back to it. I’ll do anything to stay.”
Gwenna says it so casually, so cheerfully, that I pause to absorb what she’s said. Anything, huh? Said like a true thief. The part of me that’s supposed to be looking for clues about the culprit knows that this is vital information I should pass on. That this makes her suspicious.