He started to walk out of the room and then paused by me. “Here.” I smiled as he pressed a set of dice into my hand.
“Of course. Of course you have a set.”
“It’s my spare, actually. We play all the time at school.”
“Are you any good?” I asked. “Never mind. I already know you are. It’s a game that involves reading people and manipulating them.”
“Exactly,” he said. “You’d be a natural.”
Despite that jest, he still seemed tense. “He’s acting very strangely,” I told Mira when he was gone.
“Is he? I don’t know him well enough to know.”
“Don’t you?” I asked pointedly.
Her face was completely innocent as she shook her head. “I’m sure everything’s fine. Do you want me to help you move the sofa before I leave?”
She and I lugged it across the room, both of us surprised at its weight. “I’m starting to agree with Tamsin,” I said. “It’ll be nice to have flocks of servants to do this for us.”
Mira grinned back. “We’ll see. I don’t know if I did well enough to get a husband with one servant, let alone flocks.”
“Not like Tamsin,” I said.
“Not like Tamsin.” She laughed. Her face grew serious. “But I hope I did well enough to get . . . I don’t know. A choice. Or at least someone I can respect.”
“Still want to buy out your contract?”
She helped straighten the sofa. “I think Tamsin was right about that. I’d need some sort of job on the side—and I’m guessing that’s not allowed.”
“Um, yeah. Jasper would probably frown on that kind of thing. But it won’t matter. I know you’ll have your pick of amazing men. And if you’re worried about your scores, you can always retake the tests.”
“Right. They were so fun the last time.” She stepped back and joined me to survey our work with the sofa. “Do you need anything else before I go?”
“Not unless you can make some holly materialize,” I said wistfully. “It just doesn’t feel like winter without it.”
“I wouldn’t know, since we don’t have it in Sirminica, but I think this room will be fine.”
After she left, her remark made me feel worse—as though I owed her holly for a true Osfridian experience. When I finished with the drawing room, Mistress Masterson released me from my duties early to go get ready for the party. Neither Tamsin nor Mira had returned yet. I put on my best dress, a full-skirted gown of sky-blue brocade scattered with pink flowers. A pink chemise was worn under it, peeping through the slashed sleeves and around the boned bodice. As I laced it up, I thought ahead to what it would be like when we switched to Adorian fashions. The skirts were slimmer and more maneuverable, the bodices less structured.
I wandered downstairs, looking for ways to help. No one needed me, and Cedric was gone. I’d kind of wanted to brag to him about having laced up the dress in under a minute. So, I busied myself by going over my decorative handiwork but found no flaws in it—except the absence of holly. A check of the clock told me I had an hour until dinner, and I made an impulsive decision.
I traded my delicate party shoes for sturdy boots and donned a wool cloak. Even so, I wasn’t prepared for the blast of cold that hit me when I went outside through one of the back doors. I questioned my decision for a moment, watching as my breath made frosty clouds, and then plunged forward.
I knew what Mistress Masterson would have said about me traipsing alone through the woods at this time of day. My grandmother would have said the same thing. But I’d been all over Blue Spring’s property in my time here, taking walks and picnics with the other girls. No dangerous animals roamed the grounds, and we were too far out of the way to have any vagabonds coming by. The only person I was likely to see was the kindly old groundskeeper.
It was the shortest day of the year, and sunset had come early. The light was almost gone from the western horizon, and the rest of the sky already glittered with stars. A rising moon and my own memory of the way to the holly trees made navigation easy. The cold was my biggest obstacle, and I regretted not bringing gloves. A thin coat of snow crunched softly as I passed over it.
I found the holly trees where I remembered, on the farthest edge of the property. Here, the grounds gave way to what was left of the wilder, original forest. Those who’d built Blue Spring long ago had cleared the trees around the house, replacing them with vast manicured lawns and ornate specimen plantings. It was a common practice among fashionable estates, and these sorts of wild woods were becoming scarce.
I’d had enough sense to bring a knife, and set to cutting off branches of holly. I wouldn’t be able to fashion them into a true wreath, but I’d have enough to make some nice arrangements for the mantels that would certainly outdo Clara’s ivy. I’d just about finished when I noticed something in my periphery.
At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I could see fairly well out here. The moon reflected off the snow, and stars spilled across the sky. Squinting at what had caught my eye, I wondered if I was seeing just another reflection. But no—this wasn’t the pale, silvery light of moon and snow. This was warmer. The golden light of a flame.
It was coming from even farther into the old woods, in a copse of hazel and oak. I crept forward to investigate. Most likely it was the groundskeeper. If not, and it was some trespasser, I could easily sneak away without being seen, and report it. Again, I knew Mistress Masterson and my grandmother would have a lot to say about this reasoning, but I didn’t care.