Midnight Jewel (The Glittering Court #2)(6)

“Then let me give you a little more. You want that girl to leave you alone? Don’t do it with brute force. That has its place, sure, but information is real power.”

I let my hand drop back to my side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, that’s what she’s got over you, right? Information?”

“Not information. Slander. It’s not true. I’d never—”

“You’re proving my point,” he interrupted. “Look how worked up you are—over words. So get some on her. She’s got something in her past. Everyone does. Uncover that, and you’ll be the one with the power.” He held out the pick kit. “Take this. It’ll help you get into places you shouldn’t. That’s where you’ll find your answers.”

I didn’t take it. “I can’t accept this.”

“I’ve got three more sets at home.” He pushed the kit into my hand and turned around. “Now I’ve got to go find the other chaps before they head back to the village. Stay out of trouble.”

The man trudged off into the darkness, leaving me with the lock picks. I had a sudden urge to call him back, to ask why he would help me without expecting anything in return. And what in the world would he need that many kits for? Instead, I slipped back into the kitchen and up to my room.

Tamsin, one of my roommates, was busy writing a letter and gave my rain-soaked state only a brief glance. “I don’t even want to know.”

Our other roommate, Adelaide, had been sprawled on her bed with a book and bolted upright. “Well, I do! Six, Mira. What happened to you? You’re practically naked.”

I glanced down and realized she wasn’t entirely wrong. The soaked nightgown clung everywhere. I quickly wrapped a blanket around my body and hoped it had been too dark for the laborer to notice much. “Eh, nothing important. I just accidentally got locked out.”

That drew Tamsin’s attention back. Little escaped her notice. “Who did it? Clara?”

“It’s doesn’t matter. Let it go,” I said, wringing water out of my black hair. Clara’s rumors hadn’t reached my roommates yet, and I hoped it stayed that way.

“Of course it bloody matters.” Tamsin slipped into her Market District dialect when she got emotional. Mistress Masterson would have been horrified. “Do you know how much trouble you’d get in if you were caught out there? Mistress Masterson would think you’d lost your head for some man and were having secret meetings with him.”

Adelaide laughed and flounced back. “I don’t think anyone would jump to that.”

“Don’t treat everything like a joke,” Tamsin returned sharply.

“I’m not! But I can’t really picture Mira losing her head over anything—especially a man. I mean, good grief, where would she find one? The only men we see are the Thorns and a few instructors. And they’re hardly ever here. None of us will even remember how to talk to men by the time we go to Adoria. Mistress Masterson should bring a few around for us to practice with.”

Adelaide was joking, but Tamsin took the words seriously. She was always watching out for opportunities. “It would be useful to interact with men more often. I’m surprised no one’s thought of it. There’ll be village men at church tomorrow. Maybe I should try talking to some of them. It might give me an extra edge.”

“You’re obsessed with your edge,” said Adelaide.

“At least I care.” Tamsin tossed her brilliant red hair over one shoulder. “Honestly, what good was working in a noble’s household all those years if you didn’t pick up anything useful? You should be the best of us all.”

Adelaide grinned. “You’d smother me in my sleep if I was. This is self-preservation.”

“Well, second best, then,” Tamsin said huffily.

I smiled as they slipped into familiar roles and forgot about Clara. Somehow, I’d ended up rooming with both the most ambitious girl in the house and the least ambitious one. It had been obvious from our first day here that Tamsin had an agenda and wasn’t going to let anyone stop her. She studied and worked more than anyone else. She scrutinized every detail and person around her, assessing how they could further her path to greatness.

And Adelaide? She moved through the world in a different way. She was always quick to smile and find a joke wherever she went. She won everyone over with her easy charm and could talk her way out of anything. That turned out to be pretty useful with our instructors, considering Adelaide’s performances were all over the place. Sometimes she excelled. Sometimes she failed. None of it ever seemed to bother her.

I loved them both.

Each girl was powerful in her own way, one always burning with drive and the other so light and playful that she practically danced through her days. Me? I was the mediator, the one who kept those extremes balanced.

I woke up with a renewed energy the next morning. Clara’s rumors had weighed on me for days, and I was eager to see what would come of last night’s “talk.” While dressing, Tamsin discovered a spot on her skirt that neither Adelaide nor I could actually see. It drove Tamsin into crisis mode, and Adelaide and I were ready before she was for a change. We left her to her scrubbing and made our way down to the foyer where other girls waited for the carriages that would take us to the village.

Cedric milled around with my housemates and lit up at our approach. He usually stayed in Osfro for school but would occasionally run errands at the manors for his father, now that Charles Thorn—Jasper’s brother and the Glittering Court’s other owner—had decided to stay in Adoria. I’d grown to like Cedric for the genuine concern he showed for others—and I’d grown to respect him for his continued dedication to the Alanzans.