Midnight Jewel (The Glittering Court #2)(92)

What had just happened?

I’d been overwhelmed when I found out he was alive, ecstatic when we finally gave in to each other. And now . . . now I just wanted to crawl away and hide myself from the world. His words still smarted, especially because there’d been some truth in them. I wouldn’t back down from helping Lonzo, but a shadow of dishonor definitely hung over what I was doing with Tom and Rupert, no matter how much I wanted to convince myself otherwise. I was as bad as my father, using any means I could.

But Grant should’ve also told me he’d been planning to leave Cape Triumph—and that it wasn’t just to wander the colonies, but to settle in an entirely different nation. A nation far from me.

I didn’t really think about us beyond this.

I came to a sudden stop on the path as I remembered his face when I’d said those words. I hadn’t recognized it at the time, but now, I realized what I’d so briefly seen in his features. Pain. When I’d arrived, bursting with joy and relief to see him alive, he’d told me he wasn’t easy to hurt. But it turned out he was—and I’d been the one to do it.

I picked up my pace, getting angrier and more distraught—both at myself and Grant. And the mud. It was growing softer and softer as spring pushed forward. Suddenly, desperately, I wanted to see Adelaide. She was the only person left here I still loved without complication. I knew she’d been distressed recently, but I hadn’t probed it because I had so many other things that needed my attention. I’d been a shoddy friend and needed to fix that. I’d find out what was making her sad, and I’d stop holding back from her. I’d tell her everything. She’d be shocked, but she loved me too. And it’d be a relief to finally—

“Mira?”

I’d almost reached the edge of the woods when someone moved ahead of me. I reached for the dirk and then recognized Aiana’s voice.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I could just barely see her peering behind me.

“Is Adelaide with you?”

Something about her tone made my blood run cold. “No, why would she be?”

“I just checked your room—to see if you were back, actually. I wish you’d told me how early you were leaving the gala! Anyway, she wasn’t there either or in any of the washrooms.”

I pushed my way out to the road. “Well, she must be inside there somewhere. She wouldn’t leave . . .”

Wouldn’t she? Adelaide had never shown signs of sneaking out again, but I had no idea what the truth might be. It was another mark of my failings as a friend.

Aiana smuggled me inside the sleeping house through a side door she was supposed to be guarding, and I thanked her for saving me a trellis climb. I moved quietly and quickly up the stairs and flung open my bedroom door. No Adelaide. All the panic I’d felt for Grant earlier now returned and shifted onto her. The stark fear of losing her made me tremble as I hurriedly changed out of my dirty clothes and put on a nightgown. I needed to search the house. She couldn’t have sneaked out after the gala. She couldn’t have. She was probably in the kitchen. This was all just a big—

Shouts sounded from out in the hall. I heard people running and doors opening, along with more yelling and frantic voices. I raced out the door and found nearly all the other girls looking out of their own rooms. The bodyguards thundered up the stairs. Jasper, Charles, and Mistress Culpepper followed with Clara right on their heels. They were all running toward the end of the hall, toward the attic door. Toward Adelaide.

She still wore the white satin gown from earlier and clutched her silver mask in one hand. Fear filled her wide blue eyes, like she’d wandered off and now found herself lost and stranded in the wilderness. Cedric stood next to her, but then Jasper pulled him away and started shouting, “What have you done? What have you done?”

I pushed my way through my nightgown-clad housemates and linked my arm through Adelaide’s. “It’s okay,” I told her, not really knowing if it was. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

Jasper turned toward me, his eyes glittering with rage as he clutched Cedric’s arm. “It is not going to be okay! For five years, I’ve run one of the most prestigious businesses in Cape Triumph, and now it’s all going to fall apart when they find out my own son couldn’t keep his hands off one of our girls.” He fixed his glare first on Cedric, then Adelaide. “These two have ruined us!”





CHAPTER 24


GASPS SOUNDED THROUGHOUT THE HALL. I WAS AS dumbstruck as everyone else, but I forced my confusion aside as I pulled Adelaide closer to me. I had to protect her. “Everything’s going to be okay,” I repeated. “I’ll get you out of here.”

“You will do no such thing.” Mistress Culpepper strode up to us, fury etched upon her sharp face. She had on the same stiff dress from this morning, and I wondered if she slept in it. “The only place you’re going is to your room. Now.”

Adelaide was still in shock, and I guided her toward our door. Everyone was already whispering and pointing, and I refused to let them see more. Cedric was practically being dragged away by his father and one of the hired men. Seeing them pass us was the only thing that snapped Adelaide out of her daze. “Cedric . . .”

He looked back over his shoulder at her, and then he was gone. I pushed her into our room, and just as I closed the door, I heard Mistress Culpepper say, “I want two of you stationed outside her room all night. No one goes in or out.”