Broken Dove (Fantasyland #4)(187)

“Talk to him. Share your feelings. Tell him how he hurt you before, explain you admire him and you don’t want a roll in the hay.” When she looked confused again, I stated, “Just bedplay. If he’s not interested, tell him you want to know that so you both can move on. But if this is more to him, then you’ll know.”

“He may be angry with me for playing these…games.”

“He might,” I agreed. “Then again, he might realize he bought that and suck it up.”

She stared at me. “Sometimes you speak very strangely, Miss Maddie.”

It sucked I had to keep the secret of who I really was from a friend and this was the kind of time when it sucked more.

Still, she couldn’t know so I couldn’t tell her.

Instead, I said, “We have different ways of saying things where I come from in the Vale.”

“I’ve noticed,” she murmured.

It was time to leave her alone, so I bumped my shoulder against hers and lifted our hands, doing this while offering, “If you ever need to talk about this kind of thing, or anything, I’m here. And if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay too. I just want you to know you have both from me. Yes?”

She smiled and this time it wasn’t small. “Yes, Miss Maddie.”

I smiled back. “Now, you sleep tight, sweetheart.”

“You too.”

I let her hand go but twisted to her to give her a hug. She gave it back. And when her arms closed around me, I wondered how I’d existed for so long in a life untouched by good people.

Then again, it didn’t matter.

Because I lived that life no longer.

I let her go, straightened from the bed and winked at her before I headed out the door.

When I got into the hall, I noticed Gaston was down at the other end and Lund was still at his position at the top of the stairs.

But as I moved toward my room, I also noticed one of the doors in the hall was cracked open.

It was Christophe’s.

I thought Apollo had left it open for some reason and was wondering why when I got closer and saw Christophe’s eye peering out the crack.

I looked quickly away, his position telling me he didn’t want to be caught peeking out, and made note to tell his father he was still awake and something was up as I walked by his door, pretending I didn’t know he was there.

I got two steps past it when I heard him call, “Miss Maddie.”

My heart jumped in my chest as I turned and saw he’d stuck his head out of the door.

His eyes were on me.

And he was addressing me.

Directly.

“Are you all right, Chris?” I asked.

His head turned to look toward the other end of the hall then he looked back to me.

“Did you talk Loretta into being with Hans?”

I stared at him, surprised at his question.

A question that laid testimony to the fact that Chris didn’t only watch his father, sister and me.

It would seem Chris paid attention to everything.

Then I forced myself to speak. “Um…well, no. Not exactly.”

He looked disappointed.

“She is…” I didn’t know what to share and decided on, “She has some issues.”

“Hans likes her,” he stated.

“Well, yes,” I replied.

“The handsome soldier is supposed to get the maiden he desires at the end of the story,” he declared and I felt my lips twitch as I fought back a smile.

“You’re absolutely right,” I told him.

“So what’s wrong with Loretta? She’s ruining the story,” he told me.

I again beat back my smile, doing it thinking that I wanted to walk to him. To get close. To crouch in front of him and hold his eyes when I spoke my next words.

But this was not small progress.

This was huge progress.

So I didn’t push it.

“Some stories have twists and turns, Chris. It could be that those twists and turns will lead to Hans winning Loretta. It could be he thinks she’s the maiden he desires but yet another is on the horizon and it will be her he seeks to win, and does. As with any good story, we just have to watch it play out and see.”

“She’s the maiden he desires,” Chris informed me authoritatively. “I heard him tell Remi he thinks she’s very pretty.”

“I’m glad to know that,” I replied softly.

“So she needs to stop being so stubborn,” he asserted.

“Well, hopefully I gave her a few things to think about in regards to Hans,” I shared.

“Hopefully you did,” he agreed.

At that, I let myself smile and said quietly, “But we’ll just watch it play out, shall we?”

He was looking at my smile. His eyes shifted up and he nodded.

“Now, do you want me to find your father and ask him to come and tuck you in, or are you good?” I queried.

His head (the only thing I could see around the jamb) lifted up two inches before he stated, “I can tuck myself in.”

“Of course,” I murmured. Then louder, I said, “Now you sleep tight, sweetheart.”

Something moved over his face at the endearment. Something I couldn’t quite catch before he called, “You sleep tight too.”