The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(35)

Lucian delivered the packages she had ready for him in the morning, but she deliberately kept a few back as an excuse to leave the shop early that afternoon.

She broached the subject when Dinah did her regular midday checkin to poke around the stock and ask Blue what new potions or experiments she’d like to try. “There are a few more deliveries that need to be made. I’ll head out after Princess Nessa’s tutoring session.”

“Just get that boy back here to do that for you.”

“I can’t.” Blue swept a rag over her worktable, sending a puff of fennel dust into the air. “He works at the bakery in the afternoons.”

“So you expect to close the shop while we could still have customers?” Dinah’s voice was impatient.

“Well, yes. Unless you want to take care of sales while I make the deliveries.”

Dinah raised her chin. “Do I look like a shopkeeper to you?”

Blue shrugged, and the older woman’s eyes narrowed. “It’s past time for you to hire someone to run the shop floor. We can get one of the urchins who do odd jobs to take the packages while we post a Help Wanted sign.”

“And how would we pay for that? Are you going to volunteer coin from your own coffers?”

Something flashed in Dinah’s eyes. “Don’t be daft, child. You know very well you can pay someone to work here.”

Blue stared. “Pay with what? We make enough coin to cover the costs of maintaining the building, buying supplies, and keeping up the farmhouse. There really isn’t much extra.”

A muscle along Dinah’s jaw ticked. “Haven’t I been kind to you, Blue? Haven’t I given up my home, divided my attention between you and my business empire, and looked after your needs?”

“I . . . You don’t have to—”

“And you expect me to mind the shop. To believe there’s no extra coin—”

“There isn’t any.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Dinah’s hand whipped across Blue’s face. “I’ve done everything your mother would’ve wanted me to do.”

Blue raised a trembling hand to her stinging cheek and blinked at Dinah in shock. Until today, the older woman had been demanding, and had certainly put her daughters’ comfort ahead of Blue’s, but she hadn’t been cruel.

Dinah leaned forward, a wild light in her eyes. “I have an empire that desperately needs my attention. Daughters to position for the prince’s betrothal. A family to run. All I want is for you to show me where the extra coin is kept so that we can hire someone to run the shop, and you sit there lying to me. I despise liars.”

Blue scrambled out of her chair and backed away, keeping the table between them. “I’m not lying. We had enough to get by, but not much extra. And I never expected you to keep shop. I never expected you at all. You just showed up and took over my life!” Blue’s voice rose. “You took my home, my bedroom, my time with my grandmother, and my shop. Well, I don’t need you. Go back to your mansion. Go run your empire and find a way to marry one of your girls to Kellan. I don’t care what you do as long as you leave me alone!”

Dinah lunged from her chair as Blue whirled toward the stockroom door. “Don’t you dare leave without my permission.”

Blue snatched up the three remaining delivery packages, flew into the alley, and slammed the door behind her. Before Dinah could follow, Blue raced to the main road, ducked around the bakery on the corner, and dove down a side street that broke into a dozen different streets within half a block.

Let Dinah try to find her. Blue knew this quarter far better than Dinah did.

Better yet, let Dinah realize the truth: there was no coin stashed away. Nothing to help Blue hire a replacement for Papa.

Before the thought of replacing Papa could burrow in, she turned down the second street she came to and headed east, forcing herself to think of nothing but the three addresses she needed to find. She’d deliver the packages. Ask questions of any street children she found. And see if she could figure out where Ana and the little boy had gone.

And maybe, after darkness fell, she’d return to the shop. She didn’t know how she was going to return to the farmhouse. Not with Dinah still inside.

Her heart ached, a bright shaft of pain that stole her breath and brought tears to her eyes, and she blinked them away.

She wasn’t going to be chased away from her home by fear of Dinah’s unreasonable anger. Pepperell needed her. And besides, it was hers. Along with the shop and Grand-mère, it was all she had left.

She could endure the Chauveaus a bit longer. Surely, Dinah would soon grow bored of listening to Jacinthe complain about country living. Or at the very least, grow weary of worrying about a girl and her alchemy shop when she should be running the entire Chauveau quarter and chasing a betrothal to Kellan.

Blue winced as an image of Kellan standing beneath wedding chimes with Jacinthe on his arm filled her mind. Maybe Kellan wasn’t her favorite, but she still couldn’t wish a life with someone as unpleasant as Jacinthe on him. Especially when he’d been kind to Blue even though there was nothing in it for him. Once, she’d believed Kellan was incapable of turning on his charm for any reason other than to somehow benefit himself. Now she wondered just how much of his charm was the truth and how much of it was a shield he wore against the political expectations he faced.