The Everlasting Rose (The Belles, #2)(37)
“But why should we trust you?” Edel says. “Why are you willing to help?”
He turns to me and blows me a kiss. “I’ve always had a soft spot for this one.”
Edel’s eyes blaze. “That doesn’t mean you’re not an ally of the monster who—”
“Be quiet!” His voice blasts through the room like a trumpet.
Edel blanches. My heart pounds.
“I am no friend of hers. She took my husband.” His eyes sheen over with tears. “Under the guise of a job as a milliner, she is holding him against his will. Using him as a way to control me. I need her gone, too.”
Edel opens and closes her mouth a few times, but nothing comes out. I glare at her and will an apology to come from her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” I reply.
He reaches for my hand and holds it with a squeeze. “It’s fine, my poppet. I am used to being questioned like this. I can prove my mettle and worth.” He cranes forward. “Our sleeping beauty is in the Gold Isles and is growing stronger, trying to get well before the ceremonies begin. I can’t believe that’s coming in four days’ time.”
My heart jumps. “How do you know?”
“I’m very close with our departed leader’s beloved partner.” He leans in, waiting for the lantern overhead to drift past, and whispers, “Lady Pelletier.”
The pieces of this puzzle begin to shift into place. I glare at Edel, satisfied that this visit has paid off.
“Know our beauty is tucked away like a jewel deep in a mountain.”
“Can you help us get to her?” Edel asks.
“And to our sister at the Silk Teahouse?” I add.
A knock pounds the door. “Royal Minister?” a voice calls.
“Yes, to both, but we have no more time for catch-up,” he replies. “My duties call and anything that continues to deviate from them will garner curiosity and inspire reporting.” He taps my nose. “You must rest overnight. Tomorrow, I’ll get you where you need to go. But first, I must rescue your bodies and outfit you in something that won’t raise such alarm. Come.”
The mirrored walls around us fog with steam as we soak in natural hot-spring baths, the water heated from the very heart of the Goddess of Death’s caves. We learned in our lessons that her bargain with the God of the Sea required her to allow for heat from her eternal fires to warm these waters.
Skylight windows reveal the midnight stars as they rise. Smooth white stone slopes along my back and bubbles remove the tension in my limbs. Edel only dangles her feet in as her eyes dart back and forth between me and the stone doors behind us.
“We shouldn’t have stayed,” she says. “We could’ve gotten Valerie tonight and set off for the Gold Isles. Now, we only have four days until the ceremony.”
“Try to relax,” I say.
“I still don’t trust him,” she replies.
“We’re in his private chambers. He’s sent all his servants and attendants away for the night. If he were going to trap us, he would have already had the guard take us away. It would probably make her love him more, and release his husband or make her imprison him. He’s taking a risk to help us.”
“You trust too easily,” she replies. “They wrote about you in the papers, you know. You and her fiancé, Auguste.”
A bleeding gash opens on my heart. “What?”
“There were reports in the tattlers about how she was angered by your daliance with him. Is it true?”
My relationship with Auguste replays in my head. His gaze heavy, his eyes with their ability to make me feel as if I were the only person in the room, the only person in the world. The sound of his name stirs painful memories I’ve worked hard to bury deep inside me, rattling and shaking them like snow in a flipped snowglobe.
“So, is it?” she presses.
“I made a grave error.” The admission leaves behind an ache in my heart like the deep prick of a needle. All the secrets spilled between kisses; secrets that allowed his mother to discover sacred truths about the Belles and feed them to Sophia. I’m not ready to face that yet.
“You kissed him?”
“Yes.”
“What was it like?” She eases deeper into the water.
“Fine.”
She arches an eyebrow. “That’s it?”
“I don’t want to talk about him.” I clamp my eyes shut, trying to erase Auguste, wishing I could remove all the memories of him that I carry.
“Did you love him?”
The question burns. She jostles my shoulder. My eyes snap open.
“What about Rémy? You said you loved him.”
“I do. Like the way I love you.” I grab her and pull her into the water. She relents.
“I saw the way you look at each other. That love must be different. What is that like?” she asks.
“Do you trust me?” I say, brushing away her question. She’s always been a cold teapot, slow to warm.
“Yes.”
“Good. The Fashion Minister will help us. In a few hours, we’ll get Valerie and she will tell us what to do about the Belle babies and we will all go to the Gold Isles together.”
“Don’t want to talk about boys, huh?” She dunks her head in the steaming water.