Page 16 of Stars May Burn

I flinched and changed the conversation to hide the sting of his words. I didn’t want him to see my weakness. “Would he really hang Miss Claris up by her ankles?”

Callum stood and gave me a long sideways look as he walked to the door. He drew out his words. “I’m not sure. I think where you are concerned, not even Kasten knows what he would or wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t particularly want to find out.”

Goodness. That sounded ominous.

“Now that you’re settled, I’ll be off.” He mock bowed and grinned. “Enjoy your flowers.” He disappeared without waiting for me to dismiss him.

Meena remained outside and closed the door behind him, leaving me alone.

That man was…odd. Rude. But, I supposed, so was my husband. It was clear that Callum disliked me, and it would be hard to win him over when I had no idea what about me displeased him. My husband…well, who knew what the general thought of me either. His eyes gave nothing away.

I sighed. My sigh turned into a sneeze, quickly followed by another.

Beatrice appeared through the door under a mound of clothes. “Are you all right, my lady? Not catching a cold, are you?” Her eyes were round with concern as if a cold was something terrible.

“I’m quite all right, thank you.” I sneezed again. “I think it might be the lavender. It smells wonderful but has made me sneeze in the past.” I freed my lace handkerchief and pressed it to my nose to prevent any more sneezes from escaping.

Beatrice put down her load. “I’ll remove them right away.”

She hurried to open the window as Lucy brought in a tray of apple cakes and a silver jug.

My stomach rumbled, and I thanked her as I sat at the desk and made room between the flowers for my plate. The mother-of-pearl and ebony mosaic shimmered under the kryalcomy lights.

“These look delicious.” I risked removing my handkerchief and tried to only breathe through my mouth.

The maid beamed as if I’d just given her the highest compliment. I guessed praise from General Kasten came infrequently.

As I gazed around the room, taking in more details among the flowers, I noticed there were no fewer than four kryalcomy lamps. All were turned on, glowing with pale blue light behind intricate glass cases that resembled peacocks.

“Is it acceptable for all the lights to be on? I don’t want to be wasteful. I’m quite happy with an oil lamp.”

Lucy waved my concern aside. “Don’t worry, my lady, we have no shortage of kryal to recharge them. You may use the lamps as much as you like. We don’t use oil lamps at all here.”

Strange that they would have more kryalcomy here in the countryside than at the capital. I had assumed there would be next to none this far out. Almost all the kryalcomy workshops were on the southern outskirts of Adenburg near the University of Ilustran.

As I helped myself to a second apple cake—thankful Miss Claris wasn’t here to scold me for not watching my waistline—I noticed my chest from home in one corner of the room. It should contain my gowns, and I felt better equipped knowing it was already here.

Father had always taught me that attire could be ones strongest arsenal or their most damning weakness.

I brushed stray crumbs from my lips. “What time is dinner? How grandly should I dress?”

The maids looked at each other with a loaded, uncertain look, then Lucy plastered a cheery smile on her face. “There’s no formal dinner here, my lady, but you can dress however you like.”

Beatrice nodded eagerly. “We’ll make you the nicest dresses. It will be entertaining. Lady Batton should look beautiful and grand after all.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. I’d never heard somebody describe dressing up as entertaining. Back home it had always been a very serious affair.

I leaned forward so they could catch the weight of my concerns. “It will be the first impression my husband gets of me after my wedding dress.”

The two maids looked at each other again. Lucy wrung her hands. “I may be wrong, but I suspect his lordship won’t be joining you for dinner tonight.”

“He’s likely concerned about you needing rest after your journey,” Beatrice added too quickly.

“Oh.” I finished the apple cake while looking down at my plate. Though part of me was relieved, I couldn’t help the growing fear that I had done something very wrong to make him avoid me.

I would think of a way to make it up to him.

KASTEN

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