Page 56 of Black and Silver

Matters seemed to be settled for the moment. Minnie was content to leave the great hall and to follow Mrs. Weatherby through the magnificent castle and up to the guestroom that had only just finished being prepared for her. Kat came with them, Napoleon following her, though Minnie sensed she was eager to return to her new husband.

“I could have the footmen bring up a tub and have the maids prepare a warm bath for you,” Mrs. Weatherby said once she had introduced Minnie to her room.

“Yes!” Minnie breathed out in relief. “I believe a bath would rid me of the lingering effects of this cold right away.”

“Have you been very ill?” Kat asked with all the worry of a friend who was like a sister as she helped Minnie go through the contents of her valise. Napoleon leapt onto the bed and came face to face with Clarence, who had been settled on one of the pillows. The two of them eyed each other suspiciously.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Minnie said. “Though I do not think I was at death’s door.”

“I am sorry I was not there to nurse you,” Kat sighed, then made a face as she pulled the blue, Scandinavian gown from among Minnie’s things. “Are you considering a change to your style of dress?” she asked.

Minne laughed and took the bright gown from Kat. She opened her mouth to say no, she would never leave off wearing the inkiest of black gowns, but something stopped her.

“Perhaps,” she said, running a hand over the cheery, blue fabric. Lawrence would like it. “Perhaps it is time for quite a few things to change.”

Kat hummed knowingly, reaching for Napoleon and stopping him from batting Clarence off the pillow and onto the floor. “I believe I know that sentiment well.”

“Everyone must change eventually, I suppose,” Minnie said with a sigh, setting her blue gown aside. “It appears as though the entire heptarchy teeters on the verge of change, so why not the members who make it up?”

“Why not indeed,” Kat said.

She assisted Minnie with sorting her things and sending the bulk of her clothing to Godwin Castle’s laundry as the tub was brought up and filled. Filling a tub for a bath took some time, but once it was all ready, Kat took her leave to give Minnie the privacy she needed.

Minnie was so grateful to sink into the tub that she sighed aloud in a way that would be seen as scandalous to nearly everyone she knew. Lawrence would be amused by her sounds, though. And perhaps, were she not a sniffly, dripping mess, he would wish to do something about it.

Minutes ticked by, and just as Minnie was rinsing her hair with water from the pitcher that had been provided along with her bath, Mrs. Weatherby returned to the room with a tray of tea things.

“Forgive my intrusion, my lady,” she said, keeping her eyes averted as she placed the tray on a small table. “I thought you would enjoy this medicinal tea to help speed your recovery. I’ve included several clean handkerchiefs as well, and a few lemon tarts, which are some of Cook’s best work.”

“Thank you,” Minnie smiled at her, sinking luxuriously lower in the tub.

When Mrs. Weatherby turned to go, Minnie stopped her with, “Before you leave, could you tell me something?”

Mrs. Weatherby turned back, smiling at Minnie without looking at her too closely. “Anything, my lady,” she said.

Minnie gestured for the woman to come closer and to sit in the chair beside the tub, then, instead of asking what she really wanted to know, she said, “I have never liked the subservience of one woman to another. Tell me your given name, and I will call you that instead of this Mrs. Weatherby nonsense.”

Mrs. Weatherby sat with a laugh. “You sound very much like Lord Gerald in many ways. No wonder he immediately approved of you. And my name is Carys,” she added. “Carys Weatherby.”

“And what happened to Mr. Weatherby?” Minnie asked.

Mrs. Weatherby, Carys, sent Minnie a sly grin. “I believe you are well enough versed in the ways of these things to know there is no Mr. Weatherby, aside from my father, and there never was. ‘Mrs.’ is a courtesy title for the position I hold.”

“Interesting,” Minnie said. “And how long have you held that position?”

“Since I was five-and-twenty, when my mother passed, handing it down to me,” Carys said, her expression slightly sad.

Twin feelings of shared sadness, but also curiosity, flared in Minnie’s breast. “I am sorry for the loss of your mother,” she said. Leaving the briefest of pauses, she went on to ask, “I take it your family has served the Godwins for quite some time?”

“Oh, for ages, my lady,” Carys said. “Long before my grandmother’s grandmother’s time. Godwin Castle belongs to the Weatherbys as much as to the Godwins.”

Minnie sucked in a breath and sat as straight as she dared in her current state of undress. “If I am to call you Carys, I ask that you call me Minerva,” she said. “Or Minnie, though I only let my closest friends call me that.”

“I am honored, my—Minnie.” The clever sparkle in Carys’s eyes told Minnie that she was precisely the sort of woman she liked to have as a friend.

“I am curious about the Curse of Godwin Castle,” Minnie said, twisting so she could lean her arms against the edge of thetub and rest her chin on her hands. “I adore curses and tragic stories of all sorts. I have been meaning to ask Lawrence about the curse, since he seems haunted by it, but it strikes me that someone who has lived and worked in Godwin Castle, and whose family has inhabited the place for ages, would know more about it than him. Is it true? Is the curse real?”

“It is,” Carys said, though she did not look happy or mischievous in reporting as much.

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