Page 115 of Beau and the Beast

“You never offer me tea unless you’re about to apologize for something,” she said with a shrug.

“Good Lord. Is that true?” he asked. “How brutish.”

She smiled. “It’s ok. I don’t like tea that much anyway.”

"You’re right, though," he said, pouring out a cup for her in spite of what she'd just said. "I do need to apologize to you."

"Why’s that?"

"Last night I created extra work for you. We need to hire some contractors again, I'm afraid."

He told her the story of how he'd been sleepwalking again, how he'd continued to wreck the room that was already ruined in the staff's wing, this time shattering the window.

"Jesus, Wolfram—I'm glad you're ok," she said, heart beating hard. "You could've died if you walked through that open window. I didn't evenhearyou in there last night."

Wolfram nodded. "You’re right. It was entirely my fault."

"How’d you come out of it? Did one of the others wake you up or did you spend the night in there?"

"Beau brought me out, actually," he said.

The only part of that statement that surprised Violet was the fact that Beau had heard Wolfram and she hadn't. Maybe she'd already been deep in sleep by the time Wolfram had started in on the room.

"Thank God he heard you," she said. "I'll take a look in the morning and see what we need to do to get that room into shape again."

He nodded, a sad smile on his face. "Thank you."

"We're still skirting the big issue here, though. I thought you said you were back in control of all of this, Wolfram. We can't keep pretending like there's not a problem."

"I think it's under control again."

"Bullshit," she spat. "You said that, what, three weeks ago before we brought Beau here?"

"And for three weeks, I was right."

"Until you weren't."

"Until I wasn't," he said, nodding. "Which brings me to another topic."

"You can't just change the topic. This is a real problem, Wolfram. What if you had gone into Beau's room instead of the guest room? What if you had—"

Wolfram held up a hand to stop her. "Thatisthe topic I want to discuss, Vi. I was upset—I was sleepwalking—because I had decided to send Beau home and give up on the book."

Violet's face fell. "Wolfram, youcan't—he's almost done and—"

He held up a hand again. "I changed my mind after last night. He's convinced me to let him stay, at least a little while longer."

Violet smiled, the anxiety flowing out of her quickly. If anyone could talk Wolfram into doing something, it would be Beau.

"How'd he convince you of that?" she asked. "I need to take some pages from his playbook. Seems like he always gets his way with you."

Wolfram cleared his throat and sipped his tea, refusing to make eye contact with her.

"I spent the night with him afterward."

"What, like Beau’s nightmare thing again?" she asked.

"Notlike Beau’s nightmare thing again," he corrected gently. “Something entirely different.”

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