Page 44 of Her Dark Reflection

‘Mrs Corkill, to what do I owe the pleasure?’ I served her a cold smile with the question.

She climbed to her feet and dusted at her skirts. ‘I am the head housekeeper, Miss Beaufort. It is my responsibility to ensure all rooms are maintained to a high standard.’

‘Oh, so you peek under the bed of every room in the palace? That must keep you busy.’ I flung back my shoulders as I stepped through the door, drawing on all my height as I approached her. ‘I imagine your knees don’t appreciate it.’

For all my bluster, my heart was pounding, blood rushing in my ears as my stomach tried to squirm its way up my oesophagus. ‘Where is Leela?’ I asked, hoping that she was here somewhere, keeping an eye on the old crone.

‘I do not keep track of every maid in the palace,’ Mrs Corkill replied, her expression giving nothing away.

‘So, hidden dust is your responsibility, but maids are not? What an interesting role you perform.’ My eyes darted to the cabinet in the corner as I tried to keep control of my panic. It would be locked. I knew it was locked. It was always locked. But I wanted to check.

‘It’s not dust I’m interested in, Miss Beaufort. I am here on information that you are harbouring secrets.’

I restrained the panic that wanted to crawl all over my face. Information? From who? And what did they suspect me of? ‘That seems a vague accusation. Doesn’t everyone at court harbour secrets?’

‘Given our previous encounters, you’ll understand that it’s one I must give some credit.’ She was, as always, no nonsense, and I begrudgingly admired her for being so straight with me. And if she was referencing the incident with the fork, I had to hope that she suspected me of something more mundane than possessing an enchanted mirror. If she thought I was involved in any kind of profane magic, she would surely be in the ear of the Grand Paptich by now, not lingering in my room, probing me for guilt.

‘Mrs Corkill,’ I said, drawing closer, ‘surely you do not think I still harbour a desire to steal silverware?’

Her eyes widened a fraction, and I relaxed slightly as she muttered that there was plenty aside from silverware that could be stolen.

‘I am in a highly influential position and have access to more money than I’ve ever had in my life,’ I continued. ‘Can you really see me jeopardising all that just for the chance to steal a few jewels?’ She opened her mouth, but shut it again without answering the question, pressing her lips into a thin line as I walked to my armoire and slid open a drawer, revealing a row of neatly arranged undergarments.

‘I admire your commitment to upholding the security of this household,’ I said as I slid open the rest of the drawers, exposing my collection of gloves, fans, stockings, and hair pins for her perusal before I straightened and levelled her with a stare. ‘You are welcome to search my room, but if you ask me, it sounds like someone is using you to act out a grudge for them.’ It was no more than a guess, but I was rewarded for it when a hint of colour flushed her neck. She dropped her gaze to her hands for a moment before looking back at me with a decidedly less superior expression.

‘You seem a smart girl, Miss Beaufort,’ she said. ‘I hope you’ll take some advice. You may think I hate your kind, but that is not the case. I feel nothing but pity for you.’

My eyebrows hiked up my forehead and I folded my arms as I bit down against the response that wanted to break past my teeth.Shepitiedme? She was lucky I had somewhere to be, or I might just push her from that moral high ground she seemed to be so comfortable on.

‘Do not continue down this path of turpitude. Corrupting a king is to corrupt a country, and you would do well to renounce your wicked ways before we all see the consequences.’

I tapped a finger against my forearm. She was going to try and convert me?Now?

She seemed to take my silence as acquiescence instead of self-control and she offered me a thin smile. ‘Only piety will save you. Beauty is finite, and when Taveum takes the bloom from yours, you will be left with nothing but the knowledge of the damage you have wrought.’

Slit-eyed and seething, I leaned closer to her. ‘Let’s wait and see, shall we?’

The door clicked open and Leela stumbled in, her face flushed, her hair frayed, utterly unlike the perfectly groomed woman I had come to know. Her gaze darted between me and Mrs Corkill, a frown cutting deeper across her mouth the longer she looked.

Mrs Corkill discharged an indignant huff. ‘I have a dinner to oversee. I hope you’ll think on my words, Miss Beaufort. A life devoted to celibacy and service might just save you from the fate that awaits young women who sell their bodies and their souls.’

Leela stood aside as Mrs Corkill strode past her. She raised her eyebrows at me as the older woman shut the door.

I released a breath and ran my hands over my face as the tension drained out of me. ‘Bloody soil smearers,’ I muttered. ‘Of course, the batty old hag is a fanatic.’

‘I could have told you that,’ Leela said, crossing the room to the armoire and sliding the drawers closed. ‘She visits the Temple of the Seven every few days.’

Fitting that she was drawn to worship a bunch of glorified service animals. I strode to my cabinet and tried the latch, relieved to find it locked.

‘Are you not a believer then, ma’am?’

I turned on Leela’s question with a snort. ‘Do I believe the fall of some god split the earth and released evil into the world? No,’ I said, waving my hands about before pulling the key for the cabinet from the chain around my neck. ‘But the world seems like it must besomeone’scruel joke, so why not Aether’s? Where were you, by the way? I never want her in her alone again.’

‘A boy told me you wanted me downstairs, ma’am, but I wound up locked in the room he led me to.’

I blinked at her as my mind turned this information over. ‘What boy?’

‘Just a hall boy.’

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