Page 52 of Lord of the Hollow Court
“How could you ever doubt it?”
She lowered her head, the curtain of her hair draping over her shoulder. “You’re right. I never should have. And now we’ll be together, Braam—forever.”
The coach trundled into the forest. As the wheels met dirt at the end of the drive, branches bent their yellow leaves toward it, bare ends reaching like claws and never quite grasping, unable to stop the departure of its lord.
The grounds of Hollow Hall grew silent as the mist.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Waiting for his Lordship
Eyes fluttering, Katty greeted the morning with a groan. While she slept, someone had clearly opened her skull and filled it with bricks. And her feet! What awful things had they done to her feet? She must’ve been scrubbing away at this God-forsaken court too hard again. There was a burning on one of her fingers, as if she’d gotten an abrasion.
Opening her eyes, Katty raised her hands toward her face, expecting the redness and blisters from her labors to greet her. Instead, they were soft and smooth—the hands of a lady and not a miller’s daughter. A stunningly delicate silver ring sat on her finger, warm to the touch.
“You’re awake!” Bibi chirped.
The memories filtered back slowly. Bibi and Lula slathering her with ointments and creams. Faerie seamstresses fluttering around her with measuring tape and pins in their tiny mouths. And a wedding. And a weddingceremony.And a fae one straight after that. Katty blushed instantly.
Her face was hot as a hearth as she glanced down at what she wore. A thin, silky garment topped with lace. Did the neckline have to bethatlow? She folded her arms over the blanket, pulling it higher across her chest.
Rineke lifted her head, eyes squinting.
“Heart of the forest,” Rineke murmured, wings fluttering by Katty’s aching feet, “that’s the latest I’ve slept in since I was a child.”
Body protesting with every degree she sat up, Katty raised herself upright, marveling at the fringed, velvety bed clothes hanging from the thick posts of the bed. Squinting, she could make out subtle leaves and vines carved into the wood, twisting toward the canopy.
“Whose room is this?” Katty asked, surprised by the croak in her voice. She tried to clear her throat; it was raw, as though she’d been screaming. “Is it Lord Braam’s?”
Rineke’s chuckle was low and rough. “Doesn’t look like it. Bit too frilly for his taste.”
Bibi stretched her back, yawning as though she’d just risen, too. “I’ve cleaned his lordship’s private rooms in the past. Never this room.” She shook her head. “This was her ladyship’s chambers.”
Curious, Katty went still enough to forget her many pains. “The last Lady of the Hollow Court?” Bibi nodded. “What was she like?”
“Elegant,” Bibi answered.
“Tall,” Rineke replied.
“Gold-framed,” added Bibi, eyebrow twitching.
They both burst into giggles. “We don’t know what she was like, Katrina! We’re barely older than you.” Rineke snorted loudly, causing her to laugh harder. She wiggled her eyebrows at Katty. “Maybe you should go ask your lord husband.”
With a twinge of her muscles, Katty lifted the sheet to her chin. “I got married,” she said through the sheet.
“You did!” Rineke’s voice was bright. “And I’ve got my room back!”
Katty lowered the sheet enough to scowl. “I don’t know why you like it there. Who wants to live on the parapet?”
“People with wings?” Rineke fluttered her green and black wings for emphasis, her face lit up by a mischievous grin. Bibi stretched once more, then joined them on the bed. She tapped the top of Katty’s foot.
“Aside from the revel,” Bibi began, “are you happy you’re married?”
Katty blushed harder.
“Oh,” Rineke said, beaming, “she’sveryhappy. Nice to know our lord still has it in him. Might be we’ll get an heir out of him after all!”
Katty grabbed the pillow beside her, lobbing it at Rineke despite her muscles’ protestations. “You’re awful!” Yet she felt a twitch at the corner of her mouth. From proposal to marriage to talk of a family of her own in just a few days—when had Katty ever been good enough to deserve this?
