“I think they used fake lemon,” Lottie said, voice still shaken. “Gray?” She looked at him, eyes wide. Hurt. “You didn’t know I’m allergic, right?”
“You’re allergic to lemon,” Gray repeated, but the venom icing his tongue was meant for me.
Fuck.
Nine
STORY
* * *
“I didn’t know,” I said for what must have been the umpteenth time. “I really didn’t know.”
Anger rolled off Gray and turned into terror inside me.
I’d followed his silent fury until we were just inside the gardens. He didn’t say a word after Lottie rushed off with her friends. The sprawling maze flanked us on both sides. The party had ended early due to the fire, and it was eerily silent, only the smell of wet smoke mingling in the dark.
“I promise,” I said. “I was told she loves lemon cakes.”
I’d paid nearly two weeks’ wages for that information. What the hell was that girl thinking? How could she not know her own employer’s allergy? Unless…was it on purpose?
Gray pounded down the cobblestone, and I jogged to keep up. Beside us a pond that stretched over a mile glittered black in the night. Tansy Crowne fancied herself Marie Antoinette—no, that wasn’t right. Tansy Crowne would be insulted at that comparison. Versailles was a parking lot compared to Tansy Crowne’s garden.
Gray took a harsh right into a path of thick, silky flowers. I stopped. You don’t walk into Tansy Crowne’s garden, not unless there is a clear footpath.
Grayson grabbed my wrist, yanking my body to his. His hair had fallen wild over his eyes, but they shined through. Burning.
“Where are you taking me?”
A salt breeze blew and petals floated down, around and between us.
“Lesson number two in training,” he growled. “Follow your fucking master.”
Gray was walking so fast I had to jog to keep up with him, but I also tried to soak in as much as I could. This floral tunnel wasn’t known to servants. We shared all the secrets we found.
And it was beautiful.
Flowers surrounded us on all sides. The smell of smoke from the maze was strong, mixing with the heady scent of roses and lily and orchid. In autumn the flowers above us would fall and their leaves would change to brilliant ambers.
My foot caught and I jerked, lurching forward, the ground rushing to me. I threw my hands out to brace my fall, but seconds before impact, I was yanked back up with twice as much force.
Grayson held me by the collar, lips twisted in annoyance.
“Thank—you!” I finished on a yelp as Gray tugged me by the collar down the flower tunnel, all but dragging me on my heels. I still didn’t know where we were going. Part of me wondered if he was going to murder me.
Then we stopped.
I rubbed my neck, staring at…a shack? It looked like an old gardener’s shack.
I eyed Grayson, wondering if he really was going to murder me.
“What are—” I broke off, stopping myself from asking, What are you going to do to me? Because how many times in the past twenty-four hours had I wondered what this boy was going to do to me, let alone asked? I stared at this shack, determination steeling my spine.
“I don’t care. Make me kneel. Make me tie your shoes. You can’t hurt me.” I swallowed. “I know my place.”
Intrigue flickered in his eyes; then he smiled.
He pushed the door open.