I sigh. “Celia will be gone in the morning.”

“Good. She’s a viper and I don’t like her one bit,” Aaliya declares.

“About Celia and my history...” I start to say, but Aaliya cuts me off.

She raises herself on an elbow and looks down into my face. “Do you feel anything for her now?”

“God! No! It was over a long time ago.”

Aaliya slumps back on the bed and drags our joined hands to her chest. “Then I don’t want to know anything. If Celia is an example of the people you were living around, I can understand why you chose to disappear.”

I don’t reply because this is exactly what I’d been thinking of a few minutes ago. “Aaliya, you need to know about what had happened between Celia and me so Celia can never wield it as a weapon against you.”

And so, I tell Aaliya everything.

“Nasty woman. I don’t want to talk about her anymore,” she huffs out, once I’m done recounting my sordid past with Celia.

She turns to me. “I didn’t ask earlier, but why were you disturbed when you entered the music room? When you touched that violin, something came over you.”

I shift to look at her. I was certain she would have figured something had bothered me about the music room and the subsequent interaction with Gellar and Mrs. Wells regarding the violin. But I didn’t expect her to bring that up right now.

When I keep silent, she twists to her side. “Will you tell me, please?”

I raise a brow. “You don’t give up, do you?”

She chuckles. “Never!”

I pull her towards me and tuck her in the crook of my shoulder. “David used to play the piano and me, the violin. When I was sixteen, the Queen was invited to spend a few days at Heaven’s Gate for a hunting party during summer.”

“The Q...Queen?” Aaliya gulps, raising her herself on her elbow to stare at me in awe. “You mean the Queen of England?”

I laugh at her shocked expression before dragging her back into my arms. “Of course, it’s the Queen of England. Though if I remember correctly, the Queen of Sweden has also visited here.”

Her hand flies to her mouth. “How is talking like this so normal for you?”