He was speechless for a moment but quickly recovered by remembering what he held in his hands: a rapier.

“Are you sword trained, Miss Neven?”

I stared at the rapier he proudly held and arched my brow. “This is why you have woken me from the sleep you promised me last night?”

“I thought you would be up by now,” he replied. “There’s much to do to prepare for tonight.”

“Yes, and I will be useless to you if I’m tired,” I snapped, and then remembered myself. “Forgive me, Mr. Vesper. I’m rather grouchy until I’ve had my tea.”

He smiled. A true, brilliant smile that warmed his eyes and made my stomach coil with warning.

“As I’ve learned, Miss Neven. Here, return to bed. I’ve brought breakfast to you, as well as your own rapier.”

I stepped back and watched, utterly astounded as Phelan leaned the rapier against the door frame and reached for a tray of gleaming breakfast platters, which had been waiting in the corridor, just out of my sight.

“Will you please sit, Miss Neven,” he said, taking the first cautious step into my room. “Before I drop this?”

Wordlessly, I returned to bed, and Phelan set the breakfast tray down before me and proceeded to remove the lids, exposing a bountiful breakfast of poached eggs, buttered toast, sliced fruit, diced potatoes with herbs, and a teapot with plenty of cream and honey to suit my appetite.

“Am I to expect this every new moon morning?” I asked as he poured me a cup.

“Perhaps,” he teased. “Although the last thing I want is to reward your decadence of late morning sleep.”

I rolled my eyes and added a dash of cream to my tea. “Well, then I suppose I shall soak in this grand gesture of yours now, since it may not come again.”

“Do as you like, Miss Neven,” Phelan said, returning to the threshold, where he had left the sword. “And then once you have eaten and dressed, meet me in the library for a lesson with your new rapier.”

“I cannot wait,” I said dryly, to which he only smiled again as if exceedingly pleased with himself and shut my door.

I was halfway through breakfast when I remembered the mirror that hung on my wall, and how I had completely forgotten the threat it posed to me. Phelan obviously had not caught sight of my reflection, but it was a sobering reminder of my foolishness. How I had let his thoughtful gesture distract me.

I finished eating and dressed, and I found Phelan in the library, sitting on the edge of his desk, leafing through a book.

He closed it the moment he caught sight of me, and rose with his perfect posture, only a thread of his dark hair defiantly falling across his brow.