“Why didn’t her maidservant do it?”

“Many of the servants, including her servant Breta, came down with the plague. There were only a few of us healthy enough to do anything. It was a way I could serve my mother. By braiding her hair every morning.”

A lump formed in Selene’s throat. What had Damien’s mother been like that would compel such a loving gesture from her son? Part of her wished she could have known his family.

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of his fingers as he tugged and pulled the strands together. There was something intimate about having her husband do her hair, and it sent another flutter through her heart.

“There,” he said a minute later. “Do you have a ribbon to tie it off?”

Selene handed him the thin black piece of satin, then glanced at one of the windows at her reflection. It was a simple hairdo, but she felt like a queen. “Thank you,” she said, her voice full of emotion.

He stepped up behind her and breathed in her scent. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.”

Heat flooded her entire body.

There was a knock at their door. Selene brushed her cheek to stifle her fluster. Damien answered it, then looked back. “A servant has brought us food. Would you like to eat now?”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Yes.”

The lighthearted feelings from minutes ago vanished when they entered the common room and she spotted Taegis and Karl dressed in black with somber faces, reminding her that grief still hung over the palace. The solemn mood seemed to have seeped back into Damien as he took two cups of tea and handed one to Selene. Four brown eggs rested in four eggcups and small rolls filled with dried fruit and nuts sat on a nearby plate.

Hardly anyone ate or drank. The egg was difficult to swallow, and the tea tasted bland and tepid. Damien stood shortly after and announced that he was leaving to spend time with House Luceras.

Selene sensed it again—that shroud across Damien’s psyche, similar to the shroud that covered the palace. She frowned as she watched him leave. She still had yet to discover what the shadow was that lay across his soul.

Taegis went with him, and Karl stood guard at the door out in the hallway, leaving Selene all alone. Morning passed to afternoon. The silence filled her, opening doors inside her mind she wished would stay locked. Memories and dreams came flooding back. How was little Ophie doing? She would be five springs soon, and for the first time Selene would not be there to give her little sister a violet from the garden. How were the others? Was Hagatha still alive? Was Petur preparing the castle gardens? Was Renata—

Selene swallowed and blinked back the sudden rush of tears, the first stirring of sadness inside her heart. She dropped her head and studied her fingers. Was Renata still alive? Or had her mother done away with the young servant girl after she left?