I liked Tumblr for this. These were always the easy requests, ones that didn’t need a lot of thinking about. It was a lot like Googling, except it was a real person—me—giving the answers on the other end.

Like the anonymous woman who wanted to propose to her girlfriend who was about to turn thirty. She’d let it slip to her future mother-in-law, who wanted her to do it at the birthday party in front of everyone, but the anon knew how shy her girlfriend was and how badly she didn’t want the party in the first place, so was doing it at home on their sofa with their two dogs the right choice?

Yes, in my opinion.

A thousand times yes.

Put the ring on the dog’s collar if you wanted to make it fancy.

“Good morning, Lady Gabriella.” Arthur strolled into the kitchen, adjusting the collar of his shirt. “You’re up early today.”

“Catching up on some studying,” I replied, quickly changing to the other browser window and clicking a random menu page. “Is nobody else awake yet?”

“Just your father, milady. Would you like some tea?”

“Oh, I’m fine with my juice, thank you.”

“Your father has requested a pot in here with his morning paper, so it’s no bother.”

“Well, if you’re making some, I’d happily take a cup.”

“Of course, milady.” Arthur busied himself at the counter by boiling water on the old kettle on the stove.

I don’t know why he didn’t use the electric one. I suppose he was a little bit old school like that, and it did make better tea, somehow. Although the whistling was a bit much early in the morning…

“Good morning, Gabi.” Aunt Cat strolled into the kitchen in her cat slippers. “You’re awake early.”

“That seems to be the general feeling this morning,” I said, trying to navigate the website.

Good God, it was a mess. Where was everything? I just wanted some ideas before I got my grade for my garden design this morning. The next step was to actually create the garden, and I’d already gotten permission to create mine here on the estate like Dad had asked.

And I really needed an A.

“You look annoyed.”

“This website is from the eighteen-hundreds,” I grumbled. “I can’t find anything. How do they sell anything?”

Aunt Cat peered over my shoulder at the screen. “I don’t think they had the internet in the eighteen-hundreds, dear.”

“They didn’t. I was exaggerating.”

“It doesn’t become you.”

“Coming from you, that’s rather rich.”

“Your tea, milady.” Arthur set a cup down in front of me. “Lady Catherine, would you like a cup?”

Aunt Cat blushed. “Yes, please, Arthur. If you don’t mind.”

I side-eyed her as she took a seat. I wouldn’t embarrass her by asking her why she was blushing at the butler, but I was going to stare at her so she knew I’d seen.

She caught my eye and immediately looked away.

Did she—

Did Aunt Cat have a crush on Arthur?