Had they been talking about me?

I waited, sweat beading my neck, hoping they hadn’t heard.

They started talking again, lowly, and I only caught end of summer. I quickly ran down the rest of the way, hiding under the table Grayson had sat atop the night before.

If you want to fuck a maid…

I framed my face in my hands, staring at the floor, trying to work out how so many things could’ve gone so horribly wrong in less than twenty-four hours.

I’ve only ever wanted one thing: live my life unnoticed. I was content to live here as a servant like my uncle, maybe even eventually become the headmistress. I wasn’t brazen enough to dream. I had them…everyone has dreams. I just wasn’t naïve enough to expect mine to come true.

I used to want to be a poet. I would share myself with the world like the women before me who were forced to hide under pseudonyms because their gender or race precluded them from being seen.

Now I don’t believe in fairy tales or happily ever afters.

Not anymore.

I hadn’t realized Beryl said goodbye until the door closed. I lifted my head out of my hands, finding the room empty. No sign of Grayson.

“You’re overhearing all kinds of secrets.”

I jumped, hitting my head on the underside of the table. Rubbing my head, I came out, and my mouth went dry; my brain short-circuited. Grayson wore no shirt, black sweatpants hung indecently low on his sharp hip bones, and his sneakers were untied, like he’d thrown everything on in a hurry. Morning light illumined everything that shadows had subdued the night before. Hell, everyone with access to the internet had seen Grayson Crowne shirtless, but this was the difference between seeing a marble sculpture in picture and in person.

Grayson Crowne was divine.

And he was looking at me like I was a bug stuck on his windshield.

“Come here, Snitch,” he said.

I fiddled with the material of my dress, what I’d overheard weighing on me. He was supposed to marry Charlotte, and I’d messed it up.

I’d messed everything up.

“I had no idea,” I said. “Does anyone else know about you and Miss Charlotte? You’re marrying her…”

I really had broken the one thing more valuable than anything in the world.

“I promise I’ll fix it,” was all I said.

The silence was thorny. I pulled at the black threads of my skirt, stretching until light peeked through.

“Do you think I’m going to talk to you, open up, because you weaseled your way into a secret that wasn’t meant for you?” Grayson asked. “That we somehow share something?”

“No, I just—”

Suddenly my chin was between his fingers. “First day of training. When I say come, you come.” Grayson dropped my chin. “Kneel.”

Kneel?