She smiled a little, her right cheek quirking. “Do you know we’ve been going on dates for over a year? Our parents, or some proxy, is always there. It’s like we’re still in the Victorian era. We had scheduled one night alone but…” She looked away and sniffed. “Something got in the way.”

Me.

I got in the way.

This was weird. I was talking to Lottie as if I only cleaned Grayson’s bed, but I slept next to it. Only before this party, he’d touched me…really touched me.

But it was just to humiliate me.

This morning, though, when he’d seen me naked, for a moment his stony blue gaze was possessive and filled with fire.

But no…it was just to humiliate.

All this was nothing. It all meant nothing.

“You ever notice how often he has suckers in his mouth?” I said, swallowing. “He has a sweet tooth.”

Her eyes bugged. “He does?”

I thought she was upset that I knew so much, so I said, “It’s my job. I’m practically a Crowne encyclopedia.”

It wasn’t a total lie.

“When we were kids, I used to give him my suckers. He always had to work when everyone else was playing. I didn’t think that was fair.”

I couldn’t look away from Lottie, as the realization swamped me. The suckers Grayson chewed at daily, the drawer he kept. She had no idea the extent of his love for her, did she?

Her eyes lifted over my shoulder at the moment Grayson’s voice echoed over it. “Lottie, I’ve been looking for you.”

“I was talking to your maid,” she said.

“My maid?” He echoed my lie with the same suspicious lilt Lottie had had. We hadn’t exactly gone over my cover story. “I hope she wasn’t bothering you.”

“Not at all.”

I was literally stuck between them, but again, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t step aside.

“I’d like to show you something,” Grayson said.

I watched them walk away, a tug in my gut. Grayson is meant for someone like Charlotte, someone with money, someone happy and light. Not someone darkened by the past, by baggage.

My stomach rumbled again, and I turned to finally go get a real meal when I was stopped by Ellie. She held a plate of food, and gestured for me to take it.

I stifled a laugh. “Ellie, have you lost your mind? I can’t eat up here.”

“This isn’t from me.” She looked around, looking more freaked out than me.

“What—”

“Just eat it.” She shoved the plate hard at me and I took the white and gold leaf porcelain just so it didn’t drop to the floor.

“You should leave,” she continued. “Don’t hang out around the servant areas for a while. Stop asking us questions. Everyone is starting to think you broke the code.”