Avaritia: A Monster Romance (Shades of Sin Book 4) by Colette Rhodes

Author:Colette Rhodes [Rhodes, Colette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

“Hey,” I said, pulling Aderith aside after breakfast. “Could I have some cleaning supplies?”

She looked ready to pass out on the spot, which was an even more dramatic response than Wilder’s look of horror in the kitchen yesterday.

“I just thought I’d spruce up the library a little. It’s such a nice spot, and even though I can’t read any of the books, I’ve been enjoying looking at the illustrations—”

“I will clean it, Your Grace,” Aderith said hurriedly, fidgeting uncomfortably. “That is my role.”

“No, please, I really want something to occupy my time,” I insisted.

She fidgeted again. “Well, okay. If you’re certain.”

“I am.”

“The only reason I haven’t maintained it is that His Grace closed up most of the rooms to reduce my workload.”

“Of course, that makes total sense,” I reassured her, not wanting to think I was criticizing her. “And it also makes sense that if I’m the one opening those rooms up, then I should be the one to take care of them. Deal?”

I smiled, but it didn’t seem to ease her mind any. Theon walked past at that moment, heading down to his basement man cave to do… whatever he did all day.

“Honeycakes,” I called out sweetly, reveling in his sigh of irritation. “Would you mind terribly if I cleaned the library?”

He shot me a disgruntled look, probably at the term of endearment, already slinking down the stairs. “No.”

“Well, there we go. It’s settled.”

Aderith still looked vaguely disgruntled as she led me to a cleaning closet, and I grabbed whatever was within reach before scurrying upstairs to the library, not wanting to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was. Clearly, I was disrupting the order of things here, and I felt pretty bad about that.

But I also had a short attention span and as soon as I was absorbed in my task, I forgot about Aderith entirely. The leather-bound books on the shelves were caked in dust, and I’d wrapped a scarf around the lower half of my face to minimize how much of it I inhaled, but it was totally worth it because the job of cleaning them was incredibly rewarding. Beneath the years of neglect were beautifully engraved covers, some shimmering with silver foil, and I carefully rubbed at the surfaces with a dry cloth, getting into all the crevices until they came up looking shiny and new. Well, maybe not new. Maybe just less ancient.

There were hundreds of books in this library at least, and it was probably going to take me several years to get through the entire room. But what else did I have going on? Maybe getting this manor back to its former grandeur would be my newfound purpose.

Besides, there was something kind of symbolic in it. The manor was interesting and grand and beautiful, but it had been neglected and shut away for a long time. Much like its owner.

Okay, maybe I was romanticizing Theon a little too much. At least some of his neglect seemed to be self-inflicted.

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