Clementine's Parlor of the Extraordinary and Curious by Monroe Wildrose

Author:Monroe Wildrose [Wildrose, Monroe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Teapots and Stolen Souls Publishing
Published: 2023-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

“Calliope is the Governor’s granddaughter,” I said, feeling the gnawing build of guilt in my gut. I had the bad habit of talking when I became nervous; today was no exception. “She’s often the talk of gossip through Edessa because her mother was a siren in the waters between the mainland and Fairvein. The siren fell in love with the governor’s son and didn’t kill him but kept his child. Carried her in the water and then rejected her when the babe was born looking mostly human.”

Enver kept quiet, though there was no doubt he had heard me.

“They say her loveliness knows no equal and that her singing voice is exceptional.”

Still, he hardly acknowledged me, and the gnawing turned into an ache as I chewed on the inside of my lip.

It wasn’t as if he had been particularly kind, it shouldn’t bother me that he was upset, but I couldn’t help it. Even if he had called me simple and hated the people from my home, I still didn’t want him to be upset with me.

“Have you spent much time in Sevinton before?” I asked.

Yes, that was it, a question, that way, he had to answer.

“Miss Hyllian, do you have something you wish to ask that isn’t this empty tea talk?” He looked over at me then with an eyebrow raised.

“I just….” I trailed off, mostly irritated with myself. “ I hope, though I don’t know why, it’s not as if you have earned or deserve my care, that I have not completely and thoroughly vexed you.”

“Had you any thought, Miss Hyllian, for if I have a family to return to after this journey? That I might not want to spend one more day at a frivolous party for a girl I’ve never met, but rather that I might wish to get home to them?”

“No,” I said honestly, feeling much warmer than I liked. “No, Enver, I did not consider that; I’m sorry.”

There was a long pause.

“There’s no need to be sorry; I have no family to get back to.”

My head snapped up from where it had dropped a little as I wallowed in shame.

“You–”

“I might have had a family. You didn’t know if I did or not, and you volunteered me to stay another day. What if I had children and a wife?”

“I would feel horrible for any woman who had to endure your cloudy disposition,” I grumbled, feeling foolish for how sorry I had felt.

Enver laughed.

It was a sound I thought I might never hear, and it startled me a bit as the remnant of a smile played at the corners of his eyes.

A few paces ahead of us, the governor turned around and gave me a wicked grin.

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