Marissa greeted me as she quickly approached the round dining table. "Thank you, Tabitha."

I set the other teacups down. They were ivory bone china with a pretty blue decoration that matched the antique Chinese teapot. "We have..." Marissa tried to announce to the girls again, drifting off, squinting at me because she had no idea what I'd brought in to serve them.

"Earl Grey tea," I whispered.

"Earl Grey tea," Marissa repeated again, louder. She rose up on her toes, drawing her shoulders inward and clasping her hands together. "Bergamot, lovely. So delicious."

I picked up a chair, drew it out from the table, and clanked it down loudly.

Again no response.

"Take a seat everyone, or else the tea will get cold," Marissa said brightly, clapping her hands.

Rosa moved toward us. "Valarie?" she said with a squeaky voice, waving her hand, and encouraging Valarie to move away from the other girls.

Yveta and Laurena shifted, their heels clipping against the floor as they flanked Valarie. They were pincering her in like predatory animals.

Valarie took a step back, half-twisted her torso, and pointed at the door. "I-I-I sh-should g-go f-f-f—"

"I just want to have a look, Valarie," Laurena said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She pointed at the sketchbook in the other girl's hands. "I want to see what all the fuss is about. My brother couldn't stop talking about your talent. And if you showed him, surely you're fine with me having a look through your doodles."

Anger lit me up, sharp-edged and burning bright. This was what I imagined the playground of a school could be like—a clique of girls bullying one another. Except these girls had diamonds and precious gems snaked around their necks or wrists, sparkling in their earlobes, custom-designed shoes, and haute couture dresses, instead of schoolgirl uniforms.

"Do something," I whispered to Marissa.

"I don't know what to do," Marissa confessed, shooting a furtive glance at Laurena over her shoulder. "I tried earlier, but they've taken to her like wolves. Laurena doesn't like the idea at all that her brother is interested in Valarie. It was just awful before...awful." Her blue eyes flicked to Valarie. "Laurena apprehended her half an hour ago, ordering her to join us, and she's just been goading her ever since, and forcing her to talk."

Laurena's voice rang out. She spoke sweetly but there was iron threaded through her tone. "After all, Valarie, I am a Wychthorn from the Great House and nothing is denied me. So hand it over."

Valarie glanced down at the sketchbook in her hands, reluctance and apprehension scrawled across her expression.

Laurena snapped her fingers like she was ordering a dog around. "I don't have all day."

Valarie slowly raised the book.

The Wychthorn Princess made an annoyed noise at the back of her throat. "You're moving as slowly as you speak."

Valarie jolted, and yanked her hand up fast, offering her sketchbook to Laurena, who snatched it from her hands, spun around, and opened it up. She began pacing the room while flicking through the pages. Sunbeams caught her black skirt, making it shine like oil, and the ends of the bow tied at the neck of the ivory blouse fluttered as she moved.

Almost as if she were speaking to herself, Laurena said, "My brother seems to like you. I don't know why. What's so special about you, Valarie Crowther?" She glanced up from the sketchbook, idly looking Valarie up and down, staring with a thoughtful, appraising look. The pages of the book were spread open in her hand and I could see a landscape of a lake with a high cliff and a cascading waterfall churning the water below.

Laurena sighed, bored. "I have no idea what the fuss is all about." She snapped the book shut with an abrasive sound that resounded within the room. She offered the sketchbook back, and just before Valarie's fingers curled around the spine, she purposely dropped it. The book fell to the floor with a loud thud. My heart mirrored the feeling of heavily bound paper striking wood, as I looked on in a clashing mixture of alarm and fury.

"Whoops. So sorry." And this time Laurena and Yveta giggled, both holding the backs of their hands to their mouths to stifle the cruel sound.

Laurena watched with slitted eyes, tapping a black-heeled toe on the floor in an irritated rhythm. The opaque stocking running up her legs was the same color as her skirt, its hem hitting just above her knees. "I don't have all day," she purred.

Valarie bent down, scooped up her sketchbook, and straightened, cradling her book across her chest like it might shield her from Laurena's hostility if she held it tight enough. "I-I-I-I..." She stopped, bit her bottom lip, and heaved such a deep despondent sigh it hurt my very bones to hear it. She bowed her head, long locks of black hair falling over her face, partly hiding herself. She suddenly took a quick step back, twisting around to flee toward the door and leave.

Laurena tsked. "No, I don't think so."

Valarie froze. I watched her swallow and briefly close her eyes.

"Join us. I'd like to spend more time with you." Laurena tossed her hair over her shoulder, stroking her fingers through the silky locks, and toyed with the ends. "Why don't you sit down, have a cup of tea, and tell us why my brother likes you so much."

Marissa and I shared an anxious look. This wasn't going to end well, and by the desperate expression on Valarie's face, she was barely holding it together. She turned back to Laurena and tried for a bright practiced smile, but it slipped quickly from her face to see the barely masked dislike on the other girl's face.

Amber liquid streamed from the teapot's spout and the citrus scent wafted with the rising steam as I poured a cup of tea, wishing I could pour it right over Laurena's head and scald her.

Yveta took a seat, smoothing her skirt. Laurena too, and they watched, almost savoring Valarie's discomfort as she reluctantly approached the dining table in small steps.

I filled another cup and handed it to Yveta. "She's pretty enough if you like plain," Yveta said, then took a sip of tea.

"She's a Crowther. Her family are enforcers, death-dealers," Laurena replied, as she and Yveta began to discuss Valarie as if she weren't even in the room.

"Pretty much street thugs."

What is it with these girls?

"This is good," I heard Rosa mumble around a mouthful of chocolate cake she'd stuffed in her mouth. Nerves I assumed, from the way she shoved in another large bite, her eyes still wide and fearful.

"You should try a slice," Marissa said to Laurena, trying to distract her from the Crowther girl. Laurena ignored her, razor-sharp focus on Valarie as she took the only seat available, directly across from her.

I placed a cup in front of Valarie. She sat stiffly, clutching her tote bag on her lap in a death grip.

"Is that it?" Laurena asked, curiosity drawing her eyebrows closer. "Does Byron like a one-sided conversation? Are you just there for him to talk at, or do you stutter your way through a conversation?"

Humiliation crept up Valarie's neck, spreading across her cheeks to stain her complexion crimson. My teeth gritted together and the blood in my veins burned when I heard Yveta murmur, "He must have a great deal of patience."

"Oodles of patience to wait for a single sentence." Laurena stroked a hand through her hair, teasing the ends of the locks absentmindedly. I'd noticed that about her in the rare times, I'd been in her presence. She loved her hair and was always touching it.

Laurena turned back to Valarie, canting her upper body forward. "Your family is the longest living amongst us all. We've heard it all before—a family line almost as old as the Horned Gods." She leaned back and gave a mocking yawn. "In all that time, the highest your family has reached is a Lower House?"

The screws of fury and injustice tightened the breath in my chest and twisted my soul at the maliciousness of the girl who ruled over us.

I didn't know what to do. What Valarie faced was awkward and horrible, and no one deserved to have that kind of derision poured upon them.

I had to distract them.

Turn them away from her.

How on earth am I going to do that?

Laurena sat back in her chair and tapped a fingernail against the rim of the teacup. Her unwavering gaze, cold and cruel, was fixed on Valarie. "Try it for us, Valarie, please. I want you to tell me something about yourself, something interesting, something that takes longer than you saying I-I-I-I-I-I-I..."

Rage ignited like wicks of a torch dipped into fire. I simply forgot myself and did the first thing I could think of. I snatched up the porcelain teapot and threw it on the floor.

It shattered into pieces, spreading like a dumping of fresh snow, shards spinning away. Tea splashed up my legs and feet, pooled, and seeped past my comfortable shoes.

That's when I realized I'd broken a Qing dynasty teapot.

I clapped both my hands over my mouth as horror shot through me at what I'd done. Oh my gods, the Venetian vase and now the antique teapot—the debt I was running up was costing me tens of thousands of dollars!

Everyone turned my way in surprise and shock.

Wide-eyed I glanced around.

And there was one girl missing—Valarie.

She'd scarpered. Thank gods. The berating I'd get from Mr. Volkov would be worth it.

Laurena's lips curled back from her teeth, and she spoke to Marissa while giving me a cursory glance, not really seeing me at all. "Your clumsy servant just broke your teapot."

"I'm so sorry," I whispered to Marissa. I apologized a few more times, found cloths in the linen cupboard and a dustpan, cleaned the floor from tea, and swept the costly porcelain into the bucket.

While I was down on the floor on my hands and knees, someone new arrived. I glanced up at ridiculously long and slender legs, a light tawny brown to their skin tone. Irma Szarvas. She was wearing a Yves St Laurent silky dress in bright pink that fell below her knees and had a seductive slit up the side. Her beautiful chestnut hair had golden butterfly clips pulling the side locks back. I peeked up at her from the corner of my eyes, testing the difference in her features by removing my truesight. She'd used glamour on her features to fill out her lips and make her nose thinner, but she really didn't need to; she was sleek and gorgeous exactly as she was.

Irma bowed before Laurena, not even casting a glance my way.

The Szarvases were hunters for Upper House Förstner and stalked the forest for lesser creatures. I used to live with my mother and work for the Szarvas family before everything happened and I'd lost my mother and my memory. I had no recollection at all of what my time had been like working on the Szarvas estate. The next day, I'd awoken at the Deniauds' with my aunt. There'd been a flurry of questions from strangers about what had happened that fateful night out in the forest. Strangers, all of them, even my aunt. I didn't even know who she was; I'd only been told she was my mother's sister, and that she'd used to visit us every spare moment she had to herself.

Laurena smiled like a snake. "Varen's got quite the savage look going for him these days...rather alluring if I might say so." The green in Irma's hazel eyes flashed in warning. "He was paying particular attention to Rosa last night, Irma. Thought you'd like to know." She angled her head toward Rosa who froze with her mouth open wide to take another bite of cake. "What did Varen say to you, Rosa? Something about your big ass? Wanting to undress you with his teeth."

Rosa blanched.

Irma's face pinched, and she turned fierce eyes on Rosa, who shrank back in her chair with fright. "He's my fiancé," Irma gritted out.

"He's not yet," Rosa squeaked.

Varen Crowther cheating. Interesting. From what Marissa said, it kind of married up with the jerk I had pictured in my mind. A cheater. I mentally tsked him. As yet I still hadn't laid eyes on him. I was far too busy to spend my time chasing the elusive Mr. Crowther down, no matter how much he'd piqued my interest.

"I'll bring you a fresh pot of tea," I murmured to Marissa. I'd be taking my sweet time about it, though.

Marissa was trying to diffuse the taut tension between the girls by showing Yveta one of the gowns she could wear for the evening and trying to draw in Laurena as well.

I left and went to hunt down Valarie to see if she was okay.

I found her soon enough, down the hallway and around the corner. She was leaning against the wall, dragging in deep breaths, a hand on her middle and her head tipped back, looking up at the ceiling with glassy eyes. She looked utterly miserable and my heart ached to see her pain.

She slid down the wall to sit. Bent her legs and folded her arms across her knees, leaning her forehead against her forearms and hid. There were tremors that racked her shoulders, and I heard the sniffles.

I crouched down beside her. Pulling a tissue from my pocket, I offered it to her. "Are you alright?" I asked quietly. No, she wasn't, but I wasn't sure what else to say.

Her head snapped up, eyes aflame. "G-G-Get away fr-from me," she barked.

I jolted upright, unsure of what to do. She had ordered me away and had been just as nasty as Laurena about it, but I understood. Most people, feeling weak and hurt, reacted with fury. Their embarrassment at being seen as vulnerable made them lash out. The cruelty in her tone hurt, but she was one of those entitled daughters and I was nothing but a servant who had crossed the line that divided our classes. So often I'd stood on the sidelines like I had today, serving tea, silently listening while I was nothing but faded wallpaper to them. Seen but not seen.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. And then with nothing else that I could do or offer, I turned and walked away.

I heard movement behind me as if she'd risen. I was almost at the junction in the hallways when her tremulous voice called out behind me. "I-I-I-I'm s-s-s-sorry."

I turned around slowly.

Valarie was chewing on her bottom lip, her eyebrows slanted upward. Pools of silver lined her eyes. "T-That w-was rude of m-m-me."

I strode back to her. Her sketchbook had fallen to the floor, splayed open, and I bent down to pick it up, smoothing the pages, careful not to smear the charcoal sketch. "You're really talented. I can barely draw a stick figure."

She smiled, briefly, and it warmed my heart. "I-I-I..." she winced, shrinking in on herself again, and a touch of self-anger flashed over her features.

"I heard," I said, leaning in like a conspirator, sharing some things Marissa had told me over the years. "Laurena was a bedwetter. And she had braces until she got her teeth fixed."

She huffed a sad laugh, nodding. Then opened her mouth to speak, and closed it shut again, shaking her head when she failed. Her mouth became a tight, white line and her expression was crestfallen.

"Take your time," I said softly. My gaze slid over Valarie's tote bag and the paintbrushes inside. "Think of the words like a rhythm. The strokes of your paintbrush have their own rhythm, I imagine, when you paint."

She tipped her head to the side, looking at me incredulously, but it seemed to make sense to her a moment later as her gaze went inward.

"Laurena wasn't very nice," I said fiercely. "And girls like that always get their comeuppance."

Valarie glanced down at her hands as she wrung her fingers together. "N-No they d-d-don't. G-Girls like that f-f-find a way to r-rule the world."

I twirled my wooden spoon around my fingers, thinking about those dressmaker's scissors with heavy blades that could slice through anything. Right at this moment I didn't feel so bad about what I was going to do to Laurena tonight. "Sometimes girls like that lose their heads."

Valarie's eyes were intense and sharp with intelligence, and a little bit of mirth, when they shot back at me. And her cheeks rounded like apples as she smiled, really smiled. "T-that I-I-I w-wouldn't mind s-seeing."

Footsteps resounded along the hallway, drawing nearer.

Irma Szarvas appeared, concern washing through her tone. "Valarie?"

Valarie wiped the tears from her eyes. "I-I-I w-w-want my br-brother," she wailed, her bottom lip trembling as she pushed past me to Irma.

"Of course," the other girl said, ignoring me completely. "What happened?"

Irma linked her arm with Valarie and led her away. I watched them as they walked down the hallway, and just as I was about to turn away and head off up to the staff offices to confess what I'd done to Mr. Volkov, godsdammit, Valarie stopped and turned to face me. A smile broke across her face, more glorious than any sunrise.

I waited, curious, as she drew in a deep breath and said the words, "Thank you f-for what you d-did b-back there for me with Laurena."

"You are more than welcome," I replied, dipping my head.