“Only if you'll bring Serena to keep me company.”
He grins at me. “A woman does need a break from her intended once in a while.”
She laughs. “I'll be sure to give him word.”
We're shown out and Zade escorts me to the carriage.
“You two seemed to get along.”
“Better than expected. She has Katherine's information, though only time will tell if she makes use of it.”
“Good to hear. I had high hopes for them. Let's end the day on that note.” He scans the area around us.
I look around, but see nothing. “What are you looking for?”
“Someone followed us here.” His jaw tightens.
After a second look, I still see nothing. “Trouble?”
“Nothing new.”
But from the set of his jaw, I can tell it is serious. He hurries me into the carriage and gives directions to the driver to head home. My gut twists. I think someone just tried to kill him. Again.
Chapter Thirty
The last chair is set in place. I survey Zade's room. A few servants are putting the remaining pieces of the desk together. The woodworker did a good job adjusting things to the proper size. Or at least it looks that way. It will be hard to know until he uses it. As long as everything is big enough, it's perfect, and the project somewhat helped to distract me from the fact that someone is trying to kill him.
All his chairs have been replaced with larger ones, except for one, which is left for a guest. The bed matches my new one perfectly, except mine has a canopy with a soft indigo cloth draped across it, an idea I borrowed from Julia's room. The size of the bed is too much, but something about the folds of cloth around me is comforting. Cynthia and I couldn't see Zade wanting the canopy, so his is plain.
The new desk will be left by the old one when it's assembled. There are so many papers, we didn't want to move any of them. The woodworker said if it works, it would be easy enough to make a second for his study. I rest in an over-sized chair, Cynthia across from me in the regular sized one.
“You did a good job. Thank you,” I say.
“Do you think Chancellor Zade will like it?”
I shrug. Maybe? It's hard to know, but I like it. I hope he does, as well. If it helps him feel more comfortable, it will have been worth the work. I want him to be comfortable. And safe, but I can't do anything about the latter. “We'll see.”
“If he doesn't like it, he can donate his bed to me and we'll get another canopy. Yours is fantastic.”
“It's big enough, I could probably go back to sharing it with you and our sisters and not even notice.”
She giggles. “It is most likely. Perhaps we should go to dinner.”
“What we should have done was think ahead and had it brought to us. I'm exhausted.”
Me, too, but hopefully it is worth it. “If the Chancellor doesn't like the furniture, we'll tell them to put it in another room up here so the servants don't have to keep moving everything.”
“We could ask them to bring dinner up, I suppose.”
“After all that, I'm not really hungry.”
BAM!
I twist toward the noise. In the open door way, Zade's a tower of rage. I freeze in place. Cynthia cowers in her chair.
“Get out!” he yells.
I can't move. The remaining servants scamper away. He pounds into the room. Black spells fly from him darting through the room. One zips close to me. I jolt back in my chair. After it whizzes past, I spring from my chair and hover in front of Cynthia.
“What are you doing in here?” He thunders closer, dark spells stained with red darting around him.
I flinch. He stops, smashing his palms across his face. The spells finish rushing around the room, rebounding to him. Some of the tension seeps out of him, his shoulders slumping. My own pose doesn't relax. I realize I'm shaking.
“Sorry for losing my temper.” His face tightens and he closes his eyes for a moment. After several deep breaths he opens them again and his face eases. “The council meeting didn't go as planned and I've been worried about—” He sighs. “Never mind. It doesn't matter. I still shouldn't have lost my temper.”
He collapses onto the chair I vacated, face drawn except his lower lip which is pushed up. With a more subdued voice, he says, “What's going on?”
Still uncertain, I stand at attention making sure I'm blocking Cynthia from view as well as I can without looking at her. “It's my fault. I thought you could use some furniture that fit you better.”
His gaze roves around before glancing at the chair he occupies. “I didn't realize...” With another glance at me, he hunches in the chair and his voice softens further. “I'm not going to hurt either of you.”
I stare at him, knowing there's going to be more.
“Sometimes I lose my temper and yell more than I should, but I'll never purposely hurt you. I won't break that promise.”
It's true, he hasn't yet, but those spells were dark and flying fast. I struggle to normalize my breathing. Cynthia nudges my leg. I glance back at her.