~ Amara ~
“I thought you were in the city,” I said, my voice barely a whisper as I nearly collided with Maribel in the upstairs hallway.
The head housekeeper didn’t flinch. She adjusted the heavy stack of folded linens in her arms, her gaze sweeping over my shoulder toward the library door I had just exited. Her expression was the same one she had worn since the day I arrived—a mask of professional indifference that made me feel like an uninvited guest in my own home.
“Mr. Moore requested the guest wing be prepared for his mother’s visit next week,” Maribel replied. She didn’t move to let me pass. “I assumed you were occupied with your... hobbies, Mrs. Moore.”
The way she said hobbies made it sound like a dirty word. She knew I spent my afternoons tucked away in the library, trying to
