Chapter Eleven
Erin tiptoed down the stairs toward the kitchen, smelling coffee and the aroma of frying bacon. Fritz would be there making her breakfast, and she smiled with the rosy glow of love warming her. The halls were still dark with a thick fog surrounding the castle, but he’d turned on lights below, lit a fire in the grand hall, and spread the warmth the around to make the cold castle less chilling in the early hours.
Hearing the sound of voices, his and Paulina’s, she stopped before she reached the kitchen door. They were arguing. It annoyed Erin to realize that it had been Paulina that had gone about the morning ritual of opening up the castle for the day. She’d been gone several days and had not been missed. Returned, she cast a pall around the intimately amiable feeling she n
