[Isolde]
Every night for the past week, my mind replayed that moment in the conservatory. The feeling of Nikolai’s arms around me. The way his hand had moved through my hair with such careful tenderness. The sound of his voice when he’d said he was sorry and the ache in my old little heart when I believed him.
I rolled over in bed, feeling the frame beneath the thin mattress. Around me, the other maids breathed softly in their sleep.
After that night, after I’d broken down completely and cried all over his bare chest like some pathetic, wounded little girl, we’d maintained our distance. Not the hostile kind of distance we’d had before, but something else. Something more befitting of a master-servant relationship so as not to draw suspicion.
Still, I could always sense when he was near
