NATALIE POV
I did not go down for dinner.
I heard Mrs. Sarah's soft knock at the bedroom door at exactly eight o'clock. I heard her speak through the wood, gentle and patient, telling me dinner was ready. I lay on Sebastian's bed, staring at the ceiling. I said nothing until her footsteps faded back down the hallway.
I was not hungry.
That was a lie.
I was famished. I had not eaten properly since breakfast, and my stomach has been making noise since six o'clock. But going downstairs meant sitting on Sebastian's lap, and eating at that table meant being in the same room as Sebastian, and being in the same room with him meant pretending that this afternoon in the garden had not happened.
I was not ready to pretend about that yet.
So I stayed.
Sebastian's room smelled like him. I had
