Chapter 132: The Scent

When I arrived at the palace that morning, Hex was standing over a long table in the east drawing room, covered in little paper cards.

"Ko~ha~ku!"

She dropped the cards she was holding and threw her good arm around my neck. She hugged me so tightly that my feet came off the floor.

"There’s my favorite fox! You’re just in time!"

"H-Hex! Good morning! In time for what!?"

"The seating chart!" She set me down and swept her hand over the table. "Every noble house in the kingdom will be at the Winter Ball. That’s two hundred and forty guests. Every single one of them needs a seat, and every single one of them thinks they deserve a better one."

She was beaming. She looked happier than I’d ever seen her.

In other words, Hex had spent months arranging this engagement, and now she got to plan the party for it.

Dame Brask sat at the far end of the table with a quill and a ledger. Across from her, in a chair by the window, sat Serena.

Serena was glaring at me.

It wasn’t her usual glare. Her arms were folded. Her red eyes were narrowed into slits. She was staring straight at me without blinking.

[What did I do!?]

Then I remembered, of course. I’d hooked her ankle in the middle of a dance lesson in front of the entire court.

[Right. That. She’s still mad about that.]

That was a perfectly reasonable thing to be mad about. I gave her a small, apologetic smile.

Her glare got worse.

"Now then!" Hex pulled out a chair and pushed me into it. "You’re Serena’s attendant, so you’re on the committee. Help me with table six. Brask and I have been stuck on it for an hour."

I looked down at the cards. Then I froze.

Duke Hollenmark. Countess Pellacourt.

For once, a bit of trivia about my own story went through my mind. Mainly because I’d giggled when I wrote this.

"You can’t seat them together!" I said.

Dame Brask looked up from her ledger.

"And why not?"

"Because the Countess’s brother challenged the Duke to a duel twenty years ago, and the Duke never showed up! She’s hated him ever since! If they sit at the same table, she’ll throw her wine at him before the second course!"

The room went quiet.

Dame Brask narrowed her eyes.

"How do you know that?"

"...Palace gossip!"

Hex clapped her hands.

"Brilliant! I knew you’d be useful! Move the Countess to table nine."

"Not table nine!" I grabbed the card out of her hand. "Marquess Dorrow is at table nine! He owes her family money!"

"Table eleven, then."

"Table eleven has Baron Kell! He proposed to her three times!"

Hex threw her head back and laughed.

"You’re wonderful! Where on earth did you learn all this?"

I did not say.

---

For the next hour, I argued with Dame Brask over every table in the room. Dame Brask insisted that the Duke of Rennet outranked the Earl of Saltmoor, so he deserved the seat closer to the throne. I insisted the Duke of Rennet would get drunk and challenge the Earl to an arm-wrestling match. Hex kept handing me more cards. Each time I solved a table, she patted my head.

Every time she patted me, I could feel Serena’s eyes drilling into the side of my face.

I glanced over at her once. Her glare had gotten even worse. Her fingers were digging into her own arms.

I turned back to the table and tried to look as useful as possible. If I did a good job on the seating chart, maybe she’d forgive me.

Finally, Hex stacked up the last of the cards and sighed happily.

"Perfect! All two hundred and forty!" She slung her arm around my shoulders and squeezed. "I don’t know what I’d do without you, Kohaku. Pup, you’ve got the best attendant in the whole palace."

Serena didn’t answer.

Dame Brask gathered up her ledger. Hex kissed me on the top of my head, waved goodbye, and headed out the door after her.

I stood up to follow them.

"Kohaku."

I stopped.

Serena had risen from her chair by the window. She smoothed out her skirt with both hands. Then she smiled at me.

It was a perfect smile. It was polite, gentle, and completely calm. It was the same smile she’d used on the noble girls after the closing ceremony.

That was how I knew I was in trouble.

"Please stay a moment," she said sweetly. "You and I need to talk about a few things."

The door clicked shut behind Hex.

[I’m going to die!!!]

Serena walked across the drawing room and stopped right in front of me. She was still smiling.

"You slept with my sister."

"What!? No! Of course not! Ha ha! Who’s Hex?"

[Who’s Hex!? Who’s HEX!? You just spent an hour planning a seating chart with her!]

Serena’s smile didn’t move.

"You smelled like her in the library tea room," she said. "You smelled like her in the fitting room. You smell like her right now."

My ears went flat against my head.

Serena’s nose. I’d forgotten about her nose.

"That’s... that’s because she hugs me a lot!" I said. "She’s a very huggy person! Her perfume rubs off! It’s a very strong perfume!"

"It isn’t her perfume."

"It’s a different perfume!"

"Kohaku."

"I’ve never even been in her room! I don’t even know which floor it’s on! It’s not the third floor at the end of the hall, with the blue curtains and the really big bed! I’ve definitely never seen that!"

I clapped both hands over my mouth.

[WHY DID I SAY THAT!!!]

Serena stared at me for a very long time.

In other words, I had just described Hex’s bedroom in detail to her little sister.

"I see," Serena said quietly.

Her smile was gone now. Her arms were folded again. She turned away from me and looked out the window.

"It doesn’t matter," she said. "I don’t care who you sleep with."

"Y-you don’t?"

"Of course not. Why would I care?"

"Then... why did you ask?"

"Because she’s my sister." Serena’s jaw tightened. "It’s disgusting. That’s all."

"Okay! That’s fair!"

"That’s all it is."

"I believe you!"

"Good."

There was a long silence. Serena’s fingers were digging into her sleeves again, the same way they had during the seating chart.

I looked at her stiff shoulders. I looked at her fingers. I thought about how her glare had gotten worse every single time Hex touched me.

Then it hit me.

In other words, Serena was jealous.

[Jealous of who, though!? Jealous because Hex touched me? Or jealous because I touched Hex? Is she protecting her sister from me, or me from her sister!?]

I had no idea. I’d written this woman, and I still had no idea.

"Serena..." I took a careful step toward her. "Are you... upset? About me and Hex? Because if you are, you can tell me. I won’t laugh or anything."

"I’m not upset."

"You look a little upset."

"I’m not upset, Kohaku!" She spun around. Her face had gone red. "Why would I be upset!? You’re my attendant! What you do with your nights is none of my business! What my sister does with her nights is none of my business! None of this is anyone’s business!"

"Then why are you yelling!?"

"I’m not yelling!"

"You’re definitely yelling!"

"Because you won’t stop talking!"

"Because you won’t tell me what’s wrong!"

"Nothing is wrong!"

"Then why did you make me stay behind!?"

Serena opened her mouth. Then she closed it again.

She couldn’t answer that. She couldn’t say she cared who I slept with, and she couldn’t say why she’d dragged me in here if she didn’t. So she just stood there, glaring at me, while her face got redder and redder.

Then, all at once, the anger went out of her.

Serena turned back to the window. Her shoulders dropped. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet. She didn’t look at me.

"Hex hasn’t been this happy in years."

I stopped.

"She’s looked after me my whole life," Serena said. "Every time I got into trouble, she was the one who fixed it. She’s never once asked me for anything. Then she nearly died in that royal box." Her fingers loosened on her sleeves. "Now she’s running around the palace planning seating charts. She’s laughing. She’s hugging people." Her mouth twisted. "Even you."

"Serena..."

"I’m going through with the engagement."

Her voice was completely steady.

"I’ll marry Aldric at the Winter Ball. I’ll smile at the court, and I’ll sit where Hex tells me to sit. She’s earned that much." Serena lifted her chin, still staring out the window. "This is for my sister. That’s all there is to it."

She walked past me to the door without another word.

I stood alone in the drawing room, staring after her.

In other words, the engagement wasn’t something being forced on Serena anymore. She’d chosen it. She’d chosen it for Hex.

Even if I broke it, I’d be breaking it for both of them.