Chapter 33 – The Belly of the Beast

Wherein Valentina’s sister enters the stage, temporarily.

The buggy pulled to a halt at the bottom of three wide steps, leading up to a set of doors as wide as they were tall, made of dark oak wood and reinforced with wrought-iron. The design of the iron-work was pretty enough to distract from its function.

A liveried servant opened the door for them. "Welcome home, Young Lady Effyne."

Valentina nodded to the man. Rose followed Valentina's lead and nodded to him as well. She tried her hardest to keep her chin from dropping.

Bosra followed with a stoic expression and no signs of exertion. This was the second set of doors, not counting the stable’s, that Bosra did not have to duck her head for. 

An older man, with combed over wisps of silvery hair approached. "Welcome home, milady. We’re expecting your father within minutes. He has yet to return from the Wake." 

Valentina clenched her fingers in her skirt, finding a ribbon to fidget with. She counted on walking straight into her father’s workrooms and avoiding all the other family members until later tonight.

"Shall I have refreshments brought to your salon?" the butler asked. "Lattes and cherry pie, perhaps?"

"Will you serve us in the greenhouse, Jasper?" Valentina barely managed to keep her voice even. She never had a cup of brew in this house before. It was not a regular beverage to be served inside the Retaining Wall. Not to Lords and Ladies. Someone had spied on her and told Jasper.

"Of course, milady." Jasper bowed his head obligingly.

"And yes please." A good latte would make this day better. Especially since she had declined Rose’s disgusting concoction made with the lauded beans.  

"Come," she said tersely to her friends. "You’ll love the greenhouse."

Rose glanced askance at the older suited man still standing to the side. He seemed to be waiting for something. He kindly nodded to her when he caught her looking.

"Pupper," Bosra said curtly, drawing Rose’s attention. They hurried to catch up to Valentina.

The greenhouse was unlike any Rose had visited before. Where she was from, greenhouses lengthened the growing season. Everything from lettuce to strawberries was grown under a glass cover.

At first glance, there were no production beds at all. Instead, there were flowers and trees - trees! - in the massive glass and steel structure. The warm, moist air was heavy with the smell of green and earth.

A path curved through the carefully cultivated green, ending at a little patio in the centre where a large pond held an ornamental statue. A trickle of water dripped down the moss growing on the skirt of the statue.

"This is amazing!" Rose dipped her fingers in the water and giggled gleefully when brightly coloured fish with veil-like fins came to nibble at her fingers.

"It is," Valentina agreed. The best part being that her mother avoided this place like the plague. The dampness caused most hair-types to frizz.

She sat down at one of two stone benches, divided by a fern-leaved capital serving as a table.

Rose wandered off into the unexplored depths of the greenhouse, while Bosra sat down next to Valentina.

A maid came to serve their latte, accompanied by the promised pie. Just as efficiently as she arrived, the servant left.

Bosra looked around, liking it, but not loving it per se. She kept expecting monsters to erupt from the foliage. Her nervousness must carry over, because Tina was fidgeting with her skirt, having already destroyed one bow.

"You wanna talk?"

"Oh." Valentina stilled. She faked a smile for Bosra. "No. Not really." She avoided looking the other woman in the eyes. 

"Something’s up. What is it?"

"Did you talk to anyone about me?" Valentina clenched her hands in her lap, dreading the answer.  

"'bout What?" Bosra sometimes talked to people about her friends. There wasn't anything strange about it.

"About my beverage preferences, or... you know... personal things?"

"Why?"

Valentina looked at her hands and frowned at the destroyed ribbon.

"Why, Tina?"

"Because..." She breathed in deeply and held her breath. "Because Jasper served us brew. My family doesn't drink it. Someone... someone has been spying on me."

"You suspecting me?" Bosra wanted to know, a threat audible in her low voice.

Valentina stilled and looked at her. "No?" she squeaked. "I mean..."

Bosra stood. "It wasn't me. Also wasn't Rose. You ask this question of my Pupper, you and I are done." The half-giantess stalked off into the green, as light of foot as could ever be. 

Valentina slumped. She bit her lip, hard, forcing back tears. Of course it hadn’t been Bosra, nor Rose. It could have been anyone. It could have been Bob the Barista for all she knew.

A sob wrenched itself free from her chest and stilled against the foliage.

Venlica was doing this to her, and she would not let the witch ruin her. 

"Valentina?" a well-spoken voice said next to Rose. "I heard you'd arrived. And that you brought your servants. Did you dye your hair?"

Rose turned around and beheld a younger woman, looking remarkably like Valentina.

"Sweet Sunfather... you're... the Fairfields girl..." the disdain in that tone of voice could be felt. 

"I am," Rose said, lifting her chin and squaring her shoulders. "You must be Theodora, Valentina's sister." 

The girl, not that much younger than Rose herself, huffed indignantly and strode past. Rose followed her. For a second, she thought she saw Bosra up ahead, but then she was gone.

"Thea," Valentina greeted, veering up from her seat. "Are you done with lessons already?"

"Yes. Mother decided it was time to start showing what I’d learned in practical situations. I can clearly tell your lessons didn’t stick. Arriving with your servants?" Theodora cocked her head. Contempt dripped from her voice like poison.

"They are not servants," Valentina reiterated. "They are my friends."

"People of our standing do not have friends, Vals. We have servants, we have peers, and then there are the leeches that want something from us." 

Valentina blinked at hearing her mother so perfectly quoted by her sister. It took her a moment to formulate a response. "It makes me sad that you think that." For years she had thought the same.

Theodora ignored her, looking at the tall glasses on the table. "Ugh. Black brew. Why do you even drink it? To show how far you’ve fallen?"

"I like mine with milk. And there was no falling. There was being caught when I was adrift." By two amazing women. Whom she could not imagine her life without.  

This left Theodora dumbstruck. She regrouped quickly. "Whatever. Why are you here?"

"I'm here to see father." Valentina sat down again, smoothing out her skirt.

Rose had listened on the side-lines. She stalked off in search of Bosra, leaving Valentina to her conversation.

"Father isn't home. He stayed at the castle; King's business."

"So I was told." Not for what reason, but she should have been able to guess. Nine times out of ten, it was on King’s business.  

Theodora narrowed her eyes. "How would you know?"

"I was told," Valentina smiled gently. "Did you come here to talk about anything sensible? Or was it purely curiosity?" She heard her own prim tone and felt amused. 

"I could not believe it was true when I heard you'd brought your... friends." Thea smiled back, hers sharp as the edge of a knife. 

"Hmm." Valentina did not deem that remark worthy of a reply. She took a bite of cherry pie, appreciating the perfect balance of sour and sweet.  

"It’s been nice. See you at the party." Theodora curtsied and left.

Alone once again, Valentina sighed. Theodora was their mother's spy for certain. The girl must love the attention Venlica was now bestowing upon her. It could have been comedic, had this been a stage play.

Instead, as these toxic family patterns revealed themselves to Valentina, she was saddened. She wished she could be with her sister as she could be with her friends. She bet her sister was a funny person to be around, if the glimpses she had of the girl she was at parties – away from parental supervision – had been anything to go by.

~

Paperback and ebook editions of Three of Cups are available on Amazon.com. Contact me for private sale if you're interested in a signed copy and do not mind paying extra shipping costs.