Girl of Flower and Flame

Chapter Five

Thunder rumbled across the moors—a giant had made its home in the clouds. Eulalia felt it in her quivering bones.

The doorbell rang, announcing a visitor. Eulalia flinched, drawing her hand inside. The storm had begun, and someone had come to Hampstead House.

The floor outside her bedroom groaned, soon followed by Madam's cursing. "Who could that be at this ungodly hour?" She thudded down the stairs. Not too long after, the familiar noise of the front door being unlocked and opened was heard throughout the house. "Liliana," said Madam. "We weren't expecting you so soon."

Eulalia treaded to the door, pressing her whole self against it. They hardly ever had visitors. She had assumed it was someone from the orphanage come bearing more terrible news. But Liliana. That wasn't a nun's name at all.

"My, you've grown uglier in your years," Liliana said.

"Well, I—"

"Come. Come, let us go somewhere private to talk."

Another door opened as Madam took their visitor into her living room. Eulalia pushed her door open a pinch. Their voices couldn't be heard beneath the moans of the aged house. Farther down the hall, from behind the last door of the children's rooms, a set of wide, blue eyes peered out. "Harlow, come back to bed," said Lena.

Eulalia shut her door, not wanting to call attention to herself. Who could it be at this hour indeed? Madam didn't keep friends. No one ever came to Hampstead House. She paced for a while. Had more terrible news come so soon? The minutes ticked by. She figured it must have been a long-ago acquaintance. Eyes grown tired again, she crawled into bed, allowing the sound of the rain to lull her to sleep, until Madam came thudding up the stairs once more.

She hammered on Gabriel and Cosmin's door. "Get up. Get up the both of you." Then on Rowan and Fallon's door. "I've never seen such lazy children." And finally, on Harlow, Perrie, and Lena's door. "Our guest is expecting you. Don't keep her waiting. Get up."

Eulalia sat up, listening to the shuffle of feet going past her room then down the stairs. Her bedroom was the first at the stairs. She could make out the shadow of Madam's feet beneath her door. I'm coming, she thought to say, but Madam didn't give her the chance, thudding away behind the others.

Eulalia got up from her bed, changed her mind at the door, and pivoted. "I'm sure it's nothing," she said. Surely if it was Madam would have come for her too. She turned to the door again, twisted the knob and listened, waiting for Madam to yell for her.

"Is this the lot?" asked Liliana, her voice rumbling, as deep as a bottomless ocean.

"Yes, this is all of them," said Madam.

It took her a moment, but Eulalia talked herself into sneaking from her room to hide in the shadows behind the banister. The children had been lined up, smallest to biggest. The woman, Liliana, paced in front of them. She wore a deep purple cloak, longer than her tall stature, so that the edging trailed behind her like a snake made of pure velvet night.

Her hood, however, had been lowered, and there was no other way to put it that she was a beautiful woman, looking so at odds in the room she was in. If you'd plucked her out and placed her among lily flowers she'd fit in much better. All about her was light, her hair and her eyes the same fair as a lake frozen twice over.

Except for her mouth, pink as a rose bush.

Eulalia felt a rush of embarrassment for Madam, that the wallpaper had started to peel and had needed replacing long ago, and that the floorboards whined too much each time Liliana took a step.

"They're all so young," she said, stopping in front of Lena, who had her head bowed, ankles crossed, and hands knitted behind her back.

"I know," said Madam. "It was the best we could do."