Alexia's nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protec...
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Twenty
Wilhamshire
When Alexia arrived at breakfast, an unusual amount of activity startled her—servants scurrying this way and that, the door hanging open as they entered to consult Sarah, who stood at the head of the table. Her parents sat over their morning meals, Father's jaw flexing and loosening, Mother fidgeting with a napkin.
"What is happening here?" Alexia asked.
Father rose. "You are going on holiday."
"What?"
He settled Alexia into a chair as Mother stood, folded her napkin, and exited, meal barely touched.
"Eat," Father commanded.
A platter landed before her and Alexia hovered over it, eyeing him.
He rubbed his hands together. "Sarah departs to visit a friend in Bath today, and"—he groaned—"I have decided it best that she not go alone."
"You are sending me away?"
"No, Alexia. I am sending you with her."
"You are doing this because of what happened last night."
Sarah dismissed a final servant and took a seat at her niece's side. "So did we sort out where you ran off to?"
Alexia cleared her throat.
"Come now, Sarah. Let her eat." Father frowned, his cheek twitching.
"Oh, Lexy, I can hardly wait." Her aunt clapped and dug into her meal. Father glared at Sarah the rest of the meal.
Breakfast ended. The servants goaded her into warm wear and shoved them out the door. The dreary day greeted Alexia as she climbed into the enclosed buggy and waved a farewell to her parents.
A new thought hit her. "Sarah, might we away to Wilhamshire rather than Bath?"
"Wilhamshire?" Her aunt's brow quirked. "Why ever would you want to go there?"
"You have a home in Wilhamshire that I have never seen."
"Hm." Sarah's head tilted. "Neither have I." She nodded. "Very well then." Sarah knocked on the side of the carriage and stuck her head out to issue the new instructions.
Alexia heaved a deep breath and stilled herself against the rising terror. Surely she was mistaken about what had happened in the woods. The blue-eyed stranger did not really attempt to kill her, did he?
It was time she found her answers.
***
Wilhamshire.
Alexia swallowed her anxiety as she entered Sarah's country home, an estate of beautiful blooming gardens and creeping vines, none too small, and none too large. Her room warmed delightfully under a wall of windows and cheerfully painted vases, modern and elegant. She couldn't sense the distant Northbend while stationed a half day's ride away.
