Hand of the Goddess ✔️

Chapter 13: A Deal with the Butler

His pants?

Why did it suddenly feel very wrong to be wearing trousers? The fabric seemed to cling to her legs, trying to sink beneath her skin. Own her? As if he could be any ruder!

Aaron sits at the teacher's desk, head between his hands. The butler seemed to have no intention of teaching her how to be a lady. He was glued to the chair, already exhausted by the events of the day.

Nicole, pitying the butler, sits down in her chair and begins to copy the Latin roots off of the board. She needed something to take her mind off of what the Lord had just told her. She does her best to make out the letters in the words between the bullet holes, concentrating on the blackboard. When she finishes, she walks up to Aaron, handing him the paper.

"You're still here?" he asks, his head remaining in his hands.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You seemed hell bent on being unladylike," he said, referring to her conversation with the Lord.

She shakes her head. "He just gets on my nerves. Trust me, I want to be a lady."

He looks at her skeptically. "I don't think that's what you really want. Besides, you should be home at any moment with my blood on Lillian's dagger. These lessons won't matter then."

She places the blade on the table next to her paper. "I think all you need to do is help me trace the right pattern to get home."

"That's not how it works."

She glares at him. "How would you know?"

"Because before Cedric, I served Lillian. I know what her daggers can do."

"Then is there any way to fix this?" she asks.

"I'm not sure. I was her Hand before she fell. Maybe her magic just doesn't work anymore."

"No, it definitely does," she said. "She was able to send me here." She pauses. "You were her Hand?"

"It's a long story." His eyes grow foggy, remnants of the past clouding his mind.

"I'd rather hear that than sit for another useless lesson," she said.

"It's not very interesting. You're a Hand, too. It's much more exciting to experience it than hear about it." He said this halfheartedly, a feeble attempt to dodge the conversation.

"Try me," she counters, unwilling to back down.

"Do you even know what it means to be a Hand?" He raises his head, meeting her eyes.

She falls silent, unable to continue her line of questioning. "I ... it was just a deal. I scratch her back and she scratches mine."

"Of course she'd say it like that. But your bond to her is a lot more than that."

She thinks back to that dream with Lillian, remembering all the touching and kissing. Aaron couldn't possibly be referring to that, right? There was no way he could've known, unless...

Unless she had done the same thing to him.

Nicole opens her mouth to ask the butler about his relationship with Lillian, but the words wouldn't come out. How was she supposed to ask that kind of question?

"Look, let's just try what you suggested," the butler said.

"Huh?" His words break her away from her musings.

"Did you forget already? You asked me to help you trace the patterns with the dagger that will allow you to return home."

"Right." She picks up the dagger. "Tell me what I'm supposed to do."