Cassius sat waiting while sharpening his sword in his study. He had summoned her twenty minutes ago. She had taken thirty minutes.
'Either she's careless, or she was busy thinking.'
[She's not careless.]
The door opened, and the maid stepped in. She bowed deeply, a little too deeply, like someone who had learned how a maid bows from a book.
"What took you so long?" Cassius asked, not looking up from his sword.
"Apologies, young master."
"Stand up. No need for apologies..." He let the pause stretch, watching her through the reflection of the sword. "Lisa."
Her shoulders twitched.
"Or should I say," he continued, "Lady Lyra Winter?"
She didn't gasp. She didn't drop anything. Her face simply went still, half a second later than it should have.
Then the corner of her mouth twitched, as if at a private joke.
'She's amused?'
Cassius had seen plenty of reactions to being caught. Fear. Anger. Bargaining. He knew them all but this was none of them.
"Is something funny?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I merely recalled something amusing."
"Oh?" He smiled. "I could use a good laugh."
"It's really nothing." She smiled back, which only made him more suspicious.
'Fine. Keep your secrets for now.'
"I see. Then care to enlighten me what Lady Lyra Winter is doing as my maid?"
"I don't understand what you mean, young master." Her voice was steady. Her eyes were not. They moved over his face quickly, the way a person checks a clock.
"Come now." Cassius leaned back in his chair. "Did you really think I wouldn't have my new maid investigated? The Blackwood family takes its security very seriously."
A complete lie. He hadn't investigated anyone. He had simply watched her pour tea.
[She's not buying it.]
'She doesn't have to buy it. She just has to wonder.'
"The disguise was well done, I'll admit. The brown hair, the commoner's act. You even fooled the head butler." He tilted the blade, catching her reflection in it. "Though I am curious. why become my maid of all things?"
She lowered her gaze. A second too long, he noted. People who were thinking of a lie looked away quickly. People who were choosing which truth to tell looked away slowly.
"I needed somewhere to hide," she said carefully. "As you heard at breakfast, my father arranged an engagement."
"And becoming my maid seemed the logical solution?"
"Who would look for the Winter heir serving the Blackwood family?" She met his eyes. "Our families have never been close. It's the last place anyone would expect."
"A noble becoming a maid to escape marriage." His lips curved. "How romantic. But Duke Blackwood has three sons and a daughter. Why me?"
"Andrei is too close to my father," Lyra replied. "And the twins..." Distaste crept into her voice.
It was genuine. Cassius filed that away.
"So I was simply the safest choice?"
"The most convenient," she corrected.
'Convenient.' He almost laughed. It was a good answer. It was also the first thing she'd said that didn't sit right, because when she said it, her eyes had flicked to him as though she were checking whether he'd flinch.
Why would she expect him to flinch?
He set the whetstone down. "And what do you expect me to do with this information, Lady Winter?"
"What do you mean?"
She knew exactly what he meant. He watched her hands curl into her skirts.
"I could inform your father of your whereabouts. I'm sure the Winter family would be... grateful."
"Or?"
"Or we come to an arrangement." He rested his chin on his hand. "You continue as my maid. In exchange for my silence, you tell me exactly what you're planning."
"Planning?" Her voice was perfectly neutral. "I told you, I'm hiding from my engagement."
"No. I don't think that's all." Cassius spoke softly. "You're watching me too closely, Lady Winter. Almost as if you're waiting for something."
She went still again.
[There it is.]
'I know.'
It was only for an instant, but he saw it. Not guilt, not panic. It was the look of someone who had been caught reading ahead.
"Tell me," he continued, "what's so interesting about the Blackwood family's youngest son?"
Lyra hesitated. He could almost see her discarding answers one by one, until she settled on the safest one.
"Your father mentioned your sudden progress in swordsmanship."
"Ah." He smiled. "So that's what caught your attention."
"I can't help but be interested. And your awakening was..." She paused. "Unusual."
Cassius's smile stayed exactly where it was.
Not 'impressive.' Not 'fast.' Unusual.
The duke had called it a miracle. The servants had called it genius. Everyone in the mansion had a word for what he'd done, and every word was an admiring one. Hers wasn't. It sounded like a word used by someone who knew what usual looked like.
[She said that like she has something to compare it to.]
'Yes. I heard.'
"Unusual," he repeated softly. "What an interesting choice of words."
He expected her to backpedal. Most people would have. Instead, Lyra straightened, and for the first time since she'd walked in, she looked less like a hunted noble and more like the girl who had once flicked his hand away like a speck of dirt.
'Ah. There she is.'
That same chin. That same refusal to be the one who looked away first.
"Unusual?" she said. "You mean like how you called me Lisa, when the name I put on the application was lina?"
"What?"
Cassius kept his face blank. It took everything he had.
[you shouldn't have assumed the name she put on her application was Lisa.]
She leaned forward, no longer a maid, no longer pretending to be one, and looked him dead in the eyes.
"Be honest with me," Lyra said. "You're Casian, right?"