Chapter 10
Ten
Three days later
“Miss Merriweather, wait up!”
Slowing her pace, Annaliese turned and discovered Phoebe and Coraline hurrying down a hallway that was lined with gleaming suits of armor, their arms ladened with books, and hopefully ladened because they’d decided to open those books and read them, which might have them improving their table etiquette, something that seemed to be giving a lot of students a difficult time of late.
“Would it be alright if Coraline and I spend our free period before lunch with you?” Phoebe asked once the girls reached her.
“Don’t you usually spend your free period in the library with the rest of your friends?”
“We don’t have any other friends,” Coraline muttered.
“You have scads of other friends,” Annaliese argued.
Coraline gave a roll of her eyes. “Not since Norma Jean told everyone that Phoebe and I ratted out her and Velma about their disappearing act at the fair.”
“I didn’t even do any ratting,” Phoebe added.
“But Norma Jean’s miffed that I want to match you up with Seth, something she definitely doesn’t want to see happen since she’s miffed with you as well.
That’s why she went ahead and told everyone we were rats and breakers of lady codes, even though I’m only guilty of being a romantic at heart. ”
It was rather difficult for Annaliese to suppress a grin.
“Would you like me to speak to Norma Jean for the two of you?” she asked.
Clear horror flickered through the girls’ eyes as they began shaking their heads.
“That would only prove to Norma Jean that we are rats,” Coraline said.
“We think our best strategy is to simply lay low for a while, but . . . speaking of strategies.” She exchanged a smile with Phoebe before returning her attention to Annaliese.
“We could use the free period to go over some basic strategies with you, such as how you could best attract Seth’s attention. ”
“We’re thinking you should start wearing some of those gowns you have in your wardrobe that you got from Worth,” Phoebe said.
“How do you know I have gowns from Worth?”
Coraline’s cheeks turned a little pink. “I saw them the other day after I came to say my goodbyes to Rhenick and Drusilla and wandered past your room. Your lady’s maid was putting some of your clothes away.
” Coraline smiled. “It would have been next to impossible to ignore the sight of those divine-looking gowns.”
“Of course it would have been, and I hope you don’t think I’m under the impression you were snooping,” Annaliese said.
“However, even though I own some lovely gowns, I’m not going to take to wearing them around the academy.
I doubt any of the students would take my role as co-headmistress seriously if I look as if I’m heading to a ball. ”
“A fair point,” Coraline admitted before she brightened.
“But perhaps, when classes aren’t in session, you could have Miss Livingston, our other co-headmistress, try on some of your clothes because that would improve her appearance tremendously, and then we could try to get her matched up with a gentleman as well. ”
“I’m perfectly fine embracing my role of spinster, thank you very much,” Seraphina said, rounding a corner and leaving Coraline jumping ever so slightly as her cheeks turned pinker than ever.
“Miss Livingston,” Coraline murmured as she took to waving a hand in front of her flushed face.
“You sure are light on your feet. But to return to the topic of spinsterhood, while I’m sure it can be considered a noble pursuit for some, I’m not sure it’s a requirement for spinsters to adopt such a, well, terrifying appearance.
” She winced. “I’m not sure you noticed this the other day, but poor little Bobby Glessner, who thought it would be a real treat to accompany his mother when she came to fetch Mabel from school, took one look at you and fled back to his mother’s carriage.
” Coraline gave a sad shake of her head.
“Bobby now refuses to come with his mother to the academy, and he’s been having nightmares about a woman who has bumps on her face. ”
Seraphina grinned, leaving one of the moles she’d attached to the side of her mouth wobbling ever so slightly.
“To point out the obvious, if I’m capable of causing a boy to flee from me, I don’t stand a chance with gentlemen, so you’ll have to reconcile yourself with the fact that any matchmaking attempts would be wasted on me.
With that now firmly out of the way . . .
” She nodded to Annaliese. “I’ve just been informed by Mr. Grimsby that we have a caller—one Mr. Seth McCormick, to be exact, who’s waiting for us in the receiving room. ”
It wasn’t exactly a surprise when Phoebe and Coraline began looking smug, with Coraline then adding a bit about how Mrs. McCormick had been right and that Seth was becoming downright enthralled with Annaliese.
She then muttered something about that enthrallment increasing after Annaliese had shown him her bug collection, at which point the two girls burst into a fit of the giggles and all but skipped down the hallway.
“I see they’re still plotting,” Seraphina said as she began walking with Annaliese down the hallway, both of them having to squint because the sun was now beaming directly onto the gleaming suits of armor. “But what was all that about showing Seth your bug collection?”
“Nothing even remotely romance worthy, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Annaliese said, pausing for just a second to wipe a smudge off one of the suits with the cuff of her sleeve.
“Seth simply came with me when I went off to find Pippin the other day, and then after we found my little darling, I took a few moments to show him my insects and spiders.”
“And his mother thinks he’s become enthralled with you because of those insects?”
“Louisa seems determined to see romance where none exists. As proof of that, if Seth was actually enthralled with me, I’m sure, when he picked up Norma Jean and Velma yesterday, and the day before that, he would have made a point to seek me out to speak with me, which he didn’t.”
“Is that a note of disappointment I detect in your tone?”
“Of course not,” Annaliese said, although, in all truthfulness, she had been slightly disappointed Seth hadn’t sought her out at least one of the two days.
“I think it is disappointment,” Seraphina argued.
“However, there really is no need for that because you seem to be forgetting that two days ago, when classes let out, you were in a conference with Elena Zambarello, who wanted you to give some private dance lessons to Caterina since she’ll be making her debut in a few months.
Then, yesterday, if you’ve forgotten, you were occupied with Harriet, who somehow learned how to run herself a bath and was making a muck of your bathing chamber.
” Seraphina sent her a knowing grin. “It would have hardly been appropriate for Seth to seek you out there.”
It was rather telling when the slight disappointment she’d been experiencing faded straightaway as she strode into motion again and into the receiving room, stopping in her tracks when she caught sight of Seth, who was looking quite unlike himself at the moment.
Gone was the gentleman who normally resembled a mad inventor or absentminded professor, replaced by someone who looked as if he’d jumped straight from a gentleman’s fashion plate.
His hair, while still rumpled, was now rumpled in a way that suggested someone who knew their way around a pair of shears had had a go at it, and instead of wearing a jacket and trousers that didn’t quite match, he was wearing a dark pinstriped suit with a pristine white shirt and collar underneath, with an intricately tied cravat completing the outfit.
His face sported not a hint of the scruffy stubble he normally walked around with, and while Annaliese had thought that the stubble suited his mad-inventor style, the clean-shaven gentleman who was lounging oh so elegantly on a fainting couch was, without a doubt, causing her heart rate to ratchet up a notch . . . or three.
Seth took that moment to rise to his feet, a smile on his far-too-handsome face as he presented her with a bow, then did the same to Seraphina.
“Ladies,” Seth began, “I apologize for interrupting your day while classes are still in session. However, I was heading off to see that nearly deaf aunt of mine who lives up the road and is having difficulty with the artificial eardrum I made her and decided to stop by because I have something for both of you.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brown paper bag, which he promptly handed to Seraphina.
“It’s a special adhesive and should alleviate any further shifting of the moles on your face, although I feel I should mention that you don’t always apply those in the exact same spots every day.
Nevertheless, given the strength of my adhesive, you might not need to worry about that anymore. ”
Seraphina’s nose wrinkled. “My moles are occasionally in different spots?”
“Indeed.” He nodded to her face. “That one underneath your eye seems to be the one that moves the most, although the mole on your chin does have a tendency to shift around a bit, probably because of how much you have to move your mouth in any given day.”
“The students might notice if I suddenly turn mute, but . . .” Seraphina tilted her head. “How long have you known that I apply moles to my face?”
“Since our first meeting, when everyone had to jump out of my boat when it caught fire. Your mole was dangling from your chin but was reattached to your face once you dried off.” He smiled.
“Moles don’t normally do that, nor does hair usually take to losing its color when it gets wet, but yours went from straight brown to having streaks of blond poke through it that day. ”
“I thought that berry solution I’d been using would hold the color longer.”