(Catherine POV)
Sleep had been eluding me for hours. I lay in the massive bed with its silk hangings, staring at shadows that danced across the ceiling like accusations. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that moment in the garden—the certainty of being watched, the shape in the hedge maze's shadows that had felt both foreign and achingly familiar.
You could simply ask permission.
Had I really said that to whatever lurked in those hedges? The memory made my cheeks burn with embarrassment and something else I didn't want to examine. Because there had been a moment, just before I'd turned away, when I'd wanted to step closer. Wanted to see what had been studying me with such focused intensity.
Madness. Complete, irrational madness.
The clock tower chimed midnight, its deep bronze notes
