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“Surely someone’s tried that before,” Dimitri said, distracted. He kept imagining his mother running through the conservatory as a girl. “If it worked, wouldn’t you have heard about it?”

Rosalie sighed. “I suppose so.”

“The most humble and respectful of your servants walks subtly into the room,” Vernon boomed out, making Rosalie start so badly that she pulled several leaves off one of the potted trees. “This silent and considerate servant delicately places the tray of your midday meal upon this table.”

Rosalie snorted. “You’ve never done anything delicately in your life.”

“Since I am but a humble servant employed in this manor, I don’t know what you mean,” he said in dignified tones.

“That is an excellent point!” Dimitri exclaimed.

“It is?” Vernon and Rosalie asked in unison.

“You are currently employed by this manor, and as the master of this manor, I am offering triple pay to any servant who can complete his duties with areasonablelevel of calm communication.”

“Triple pay, you say?” Vernon asked in a normal voice. “In that case, please be informed that I’m leaving the conservatory to return to the kitchen. In thirty minutes, Ralph will be here to pick up your tray.”

Several branches rustled as he brushed past them on his way out of the conservatory.

Rosalie blinked after him. “Why didn’t one of us think of that a week and a half ago? Daphne made them fill a bath for me last night. It took them half an hour, and they didn’t stop talking the entire time.”

“At least you knew you were truly alone when you finally got in,” Dimitri said.

“It was cold by then.”

Dimitri laughed. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. I’m honestly impressed at their creativity. Maybe they’ll end up as florid novelists.”

“Don’t say that! We’d be expected to read every one of their books.”

“That would be taking family loyalty much too far. Surely the first few pages of each one would do?” He grinned at her, but Rosalie fell silent, her expression clouding, and he realized what he’d said.

He’d spoken casually of them as family because that was how he already thought of them. But once they finished play acting for the Legacy, he would have no official role in her life.

She and her brothers and Daphne would all move back to their actual homes, and he would be alone in the empty manor. It had been unpleasant before, but it was unimaginable now. He didn’t want their ruse to end.

But perhaps she would consider returning. Perhaps she would be interested in helping him build a future for both himself and the manor.

She had started to walk away from him, distracted by some plants further down the conservatory, and his hand reached for her. His mouth opened to ask the question burning inside him.

But his eyes caught on his strange-looking hand, and he snapped his mouth closed again. He was still trapped inside an inhuman body, with no guarantee he would ever return to his true form. He couldn’t ask Rosalie about a future together while his situation was still so uncertain. It wouldn’t be fair to her.

And he especially couldn’t do it while they were still acting for the Legacy. His impatience had nearly ruined everything.

He had lost himself in the false life they were living and forgotten all the reasons it needed to end. Not only did he need his true form back before he could speak his heart, but all of their safety might depend on it.

He had managed to slip away twice for updates from the local captain of the guard. The guards had questioned Jace’s men, but the captives had failed to provide any useful information. Jace had already moved his camp, and so far he had eluded all attempts to discover his location.

Dimitri appreciated the guards’ efforts, but he also suspected they hadn’t been as thorough and diligent as he would have been in their place. He itched to search for Jace himself, but while they were enacting their piece of theater for the Legacy, he couldn’t be gone from the manor for long periods.

And as long as Jace remained free, Dimitri didn’t believe he would give up on the wealth hidden in the manor. He would remain interested in Dimitri and Rosalie, and that meant Rosalie wasn’t safe.

They needed to end the false bubble they were living in and return to the world. Then he could find his grandfather and restore the manor properly—not by fixing the building but by filling it with people again. The person he most wanted there might not return, but some company would be better than none. And before all that, he would fund a guard force of his own—one he could use to hunt Jace until he was finally found.

Rosalie had to return to her family, and he had to regain his true shape.

Rosalie called out in delight from the other end of the conservatory, beckoning him over to see a peach rose.

“It’s the first one I’ve seen at the manor that isn’t red or gold.” She grinned up at him.