Page 72 of Madness Becomes Her

“A fight is looming. We knew it was coming, but it always seems too quick once it’s on our doorstep,” the queen says.

“What are my orders, Your Majesty?” Lewis asks, stepping forward.

I hadn’t noticed him, either.

Part of me worries I’m not cut out for this fight, but I see no other option other than fighting.

Flashes of Hatter shoving me toward a portal home traipse through my brain, but I swat them away.

Leaving him in his time of need would eat me alive.

It’s decided then, I realize.

I’m going to have to defend my home.

CHAPTER TWENTY

GARDEN PARTIES, ILLOGICAL GAMES, AND LUSTFUL FLOWERS

The Garden party went off without a hitch. The sun sets above as Lewis and I slowly walk back toward the palace from the gardens. Still, revelry sounds from behind us, but the fun has grown far more titillating than I’d like to attend.

As if on cue, a sexual moan rends the air, causing me to smirk over my shoulder and Lewis to sigh.

“This place is quite magical,” I say, containing a sigh of my own, one filled with contentment I don’t know I’ve felt before.

“Hard not to get caught up in it, even with what’s on the horizon.”

“It is.” Looking around, I can’t help but wonder where Hatter got off to. I spotted him speaking to a large guard on the outskirts of the party, a teacup in his hand.

One nod of his head, with a wicked smirk playing on his lips, spiked a thrill through my veins, but when I looked again, he was gone.

“He’s in his chambers, no doubt,” Lewis said. “Out of respect for you.”

“Respect for me?”

“Yes. The queen’s garden parties are famous, if not for the things that happen at them, for the punch she serves. It’s somewhat of an… aphrodisiac.”

The throbbing between my thighs rises, and I press them together.

“So, that’s why I feel so…”

Lewis clears his throat. “Yes.”

We approach the back doors leading into the palace, and two guards open them, bowing to us as we pass and enter.

The shine to the checkered marble floors is duller tonight beneath the glow of the fire-lit chandelier above.

“So, Hatter is hiding from me?”

“I suspect he’s in your rooms,” Lewis says, turning toward me. His whiskers twitch as he smiles. “Have a good night, Eleanor. It was nice spending time with you again. It’s almost like old times.” Sadness bleeds through his eyes in the flickers of candlelight.

“You, too. Goodnight.”

Dancing my gaze up the stairs leading me to Hatter and my rooms, I swallow thickly.

If the state of growing arousal in me is anything like he’s feeling, I don’t know what I’m in for.

“I’ll lead you up, miss,” a deep male voice says, and I turn to find Cirius, the funny guard from the front gate, who doesn’t believe that I’m the right Eleanor, standing next to me.