Lady Kaiden's 24-Hour Bookshop

chapter nine

A soft knock filled the empty silence of my chambers.

"Adeline, I am going to enter." She did not wait for my reply, before opening my door exposing the bright morning light.

"C...harlotte? W...what are you doing he...here?" My throat itched every time I spoke as I perched myself up with my arm.

"I told your mother, Adeline."

My eyes shot open in panic as I sat up straighter, "You did what?"

"You have not stepped out of bed for two fortnights. Do you know how many times I had to check your pulse to see if you were a deceased." She told me with a flinching tone of dismay. "You need to see your mother."

I would have rolled my eyes if I had the energy to, "I am fine, Charlotte. Tell my mother not to bother."

"She is already on her way."

"Huh?" My neck snapped towards her as I saw that she had her hands on her hips.

"That is right. She could be here any moment, now." She crept towards my bed and ripped the sheets off me revealing my pasty, pale skin. "So get up and snap out of it. You are no better than some heartbroken adolescent,"

"No, I am not. Let me rot in peace." I said into my pillow before she snatched it out right from under me.

"Have you gone mad?" I exclaimed.

"Yes. I am mad. No, actually, I am furious!" She threw my entire mattress set onto the floor and grabbed my ankles and dragged me right off the bed leaving me to land on my arse.

"What the hell!" Charlotte has never been this vulgar or violent. She has always been more soft-spoken, so you could imagine the surprise at her audacity.

"What the hell is correct! You have done naught, but sulk and guess what? You are on my last nerve."

"I am the one on the last nerve? Speak for yourself."

"What do you think am I doing? So bugger up and you better listen carefully," she bent down to my eye level and pursed her lips. "For two years I worked under you at this shop and even longer at the manor and do you ever wonder why I stayed when all the maids left?"

I irritatedly clenched down on my cheek. "Because you needed the money."

"You are clueless!" She yelled, "I did not stay because I needed the money. If I really was in need for financial aid, do you really think I would choose to work at a blasphemous 24-hour bookshop!"

I stood back onto my feet and sized her up, "Then why did you stay, then? Why did you not leave like everybody else?"

"You really are blind as a dopey bat, huh?"

He released a heavy exhale and glared at her, "What? What did my blind eyes miss because apparently I am not very capable of doing anything correctly!"

Her narrowed eyes and clenched fists had softened at my rigid exclaimation, "It was because I believed in you, Adeline."

"What?"