All Chapters of Barren? Honey, I'm Just Getting Started: Chapter 41 - Chapter 43

- WILLOWMaisy wasn't wrong. News travels through these stone halls faster than a forest fire, and by two o'clock the next afternoon, the inevitable happened.I was standing near the tea station in the West Conservatory, wiping down the marble surface with a damp cloth, when the heavy oak doors slid open.Maisy stepped inside first, her chin tucked into her chest and her expression stiff as a board. She gave me a tiny, panicked glance before clearing her throat. "Lady Josephine, you have a guest. Miss Lucille Barrett has brought a floral arrangement from the royal greenhouse."I froze for a split second, my hand tightening over the damp cloth, before I forced my shoulders to drop and my eyes to fix on the tea tray.Miss Lucille swept into the room.She looked like she stepped right off a high-fashion runway, floating through the glasshouse in a towering gown of pale pink silk. Her long golden hair was styled in intricate curls over her shoulders, and her pale blue eyes swept over the

- WILLOWMy clock hit eleven-thirty at night when my encrypted phone buzzed on the nightstand."West Conservatory. Now," Noah’s text read.I pulled on my grey hoodie, kicked on my boots, and slipped down the dark corridor. The heavy glasshouse doors were unlocked. Inside, two oil lamps flickered on the small glass table, leaving long shadows across the potted ferns.Noah was pacing the floorboards frantically, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. My mother sat on the velvet sofa, sipping a cup of herbal tea while watching him march back and forth."You look like you're about to tear the roof off," I said, leaning against the doorframe and crossing my arms.Noah stopped dead in his tracks, turning his head to look at me. "Lucille left the dinner early. She practically sprinted past the main guards with her maid, looking like she’d seen a ghost.""She had a bad night in the pantry." I shrugged, walking over and taking a seat on the edge of the tea cart."What did you do to her, Willow?"