The inside of the house was as lovely as Pandy had expected, and she drank in the sight of the broad foyer, with three doors opening off of it, and a staircase sweeping up to the second level. The carpet beneath Thaniel’s feet was beginning to show wear, but it was meticulously clean and perfectly centered on the tiled floor. The banisters were equally worn by generations of hands gripping them as people made their way up and down, but they were also polished to a high shine.

  Dalton took Thaniel and Lian’s coats, laying them atop the captain’s so neatly that they almost seemed to have been pressed. It was still more than warm enough that the light coats were unnecessary, but male characters in the game were only shown without them in their own homes or after exercising.

  Apparently this world maintained that requirement, which Pandy thought was only fair, given the ridiculously elaborate dresses the women had to wear. Even the background characters and servants had layered skirts and lace trim everywhere, which made cosplay hard to do but beautiful when done correctly. But these people weren’t cosplaying, and somehow Lady Alice looked perfectly comfortable in her confection of a gown.

  “Geraldine?” Lady Alice called, looking around. “Where are you, darling?”

  It took several long moments for the girl to appear, and people were just beginning to shift in place when the door directly ahead of them opened. Geraldine’s freckled face peered out, and then she stepped into the open, plastering a smile on her face as she dipped a shallow curtsey. Her kitten was no longer hiding, but instead stalked beside the girl’s little brown boots, the cold yellow eyes of a killer looking entirely out of place above the oversized pink bow.

  Alice smiled happily, looking from Thaniel to Geraldine. “This is our younger daughter, Geraldine. Geraldine, meet Lord Nathaniel and his brother, Viscount Dunning.”

  The woman didn’t seem to notice Lian’s expression freezing over, but Pandy did. If she understood noble titles correctly, Lian would also have been ‘Lord’ until last night, when the Father’s death was confirmed. He would have inherited his father’s title, as well as his estate, but using it only reminded him of his situation. Pandy could have clicked her tongue in irritation. Things had been going so well, too.

  Geraldine straightened, saying, “Pleased to meet you, Lord Nathaniel, Viscount Dunning. I do hope you’ll enjoy your visit.” Her face was nearly as impassive as Lian’s, but she came down a little harder than strictly necessary on the word ‘visit’. No, she definitely wasn’t pleased to have company.

  Thaniel stepped forward, his own expression brightening as he lifted Pandy, shoving her in the direction of the little girl. Pandy’s feet flopped, but she tried for her best Look of Innocence, though she knew it was marred by the crimson color of her eyes.

  “This’s Bunny,” the boy said. “What’s your cat’s name?”

  Geraldine blinked, glancing down as if surprised to find the fluffy gray kitten at her feet. “This is Miss Cupcakes. She’s four months old. She doesn’t like anybody but me. And Clara, I suppose.”

  Of course she liked Clara. Everybody liked Clara. And why wouldn’t they? She was the protagonist, after all. The only people who even temporarily showed antagonism toward Geraldine’s older sister were Killian, the four love interests, and a few girls who picked on Clara partially because they were jealous of her strength, but mainly because the boys liked her.

  Lady Alice’s eyes shone with gentle mirth as she said, “Cupcakes was supposed to live in the stable, but Geraldine simply fell in love with her. We’ve never had a cat in the house before, but the creature is quite good at keeping out rodents and the like.”

  Ah ha! Pandy had known that the cat was a cold-blooded executioner of all things furry. Pandy might not actually be a rodent – rabbits weren’t rodents, were they? – but she doubted the feline cared. And now she couldn’t stop wondering if she really was just a glorified rat. But no, hadn’t she read something about rabbits being related to horses? She held up one of her fuzzy white paws and spread the toes. Nope, definitely not a horse.

  A maid in a pretty blue dress with a ruffled white apron and cap approached from the right-hand door, curtsying deeply. “Tea is served, my lady.”

  “Thank you, Becca,” Lady Alice said. The maid held the door open for them all as they passed through, though as far as Pandy could tell the door was in no danger of closing on its own.

  The room on the other side of the door was a sort of half-conservatory, with the closest part an entirely ordinary room, complete with a round table piled with sweets, while the distant half was entirely made of glass, protruding from the rest of the building and providing light to a veritable jungle. There were even a few butterflies flying around, their colorful wings quivering as they feasted from bright flowers.

  “Welcome to what my husband calls my Folly,” Lady Alice laughed, ushering them all toward the table. “It’s not a proper Folly, of course, but where I grew up, it never snowed, and after I came here, I became quite sad every winter, when we were closed up and the sky was cloudy for months at a time. After Clara was born, Corbin had this built for me, so that I could be surrounded by warmth and growing things all year round.”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Pandy truly wished she could tell the woman how lovely it was. There was a Butterfly Conservatory in the city where she grew up, and she once got to go for a school field trip. Of course, that was before Bobby McAlister started squashing every bug he found and they were kicked out, but when she grew up, she’d gone back to visit once or twice a year, whenever she had enough money to buy a ticket.

  Fortunately, Thaniel loved the outdoors. They’d spent hours one day watching a butterfly spin its cocoon. Pandy had never had the time or opportunity to do such a thing before, and being able to simply sit in the grass for half a day, periodically munching clover and watching an insect shape its new home around it was only one of the many reasons she really didn’t mind being a rabbit in this life. Unlife. Whatever it was.

  “This is beautiful!” the little boy exclaimed, blue eyes filled with awe. “Mama liked plants, but after she- Daddy didn’t take care of them, and the servants quit, so they all wilted. George took care of the hedges and grass outside, but there were never any flowers inside anymore.”

  Lian looked at his little brother, startled. “You remember that? You were so little, I thought-” He shook his head, expression briefly vulnerable before he caught himself and it all drained away again.

  “Course I remember,” Thaniel said stoutly. “Mama smelled like flowers, too. I keep trying to figure out what kind of flowers, but I think they all must have wilted, because nothing ever smells right.”

  “Freesia,” Lian murmured softly. “It was in her shampoo. Her hair always smelled of freesia.”

  Lady Alice’s face brightened. “Freesia was practically a weed where I come from. There were all kinds of things made from it, since it smells so lovely, but once you planted it, you couldn’t get rid of it if you wanted to. I wonder if your mother came from the south as well.”

  “No,” Lian said, the single word shutting down any further questions.

  Captain Reedsley cleared his throat, drawing notice to himself for the first time since they’d entered the room. He laid a hand on his stomach, saying, “I’m ready for some tea if you are, Alice.”

  Lady Alice’s hands fluttered in the air, the length of lace around her wrists looking like butterfly wings as she did so. “Oh my, and I was the one who insisted you must be hungry after your long journey.” She clapped her hands softly, looking around at Dalton. “Do seat us, Dalton. Becca, let Chef know we’re ready.”

  Oh yes, Chef. The man featured in the event between Clara and Bastian, one of the love interests. The man was never named, but he chased the two from his kitchen with a cleaver, believing that they were thieves who had broken in to steal the expensive ingredients he was going to use for the holiday feast.

  Dalton did as he’d been told, seating everyone in some abstruse order that made no sense to Pandy. However it worked, Thaniel was last, and he settled Pandy into his lap as Dalton slid the wooden chair toward the table. She had to duck her head so it wouldn’t be crushed between Thaniel’s ribs and the table’s edge, leaving her beneath the table, staring at a slitted pair of yellow eyes.

  Then Thaniel asked, “Can Bunny run around in here? I promise she won’t eat anything she’s not s’posed to.” Pandy had no idea how he could promise any such thing, since any normal rabbit would absolutely munch on the many delicious-smelling plants filling the far end of the room, but of course she had no intention of doing so.

  “Oh my, of course she can,” Lady Alice said, without a speck of hesitation in her voice. “She and Cupcakes can keep each other company.”

  As Thaniel lifted Pandy from his lap and put her on the floor, Pandy stared at the terrible kitten. Was it her imagination, or was the feline beginning to drool? Pandy huddled next to the leg of the chair, hoping that Thaniel’s table manners wouldn’t suddenly improve, and she would get a few cookie crumbs, or possibly a small piece of cake. She certainly had no intention of moving away from the protection of the people sitting at the table; not while Miss Cupcakes was looking at her like that.

  Cups and saucers began to clink as tea was poured and confections passed around. A few pieces of sugary goodies did indeed make their way down to Pandy, along with a whole cookie containing raisins, which Thaniel Did Not Like. She was fairly certain that rabbits weren’t supposed to eat them either, but fortunately Pandy’s undead stomach didn’t care.

  Overhead, conversation turned to the warm weather and lack of rain, followed by a very brief discussion of what hairstyles were fashionable in Knightmere at the moment. It was very brief because Captain Reedsley, the only person who might know anything about it, obviously couldn’t have cared less. Still, he tried gamely until Lady Alice finally gave up trying to coax details about the ‘big curls in the back’ out of him and switched back to the weather.

  Meanwhile, beneath the table, a battle of wills took place. Miss Cupcakes lurked as only a cat could do, eyes glowing as she watched Pandy. Pandy, of course, was busy with the crumbs and raisin cookies falling from above. Similar crumbs decorated Cupcakes’ plush gray fur, but the feline ignored them with regal aplomb, not even blinking when a particularly large glob of pink frosting landed on her nose.

  Pandy was certain that if she’d been any other rabbit, she would have been terrified into making a break for the inviting overflow of vegetation. Even from here, she could see a dozen hiding places. The problem was, of course, that Miss Cupcakes was currently the same size or slightly smaller than her, which meant the cat could fit anywhere Pandy could.

  Besides, Pandy had her enormous, clawed back feet, and she wasn’t afraid to use them. The beast might manage to claw her up, but it would heal soon enough. At least, Pandy was fairly certain she would heal, though what would happen if she was actually eviscerated was still up for debate.

  All of which meant that Pandy was going nowhere. No matter how the cat glared, or how often the long, sharp claws on her front paws were bared and sheathed again, Pandy sat next to Thaniel’s feet. The boy even nudged her at one point, quietly suggesting she go exploring, as he would no doubt like to do, but Pandy ignored him as much as she pretended to ignore the cat.

  Of course, all of that changed when the front door opened again, and a pair of dainty slippers stepped into Pandy’s view and paused in the doorway leading back to the foyer. “Am I too late, Mother?” a breathless voice asked. It was sweet and melodious, slightly husky, but in a very pleasant way. Voice number six from character creation, if Pandy wasn’t mistaken. Which she wasn’t, because that was her very favorite.

  Everyone turned to look at the newcomer, including Pandy, which was when Miss Cupcakes decided to pounce.