Cassia Defers

"I'll think about it," she said.

"Don’t take too long, chérie." Angélique's emerald eyes held hers. "I cannot wait forever. I am offering you a position because I see potential in you, potential that could be... cultivated.

Cassia nodded, tucked her change into her pouch, and made her way to the door. The brass bell chimed as she opened it, and the afternoon sunlight spilled across the threshold, warm and ordinary and blessedly normal.

She stepped out into the street and drew a deep breath, feeling the tension finally begin to drain from her shoulders. The encounter had been strange, stranger than anything she had experienced since arriving at the Academy, and that was saying something. Angélique's intense attention, Dolly's bizarre proposition, the casual intimacy of the fitting...

It had left her unsettled in ways she didn't fully understand.

But the tunic was beautiful.

Cassia touched the soft, subtly pink fabric and began the walk back to the Academy, determined to put the morning's strangeness behind her. She had lessons to prepare for, a roommate to avoid, and an internal battle to fight.

She didn't have time to think about confusing seamstresses, or their unusual assistants.