y Pot
o the silence like st
ent absolu
Not a flicker. Not a twitch. Her fac
t and blank and utte
d I don't know any shops by that name, Sister. Though if you're intere
ld up a hand
e deserves an award. A
The floorboards cre
here's no way she wouldn't r
nless I was completely wrong about ever
omething mo
ke a hawk. "You know-X Reader stories? Those self-insert nar
's eye
ely perceptibl
g in porcelain. "I don't understand what you're saying,
tch. Time to go
: Which Man Does Mar
le
deafenin
t tick of a clock somewhere. A dog barkin
ing in. All two thousand five hundred plus chapters of melodrama and questiona
f heaven, cut i
and frustrated. Her sweet voice cr
ried about who you're gonna marry! Y
ped mid-
er mouth, eyes goi
tc
so sorry, Sister, I didn't mean-I don't know what
dn't h
out la
ief and vindication and the sheer absurdity of everything. Here we were, two time travelers pretending to be charac
now. This is a
grovel, her expression shifting from panic
t Beatrice
ld now. Calculating. All traces of s
g this now. Cards
nd started examining her bookshelf, trailing my fingers along the spines of her
d lightly, "for someone w
am Ma
the Queen of England. Show's over, pretender. I'm in the
en confusion and anger. "Pretender? W
ng to salvage the
g to remove my shoes because apparently I was feeling petty. The coverlet
ce is done. Yo
shoes of
d. No sweetness. No trembling.
h
d-rabbit routine she'd been performing earlier. This was someone genui
A real
ossing my legs and pressing my shoes fur
p. The kind you'd make if someone had just i
es on t
trong for someone so delicate-looking-then immediately started fussing over
nse of basic hygiene-tracking
d her, f
there were i
t came here-that wasn't terror. That was strate
t wasn't surprise. That was satisfaction.
ith perfect timing-that wasn't nat
aying us all
you tran
ion came
hing the coverlet
b now. We were
room." Her voice was careful again, measured. Back to
ollowed the motion instinctively. "I'm not Beatrice. Well, I am Beatrice, but I was Beatrice Whitmore bef
like I'd grown a second head.
erately trying to get on my nerv
internally. Patience. You need infor
ou like you're five years old
y, her expressio
we're currently living in? The one with the four male
act. "I have not. I am illiter
h
weather or observing that the sky was blue. No
read. Chapter eight hundred something. After a lengthy subplot about t
t from outs
face. "Then how did you know ab
umiliate Beatrice by calling off their en
jaw tightening almost imperceptib
about James's plan. I know he didn't tell you anything about it-he woul
ched between us l
hink. Let her decid
ers dropping in a way that
ved this l
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