Allison arrives at Westerbrook Manor in order to apply for the job as chambermaid.

When I looked around again, Rosemary was dancing in circles, dancing to the sound the animals made around us, and I couldn’t help it, I just had to dance with her, moving my body to the rhythm of the sounds and closing my eyes so that all I could do was feel the vibrations enter my ears.

A kind of nonsense chapter.

“You cursed me,” he said, and I could gather that his mind was skeptical of me: of course he couldn’t trust me; I hadn’t trusted him in the years we had known one another, and one day we walk back into one another’s lives without an inkling of each other since seventh year to start with.

Upon my way down to the kitchen, I couldn’t help but smell something strange in the air. The very scent of it caught me of guard, and if it hadn’t, I knew that I would have never noticed the aroma entering my nostril. Following the scent, I realized shortly that I was en route to Wood’s very bedroom, and nearly fainted when I paused outside his door, the very door I had fawned at on my first day at Westerbrook. However, by the way the smoke was pouring through the cracks of the door.

Samantha led me away from the parlor to a lower-floor room, and as she did so, I noticed a warning glance escape Sally-Anne’s eye, of which Samantha was completely oblivious. When we arrived at my aunt’s room, I noticed it was far too small for a master bedroom of a house that size, and realized that master bedroom must have been on the upper floor of the house; when my aunt took ill, she must have been moved to the lower floor so that if she wanted to get up, she wouldn’t have ascend or descend the staircase.

“Allison,” Wood said in a soft voice, stopping my very breath, “I feel as if there is a chain, linking us together, and if you were to go anywhere in the world, I know that chain would break, and even if you were to come to back, I know that it would never have a chance of mending itself again.” Then, without giving me a chance to catch my breath, Wood pulled me close to him, and kissed me, full on the mouth, for all the world to see.

However, when I looked to Oliver, I realized that I didn’t care, that today was going to be the happiest day of my life, the best day of my life. And then the priest said, “If there is anyone who feels that this marriage should not take place, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.” Of course, I didn’t expect anyone to speak up, with even the small thought of Mrs. Brown, but that didn’t account for the amount of surprise I felt when I heard the strong, masculine voice of another man speak, a voice I had never heard in my life, but one that I would remember forever.

“Allie,” I said, reverting to the nickname Samantha had chosen for me, sickening as it was. “Allie Price.”

Lila took the name without a second thought, and poured some more hot chocolate for me, of which she had a great supply. “Lee, the one who found you out in the road a few days ago, is gone for now. He had to report back to London, but he’ll be around again, ere long. You’ve been asleep for quite some time, Miss, nearly three days! I’ll have to expect that you don’t want to put yourself out for much longer; otherwise, you’ll be nothing more than a potato!”

Long had I been very unwell in the subject of Healing, having had to resort to it when I felt I had no other alternative, and often ending up in worse condition than I had at the beginning of the injury. Inside the interesting book, I found many different ways to cast the spells included in the information. Easier options to the ones I had been facing, which required all of your attention and thought processes, and truthfully enough, when I had an injury, physical or otherwise, my mind traveled to other things.

I walked silently through the house, listening to the quiet breathing around me. The halls were darkened, but even with the absence of light, I was still able to make my way around. It reminded me of Westerbrook, with all its twists and turns.