For my dearest Elise
Sibella opened the door slowly, hesitant to enter, though she didn't quite know why. The room seemed a little sad, as neither of its usual occupants had been present for several days. She could not place her finger on her reasoning for coming in here. This was the room in which Monty and Phoebe slept most nights. Though she had certainly been in the room before, it felt a little odd without Monty or Phoebe. Everything was spotlessly clean, everything exactly in its place.
Except for that, thought Sibella. The blanket from Phoebe's sitting room was folded at the foot of the bed. The blonde frowned, as she noted that it was not folded the way Phoebe liked it. She picked it up and shook it out, beginning to fold it up again in horizontal sections, but stopped after a moment. The blanket smelled like Phoebe. The countess's perfume was easily identifiable to Sibella, but the blanket also carried something that was uniquely Phoebe, and could not be manufactured and put in a bottle. She gathered the blanket in her arms, bringing it closer to her face. Closing her eyes for a moment, she could almost make believe that Phoebe was in the room.
She opened her eyes and looked down at the blanket in her hands, a slight pout turning down her lips. She sat on the edge of the bed and cast her gaze around the room. When her eyes fell on the pillows to her right, she immediately berated herself for the thought that popped into the front of her mind, but then decided that she really was perfectly willing to be sentimental and slightly childish, and she lay down on top of the blankets. Blonde curls spread across the white pillow, she curled into herself and wrapped her fingers in the blanket, holding it close.
She hasn't realised she was tired until she had laid down. It was true, however, that she had not slept much the night before. The castle was lonely without the earl and his countess. She turned her head and let her tip-tilted nose brush against the fabric of the blanket. Closing her eyes, she quickly fell to sleep, comforted by a part of Phoebe being so close.