8. Alfie

Nobody really bothered to talk to me on a day-to-day basis, except my mother. Sometimes my Aunt Silvia would talk to me and she'd teach me all about art. I liked it when she talked about art because I learned so much about other cultures and history and a surprising amount of science. It depended whether she was painting, though. Once she started painting, she would be lost to the world for weeks at a time.

Other than those two, though, nobody bothered with me.

It meant I managed to sneak through the whole castle to one of the rooms upstairs.

There were quite a few unused rooms up there. They were all kept neat and clean but nobody ever went in them other than the servants.

There were bedrooms and sitting rooms, powder rooms and bathrooms and huge cupboards. There was room for at least another two dozen people to live with us before we even came close to running out of room, and that was if they each had their own bedroom. If people shared, we had room for even more.

I had no idea whether we'd ever used those rooms or whether they were spares. I thought that some guests we'd had once had used them, but wasn't sure.

I was almost certain that nobody would notice one little chair missing from one of them.

That was why I crept up the stairs, listening out for anybody walking around nearby. I was going to take an armchair.

It wasn't really stealing, was it? After all, I wasn't giving it away. I was just… moving it out of the castle. To my den.

And it was my den, and I was family, so it counted as being used by a Somerville.

Maybe that was a tenuous argument, but it was the best I had. The fact was that the two wooden chairs in the den weren't that comfortable. They were just the only ones that Morgan and I had been able to get at the time and we didn't spend long enough sitting out there in them to be bothered by the fact that they became uncomfortable after about an hour or so.

I'd learned that the hard way yesterday. I'd sat with Blaze and talked and talked, and not only had he never looked bored or rolled his eyes at the way my words all splurged out, he'd asked me more about myself and seemed actually interested in the answers.

And the chair had become horribly uncomfortable, only I was enjoying myself too much to leave, and so I'd sat there, letting the chair put my bum and legs to sleep while I told Blaze all about Great Aunt Evangeline's arthritis and Blaze had suggested warm gloves to soothe her joints.

It was sweet of him to care but somehow I knew he did.

The point was, I didn't want Blaze having to sit on one of those horrible chairs all day. I wanted him to have something comfortable. After all, we were Somervilles and we had the best quality of everything, and I thought Blaze should get his fair share of that.

He might not technically be family but we had a very strong bond, and that meant that he was sort of family. I wouldn't have a bond like that with just anyone. He had to be someone very important.

And he deserved a lovely chair.

I crept along the corridor, making sure I placed my feet carefully, and then I opened the door at the furthest end. I'd check the rooms in order to find the best chair and take that one.

The first room was a shocking pastel pink that made me think my eyes had gone wonky. I nearly backed straight out of it because I didn't think Blaze would like anything that came from that room, but then I changed my mind and went in. It might look like Barbie decorated the place, but the chairs might be comfortable.

I sat in them all and then went to the next room, and then the next. I sat in every chair until I had done at least twenty and then I couldn't remember which ones had been the nicest. I might have to come back with a spreadsheet or something and test them all again.

No, that was ridiculous. All I needed was to go from chair to chair until I found one that was very, very comfortable.

I was more than half-way along the corridor before I found the one I liked. It was baby blue velvet and very soft, lovely and squishy, and I could just picture Blaze all curled up in it, looking snug and cosy.

This was the one.

Lifting it up was difficult. It wasn't that it was too heavy, because I was strong enough to do it. I might not be able to shift but I was still a Somerville and a dragon, and I had the strength of all shifters. It was that it was cumbersome and awkward.

I could hardly wrap my arms around it, which meant I couldn't find any leverage points. I must have tried for ten minutes before I stood back, panting and frustrated. I hadn't realised before how little I ever did on my own.

We had servants to do the menial work for us and it was considered uncouth to do any of it ourselves. Everything was done for me and I had no idea how to go about the simplest of tasks.

That didn't mean I was useless, though! I would get this armchair down to Blaze.

If Morgan had been there, it would have been dead simple. We could have lifted it between us and carried it out in under five minutes. Actually, we'd have taken two so we could have one each. But there was nobody else I could trust with this. Everybody else would want to know what I wanted it for and then they'd know about my den and then they'd find out about Blaze and they'd tell Lord Somerville and then he'd chase Blaze away and I'd never see him again.

My heart was beating rapidly, though I didn't know why. The thought of not seeing Blaze again made me panicky.

In my panic, I grabbed the chair by the arms and heaved it up, nearly snapping part of it off. However, I got it onto my back – probably more by luck and panic than judgement – and then I hunch-walked out of the room, down the stairs and towards the side door of the castle where people rarely went.

I had to concentrate on my bonds to check that nobody was near me or coming towards me. Thankfully, they stayed away and I got out of the castle with only a minor mishap as I tried to get out of the door. One corner of the backrest tore as I manoeuvred through the doorway and there was a little frayed section in the velvet. I was annoyed that I'd ruined the perfect present I was giving to Blaze.

I really hoped he'd like it, even now.