Free A Student's Dream (Twisted Cogs Book 1) by Malcolm Hemmings

you make that face. Anyway, Arturo did help guide you down the street, since you couldn’t walk on your own, because you kept drinking that wine even though I told you not to.”
    “ Almost as if he’s a perfect gentleman who just happened to have a little too much wine,” Elena ignored the dig as she looked around for her effects. Her things weren’t in the room, but a neatly folded set of white breeches and blouse, each with a stripe of deep yellow, lay on a small wooden table by the bed.
    “ Yes, Arta said it was just the wine too. I still don’t think I’d be comfortable around him if it wasn’t for the influence Arta had over him, and I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable with him being around you. You humans and your alcohol.”
    “ Ele, please, can you just tell me where I am?”
    “ Oh that’s right, you probably don’t remember since you drank all that wine, even though I told you-”
    “ Ele!”
    “ You’re in a small room off of the hallway outside Master De Luca’s kitchens. The dorm is broken up into several small rooms like this. This one is reserved for the lowest of his garzoni.”
    “ This is the room of his lowest garzoni?” Elena blinked, “but it’s so beautiful! I can’t even imagine what the more advanced garzoni...wait...” slowly and painfully, Elena’s mind began to catch up to the wide grin on Ele’s face. “...Ele... why am I in a small room off of Master De Luca’s et cetera et cetera?”
    “ Oh, that’s right, you don’t even know,” Ele examined his nails, a completely unnecessary gesture since they didn’t gather dirt, break, or grow. Perhaps sensing her agitation he dropped the farce. “You’re here because, as of last night, you, Miss Elena Lucciano are Master De Luca’s lowest garzona.”
    Elena staggered, bracing herself against the wall. She stared at her Echo’s face, hesitant to believe him. “Is...is that true?” she whispered, “Ele I swear if you’re lying I’ll find a way to hurt you. I’m...I’m a De Luca garzona?”
    “ I’m not lying, believe it or not. Pietro found you drunk and stumbling outside of the studio and took you in to meet Master De Luca himself. You made...well...an impression.”
    “ Oh my God,” Elena buried her face in her hands. “Oh my God and by all the Holy Saints what have I done? He met me when I was drunk? But he still...”
    “ He still took you on, although I convinced him to let you sleep it off before you discussed anything officially with him. He told me to let you know to change into the uniform and meet him in his study when you woke up.”
    “ And you kept me here yammering this whole time?” Elena shrieked.
    ***
    The uniform was comfortable, modest and plain, but it might as well have been spun of gold for how it made Elena feel. It was a little loose on her, and she nervously tugged at the edge of the shirt as she waited outside of De Luca’s office. The older of the cooks had told her where to find the office, situated in a snug corner on the upper floor of the studio. Lucky for her that the room she had slept in was right next to the kitchens.
    It was still “the” room, not “her” room. It was all so sudden and out of the blue, and Elena’s stomach was in a knot waiting for the other shoe to drop.
    Everything here is a work of art, she thought, glancing up at the ornate designs painted on the edges of the ceiling, at the scrollwork carved into the door she’d just knocked on. Who would’ve thought I would be here to enjoy all of this, when just a day ago I was leaving here crying, worrying about my future and what my mother was thinking...
    “ Where is my mother? What has she said about all of this?” Elena asked suddenly.
    “ She’s still back at the inn, as far as I know,” Ele replied, “and if there’s any hint of motherly affection in her reptilian heart she’s wondering if she went too far in sending her daughter out on her own at night.”
    Elena didn’t share Ele’s