Bab 75: How did that get there?

"Well, in the spirit of the festivities, I may have sipped from one or two more of my usual glasses of champagne. Zen was kind enough to escort me to my villa. Seeing that we had to get up early to conduct other business before leaving for our trip it made sense to turn in early for the night."

"How disappointing!" exclaimed Lady Maria, while frowning, "that means you missed the fireworks display, they even spelt my name out in the sky, it was a glorious sight to behold."

"In Lithe's defense he's always kept earlier hours than the rest of us," Estella pointed out, "these last few days have been very stressful, no wonder Lithe was exhausted last night and went to bed early."

"Well, even my brother couldn't wake up this morning or he would be here to see Lithe off for his trip," Christina said in that irritating voice of hers, "he's been wanting a chance alone with Lithe to apologize for his behavior of late."