Tatana clutched the necklace, surprise flitting across her features.
For far too long she had been forced to blend into the background of society. I suddenly and unexpectedly looked forward to my wedding and coronation, if only so that she could rise to the place in my court where she so obviously belonged.
"Thank you," she whispered as tears swam in her eyes.
Those tears shamed me. She was little more than a slave in my castle, and she cried with gratitude over a dress and a necklace. My family and my kingdom had taken so much from her. I would never be able to make up for that. "No gratitude is necessary, Tatana. You're my sister."
"Where are you going, Aelia?" she asked, suddenly realizing I was dressed in pants.
"To find some handsome men to play cards with, of course," I teased.
At her look of horror, I added. "I am going out with Arkadian to play a game of cards with Lady Pettifer and Rhychulson Nygaard. That is all. Come with me," I coaxed, though I knew she never would.
Even if she could get her head around the danger of having an exploit in the city, she would never be in the company of so many men without a chaperone.
If she only knew where we played cards, I thought with a sigh...
Two
"You bastard!" I shouted, throwing my cards on the table in defeat.
Rhychulson Nygaard, the good-looking, smiling-eyed son of the Knight of Cold Garden, laughed loudly as he swept the pile of gold and silver coins over the edge of the table. He let them drop into his hand with a clink. It was an obscene sum of money.
Rhychulson yelped suddenly and scooted back. He gave Petta a dark, accusing look. I realized she had kicked him under the table when she did it again. “You vile witch!" he groaned, scooting his chair out of her reach.
"Petta is a sore loser," I said, waving away some of the smoke from Arkadian's pipe that had wafted in front of my face. He was smoking a mixture of some herb and godsgrass that filled the air with a cloying scent.
He offered me the pipe, but I shook my head.
I had learned the lesson long ago that one should not lightly partake in smoking godsgrass unless one wanted to be chased down the street by angry, red devils. At least that was what it looked like when the devils had been chasing Rhychulson through Merchant's Square. To everyone else, it looked like a well-dressed young lord flailing about, falling over his own feet, crying about invisible demons.
"Another hand?" Rhychulson asked hopefully, collecting the cards from the table.
"No," we all said in tandem.
I showed him my empty coin purse. "I have nothing left!"
"And I only have enough left so that Papa will not be too cross with me for spending my allowance," Petta added, pouting. She was ridiculously pretty with her pale, straw-colored hair in a pile of curls atop her head.
"Papa will give you more, Petta," Rhychulson claimed. "Come on, you guys. I don't want to go home."
"Then go out front and have Anetta find you some company for the night," Petta said, drawing her brows together. "I'm tired, dear Rhychie!"
It was Rhychulson's turn to pout. "You know I don't like to—" he lowered his voice as though we were not the only ones in the private room, "—to pay for it," he finished.
I laughed hard. We were frequent guests in the private card rooms of Windemere's most exclusive pleasure house, and he wanted us to believe he didn't sometimes wander into the upstairs portions of the establishment.
Arkadian gave me a look, widening his eyes meaningfully.
I realized Rhychulson was not laughing. Instead, he was looking at me as though I had said something rather mean.
"Well, how am I to know thatyouhave honor when I am seated next to the Mouse's Ear's most valued customer?"
Arkadian gave me a shove with his big shoulder, but it was true, and he couldn't deny it. He was quite shameless about the fact that he took his pleasure where he could.
The courtesans I had befriended in the three years we'd been playing cards at the brothel all thought the sun rose and set on Arkadian's well-formed ass. It was a sentiment they took great pains to remind me of every chance they got. Never mind that the thought of Arkadian's bare ass made me want to vomit.
"Well, if you must know, Sera," Rhychulson said, using a shortened form of my middle name, Seraphem, as we all did when I was in the city. "Someone has captured my heart. I'm afraid I've found myself quite in love."
