She had always been believed.
I felt a weak stir of pity. It was no match for the years and years of bitterness, but it moved me to one final twist of the knife.
“Let us be charitable,” I said gently, “even in times of crisis. Could someone please fetch me my purse?”
Three guards tried to do it at once. Once I had the purse in hand, I opened it and walked over to Gisele.
“Vanja,” she whispered. “Don’t do this. Please.”
I handed her a single white penny.
It would be enough to take her to town, at least.
And then I returned to camp with Adalbrecht’s soldiers, and did not look back.
No one asked where Gisele’s maid went. Yannec was busy trying to grease up friends among the officers, and Joniza wouldn’t leave Sovabin
for another week. No one even remembered my name.
The loyal maid was gone.
And a few days later, Gisele-Berthilde Ludwila von Falbirg, future margravine of Bóern, arrived in Minkja to walk into the wolf’s jaws herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY- THREE
TheSafestWay
I stare at Gisele, utterly winded. “NO? I’m giving you everything!”
“I don’t want it. All tonight did was remind me how miserable I was,” Gisele says. “Everyone here hates everyone else, and they all think they’re smarter and better because they’re playing these stupid games to try to tear everyone else down. It’s disgusting. I don’t want to go back.”
I’m rapidly trading astonishment for fury. “Then why are you even mad at me? Youstilldon’t want this life!”
“Because you took it from me!” Gisele balls her fists in the sheets. “You didn’t ask what I wanted. Maybe I would have agreed to something like this, maybe we could have figured something out, but it wasn’t your choice to make!”
“I, er. I’ll wait outside.” Emeric starts scooting toward the veranda door.
Ragne sits up straight, tail lashing and nostrils flaring. “The margrave is coming.”
“Scheit, already?” I mutter. Themahrhasn’t been dead for more than a minute or two. “I’ll handle him. You.” I point at Gisele and swipe Emeric’s cloak and scarf from the ground where he’d dropped them coming in. “Give me the dressing gown. And you.” I toss Emeric his belongings. “It’s too cold out for the veranda. Take Ragne and hide in the wardrobe. Ragne, be a squirrel or something.” She shrinks into a black cat and leaps into Emeric’s arms as he heads for the wardrobe, and I internally scream at the fact that I’ve just ordered him into a tight space with my underthings, but there’s no time to walk it back now.
I peel the plaster off my ruby teardrop, grab the pearls, trade Gisele the blanket I’ve been wearing, yank on the dressing gown, and clasp on the pearls just as there’s a thunderous knock at the door. It flies open a moment later.
I’m starting to really enjoy the alarm on Adalbrecht’s face when he realizes, once again, his naive, empty-headed teenage fiancée has somehow waltzed around a trap.
“My—my dewdrop,” he stammers. “I was told there were screams.”
I’ve made a very deliberate calculation: There’s no point in pretending I didn’t see the monster he just sicced on us. Instead I bury my face in my hands, shuddering. “Oh, it wasdreadful! There was a hideous little beast in my skirts, and it tried to—it tried to—” I burst into heaving, dramatic sobs.
“There, there.” He awkwardly pats my head. “Are you sure you didn’t just imagine it, dearest? Your nerves must be in quite a state after such a busy night. Perhaps you nodded off and had a bad dream.”
Is heserious? I have rug burns and bloodstains from tackling that thing, and he thinks—no, this is how men like him work. They do something wretched and try to convince you it wasn’t that bad, then pretend it never happened at all.
Instead I point a quaking finger at the gore-splattered fireplace he’s conveniently ignored. “If Poldi hadn’t saved me . . .”
Thekoboldsalutes us with a dismembered horse hand.
A vein jumps in Adalbrecht’s brow. “That’s . . . dreadful,” he manages to squeeze out between gritted teeth. “I’ll go tell the guards to keep alert. We wouldn’t want anything happening to the guests.”
