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Or rather, a single ally, as it turns out she has banned her daughters from this particular tête-à-tête.
The queen sits regally in her chair, a brocaded gown of crimson and gold silk trailing to the floor around her. Though I’m dressed the part, and I’ve been given countless lessons on how to handle this exact scenario, I can’t help but feel out of place here.
Perhaps that’s why I insist on bringing Pumpkin, to carve my own space into this setting.
I settle into the seat across from her, fanning out my skirts. She blinks several times at the creature on my shoulder, and I smile demurely.
“He doesn’t like to be left alone just yet.”
“It’s interesting,” she says, signaling for the staff to serve the tea. “No one on staff at the menagerie recalls procuring a monkey as a gift for my son’s new bride, but they do mention one who was recently meant to be sent to the furriers for terrorizing the palace. I believe he meets that exact description.”
“Thatisinteresting,” I agree blandly. “Perhaps Francis could shed some light on that situation.”
I smile at the thought of her asking him, hoping he enjoys being put on the spot as much as I did earlier.
She raises an eyebrow, the expression a mirror of the one her son makes. Once our tea is poured, she dismisses the servants with a wave of her hand before turning back to me.
“Indeed. I find a great many things areinterestingwhere you’re concerned, Lady Aika.”
It would appear that I was optimistic in assuming she was softening toward me.
“Oh?” I ask, taking a sip of my tea.
It burns my tongue, but I don’t outwardly wince.
“Tell me, was it your stepmother who arranged for you to meet my son before the ball?” Apparently, the girls were wrong about her asking direct questions.
Perhaps she reserves such bluntness for her son’s unwanted bride.
I blink innocently at her, and she waves a hand.
“Come now, Lady Delmara may be an old friend of mine, but let’s not pretend she doesn’t enjoy her scheming.”
Oh, Katriane. You have no idea.
I let out a soft laugh.
“I was under the impression you were supportive of the arrangement,” I say as vaguely as possible, so that I could be alluding to a prearranged meeting or the marriage itself.
She frowns. “I was, and am, supportive of whatever keeps my son safe, which includes keeping our kingdom as peaceful as possible. He, however, wasnotin support of anything to do with this marriage, so imagine my surprise when he shows up all but panicking over a girl he’s allegedly known for a handful of hours, one he didn’t want to marry to begin with.”
I tuck away the idea of Remy panicking over me before I can react to it, allowing a bit of indignation to show on my features.
“Perhaps he was only upset over an innocent girl being sent to the gallows,” I offer in a steely voice.
Her lips purse, and she takes a silent sip of her tea. “Andwereyou innocent?”
She’s finally arrived at the reason for this meeting, an issue she clearly has no intention of burying. I don’t answer, and she presses forward.
“You do realize that anything that destabilizes the kingdom puts my son directly in harm’s way?”
It’s then I realize that, like Remy, she is less concerned with what Ihavedone than what Iwilldo. So I meet her eyes solidly, dropping every ounce of pretense from my features.
“I would never do anything to put your son in harm’s way,” I state clearly. “In fact, I would give my life to prevent it.”
She studies me for a long moment, her wide, brown eyes—so like her son’s—unblinking. Then she nods like she’s decided on something.
Reaching underneath her voluminous skirts, she pulls out a black rectangular object. I’m so unprepared for its presence that it takes me longer than it should to recognize it.
