should go back inside, but there were too many memories there. She couldn’t do it.


    Sinit?a took Quilla’s hand, her fingers sticky. She led Quilla to a table containing an artist’s palette, several jars of paint, and a dozen or more brushes. “I’m going to paint a portrait of Garet for his funeral. I have several others, but they’re not very good because he would never sit still. But I thought if I use those as references, I can paint him from memory and do a better job. I hope. What do you think of these shades?” She indicated several blobs of brown paint on the palette.


    Quilla took a goblet as three other handmaids surrounded Sinit?a. The Princess raised her arms as one lifted the apron off her. A second dabbed at Sinit?a’s cheeks with a cloth, wiping away the paint-tear streaks, while the third wiped one hand and then the other. They did it with practised precision. Sinit?a didn’t even stop walking towards the chairs as the handmaids did their work.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    sips had been somewhat larger and longer. She should have asked Della to leave the wine tray.


    sleep, she doesn’t mean sleep. She means sex. But I know she’s wrong. Meleng’s my friend, and I love him. But I don’t want to have sex with him and he doesn’t want to have sex with me, and I like that.” She smiled. “Okay?”