Quilla sat in the front pew and dabbed at her brow with a handkerchief. It was freezing in the church, but she was still sweating. Moving all the gifts into the chancel and setting them up had taken awhile.


    And she still couldn’t remember what had happened that night he’d visited her.


    The Queen was in an eternal huff, of course—no, rage was a better word. Word had come in that Sinit?a had been spotted with Meleng and Jorvan in Beldrum, but they had escaped on board a ship. The King had declared Meleng and Jorvan fugitives of the state. They were to be caught and hanged.


    Meanwhile, Quilla had been trying to get to know the servants. That had not gone particularly well. Marna seemed to have accepted her, but everyone else still saw her as that not-quite-noble someone who pretended to be part of the nobility without actually being part of it, yet who had also abandoned the class of her birth.


    A familiar figure was walking down the nave, trailed by a pair of Royal Guards—someone Quilla hadn’t seen in a long while.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Quilla took a deep breath. “Sure.” Once again, though, she was unsure just how much she should tell. How much about Corvinian? Felit?a? “Maybe let’s go somewhere a little more private though?” She nodded towards Gabriella’s two guards.


    Quilla grimaced. Should she have revealed that? Too late now. “Yes. That’s one of the things I didn’t tell the King and Queen. They don’t know.”


    “Then let’s go with the food and rest. Shall we head back to the Palace?”