Chapter Nine

The table in one of the lesser Halls was already set for supper. Shocked gasps greeted their entrance. Miriam held her head high, her carriage royal as she made her way to the seats reserved for the guards and their wives or women.

“Touting for business?” Daphne hissed, her voice carrying a long way.

“I leave that to you, dear sister,” Miriam replied, placing a napkin on her lap.

“We are here to negotiate,” Ketil said, helping himself from a platter of cold meats.

“Seeing as you have my choker now, Daphne, I feel it only right you return those jewels which were – no, are – mine.”

“What is she talking about, Dee?” Lady Rutherford asked.

“I know not. Something trumped up between the pair of them, no doubt.”

Miriam waited to be served with wild mushroom soup, before continuing, “And I will have my gowns.”

“What need have you of those now?”

The scorn almost had him reaching for his dagger.

“They are hers by right.”

“You cannot deny it, my lady,” Magnus said. He had arrived early, and no S