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Chapter 29: The First Snowman
publish date:
2026-08-17 04:58:24
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The Duchess of Frostmane Chapter 34: Elysia's Shadow
Agnes pinned the last fold of my sleeve into place, then stepped back to look me over with her arms crossed."You look like a Duchess expecting trouble.”"I am.""Good. Then you won't be caught off guard when it comes." She reached over and straightened the moonstone pin at my collar. It was my mother's, and I hadn't worn it since the wedding. "Cedric's right. They'll notice if you don't wear it. Priests notice everything, especially anything they can use against you later.”"You make it sound like they're coming here looking for something to criticize.”"They're coming because that girl in the capital has become popular. And when someone becomes that popular, people start wondering who else might be worth watching.” Agnes tucked a stray pin back into her own hair. "I've seen three visits like this since I came to this house. They always leave as if they've accomplished something, whether they actually have or not.”Cedric caught me in the hall on my way downstairs, a letter still in
The Duchess of Frostmane Chapter 33: The Missing Heirloom
"It was on the mirror stand. I hung it there myself, the way I always do." Lady Aldwyn Fenwick's voice carried down the corridor before I'd even reached the guest wing. A maid two doors down nearly dropped her armful of linens. "And now it's gone.”By the time I stepped into the room, everyone was already in place. Agnes stood near the door with her hands folded, her expression carefully blank. I knew that look. She was furious. Two young maids stood against the far wall, their eyes fixed on the floor. Lady Fenwick gripped the edge of her vanity mirror, looking ready to shake an answer out of it."My lady." I kept my voice level. "What's happened?"She rounded on me so quickly that I barely had time to step aside."Your Grace. My pendant is missing. Moonstone, set in old silver. It's been in my family for three generations. I hung it on this stand less than two hours ago, and now it's gone." She swept a hand toward the two maids. "One of them took it. Search them. Search the whole hou
The Duchess of Frostmane Chapter 32: Return of the Wolf
The horses came through the gate at a dead run, and Evren was off his before it had fully stopped. His boots hit the frozen ground hard enough that he caught himself against the animal's flank for half a second before straightening.Blood soaked one side of his shirt, dark and stiffening in the cold. A gash ran along his ribs where something had gotten through his coat."Get the men fed and the horses seen to," he said to Kael, already moving toward the keep like the blood down his side was someone else's problem entirely. "I want a full account of the eastern line by morning."I stepped directly into his path."You're bleeding through your shirt.""I'm aware.""Then you're going to sit down and let someone look at it before you give a single other order.""Odette.""That wasn't a question."He looked at me, jaw tight, and shifted his weight as if he meant to walk around me. I didn't move. Whatever he saw in my expression made him think better of it."Fine," he said, which cost him so
The Duchess of Frostmane Chapter 31: Skirmish Aftermath
"You'll send word the moment anything changes. Not after breakfast. Not after you've decided it's serious enough. The moment it changes."Evren was already pulling on his gloves, standing by the stable door while the riders behind him checked girths and saddlebags in the gray half-light. I told him I understood. He looked at me for a second, then nodded and swung up onto his horse."Hold the house," he said. "That's all I'm asking.""I can hold a house, Evren.""I know." Then he was gone, the riders falling in behind him, hooves loud on the frozen yard before fading toward the eastern road.Cedric found me in the study not long after. A stack of correspondence waited on the desk, along with the ducal seal on the small stand where Evren usually kept it."Rent accounts, mostly. A few matters that need the seal rather than just a signature." He set the stack down and nodded at it. "Someone still has to see to them, skirmish or not.""Even with him gone?""Someone has to use it, Your Grac
The Duchess of Frostmane Chapter 30: Nella's Terrible First Impression
Nella’s POV"Move, move, move!"Petyr shouted it from somewhere behind me, as if I wasn't already moving fast enough. I had a full tray of soup in my hands, with two extra bowls balanced along the edge. I had three steps left to the officers' table when his shoulder caught my elbow. The tray tipped sideways, straight toward Sir Kael, who happened to look up from his supply list at exactly the wrong moment."Oh, no," he managed. Then the soup was all over his coat, and the corridor went silent. Every kitchen hand nearby suddenly found the floor very interesting. Petyr had already vanished. I was going to kill him."I'm sorry. Petyr ran into me, and I didn't see him, and the tray just tipped. I'm sorry."I reached for a towel, only to realize I was already holding one. Kael took it from me and wiped his sleeve without much hurry, like he'd spilled the soup himself."It's soup," he said. "Not a war crime."He nodded toward the second tray still wobbling on my hip. "Watch the corners next
The Duchess of Frostmane Chapter 29: The First Snowman
"If you don't come outside right now, I'm building it in your likeness."Nella said it through the door before she'd even finished opening it, snow already melting in her hair. I set down my quill. I wasn't foolish enough to ignore a threat like that."In my likeness.""Twigs for hair. Very accurate." She grabbed my wrist and pulled. I let her. Arguing with Nella after she'd made up her mind was usually more exhausting than giving in.The courtyard had transformed overnight. Snow lay thick and unbroken across the stones. Half the household was already outside, and somehow it looked like everyone else was on their way. Servants I recognized from the kitchens stood in a huddle around a lopsided mound. Two stable hands were arguing over whose snowman had better proportions. Someone had already started crying foul, while someone else quietly placed bets on who Berta would target next."It started an hour ago," Nella said, entirely too pleased with herself. "I told Old Berta her snowman lo
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