From Betrayed Luna to Crowned Princess의 모든 챕터: 챕터 191 - 챕터 200

Ravena's POV With Erik finally past the worst of it, sleeping more soundly every night and speaking a little more every day, I let myself breathe for the first time in weeks. The house was quiet in the way it had not been quiet in a very long time. Liora had taken Celeste under her wing while she healed. The guards had settled back into their normal rotations. The wedding was four days away and the air around the compound had a strange tension.

The voice from the middle of the floor had asked the question, and Lady Vivienne had given her smooth answer, and for a moment it seemed the matter would settle there. The musicians had not stopped. The wine was still being poured. A handful of the older women had gone back to their conversations.But Lady Vivienne's smile had thinned, and the women near the front of the room had seen it.She lifted her cup and took a small sip. When she set the cup back down, her voice was lighter than before, and a degree colder."You must understand," she said, to the room at large, looking at no one in particular. "This is a private gathering. My banquet is not a place that just anyone can walk into. There are standards. There are levels. Not every name belongs on every list."The women sitting closest to her exchanged the smallest of glances.The ones who lived for her favour heard the opening she had given them, and they stepped through it."Of course, my lady," said one of them, a slim woman in

The doors at the back of the hall were already swinging open by the time the third noblewoman reached them. And the maids were scrambling to keep up. In the middle of all of it, Princess Liora and Duchess Marianne sat very still.Marianne had not moved from her place by the window. Her wine cup was still in her hand. The mild smile she had been wearing for the last hour had dropped off her face entirely, and what was left was a much harder thing. She was watching the women leave the hall, and she was counting. Counting which house. Counting which name. Counting

Ravena's POV I looked at the faces around me, at the Elders half-risen from their seats and the Alphas leaning forward and the literary crowd already shifting their cups out of their own way to clear a path through the long table. And I smiled.I turned, very slightly, towards Lady Vivienne."My lady," I said, loud enough for the front of the hall to hear, "I wouldn't feel right deciding such a thing on my own. They are paintings of a kind that touch this household, and you are the most senior woman in our family. If you agree to a sale, the gentlemen are welcome to make their selections. If you don't, then I wouldn't wish to part with a single one."The hall went still for just a second.Lady Vivienne raised her head, and I saw the colour come up in her cheeks. She laughed lightly, the way an older woman laughed when she wanted the room to know she was not making a fuss."Goodness, child," she said. "I am hardly the one to make such decisions. They are your paintings. They were gift

Ravena's POV The following day, I got up before the sun and rode out to Hollowmere with two of my warriors and a small cart.Hollowmere sat half a day's ride south of Valemont, at the crossing of three trade roads, and it was the only place close enough to ride to in a single day that had everything I still needed for the wedding. The thread for the bridal sashes. The small lacquered combs for the head pieces. The good wax for the seals on the marriage scrolls. The silver bowls for the moon water ceremony. Small things. Necessary things.