جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 63

AilisDeren remained still long enough that I lowered Before the Last Bell completely.His gaze had shifted again. Not far. My face, then somewhere near my shoulder, then back.I followed it downward.Brown wool.Oh.I had spent the morning becoming progressively less aware of what I was wearing. That had been possible in the lower market, where brown wool was entirely respectable, and at the Nine Arches, where most people had been dressed for walking.General Aodren's private apartments were less forgiving.The dress was clean. The seams were sound. I had checked both this morning, although my standards then had been appropriate for eating bren rather than entering a royal palace. My boots had been chosen for walking. My hair had been arranged more softly because --No.The hair was not the problem.Probably.I knew what women wore when received in royal households. House Edevane had been minor nobility, not ignorant nobility. If Mother had known I intended to spend the morning in a

Aodren“Explain.”“The trace I noticed on Lady Ailis was not an ordinary transfer.”That narrowed the question considerably.I had already considered mate recognition at the Nine Arches. Scent. Persistent attention. Preference for proximity. None had been conclusive alone.Deren had noticed something I could not use my own senses to confirm.“How certain are you?”“That I noticed it? Entirely.”“And what it means?”“Less so.”Better.Deren had served Draevyr households longer than I had been alive. If he refused certainty, there was insufficient evidence for certainty.“Recognition?”“Possibly.”The same answer I had reached myself.With another fact supporting it.I glanced toward the palace gates. Ailis’s carriage was long gone from view.“Anything else?”“Nothing I would call proof.”“Then neither will I.”Deren inclined his head.I went back inside.The afternoon supplied no revelation. It supplied reports.The northern companies had changed two officers since the last inspection.