All Chapters of His Substitute Queen : Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

The wine merchant had been standing in the east hall for eleven minutes, and I had spent every one of them agreeing with him."Three months," he said again, like repeating it might change the number. "Lord Verrian gave his word in the spring.""He did." I kept my hands folded in front of me, my voice calm and even. "And he means to keep it. I only ask you to understand the delay — the harvest tithes haven't been counted yet, and my father won't send you part of what he owes when he can send the whole of it within the fortnight."That much was true, at least. The tithes existed. Whether they'd cover the debt was a different matter, one I'd already worked out three separate ways upstairs, none of which ended with this man getting paid today.He looked at me the way men often did when they weren't sure if they were being handled. I was young, and calm, and spoke to him like his patience actually mattered to me. Usually that did more work than my father's actual promises ever did."A fort

The road to Morvane changed before the border did.I noticed it in small things first — the trees growing sparser, straighter, planted in rows instead of scattered by whatever the land wanted. Then the stone markers, cut clean and square, nothing like Solenne's worn, moss-covered boundary posts. By the time we crossed into Morvane proper, even the air felt different, though I couldn't have said exactly how. Colder, maybe. Or maybe I only expected it to be.I'd spent most of the journey rehearsing. Not lines — Elowen didn't have lines, she had a life I'd only ever watched from the edges of, and I'd spent six days trying to fold myself into the shape of it. Softer voice. Slower movements. A woman who'd never once had to talk a creditor out of collecting a debt, because someone else had always done that for her.I was not doing a very good job of it, and I knew it, and there was nothing to be done about that now.The palace came into view an hour before dusk — not a ruin of a place, as I

Morning came before I was ready for it, gray light through unfamiliar curtains, and for one disoriented moment I forgot where I was and why the ceiling above me was wrong.Then I remembered, all at once, the way you remember a wound the instant before you move the arm that holds it.I lay still for a while, running the conversation from the night before through my mind again, searching for the places I'd stumbled. The garden. The sister. The overseeing. Small things, individually. I couldn't decide if that made them safer or more dangerous.I was still turning it over when the door opened without a knock, and a young woman entered carrying a basin and an armful of folded linen."You're awake." She set the basin down with brisk efficiency, not quite looking at me directly. "I'm Mira. I'll be attending you.""Thank you."She didn't answer that, only moved to the wardrobe and began laying out clothes I hadn't chosen and didn't recognize as my own — soft grays and deep blues, nothing like