110 What Gets Left Behind

Court reconvened again before we knew it. Mariela's tea parties were slightly less terrible than the dowager queen's had been. Partly because I got to spend the majority of the time holding baby Roland and partly because she made sure to include lemonade for me. Bless her. Lemonade would always be better than tea.

Unfortunately, it didn't change the fact that tea parties were hot spots of gossip and inane chatter that made my brain bleed. Every single morning I had to sit around and deal with it.

Rosenia got bad-talked in that special noblewoman way a lot in her absence. Everyone whispered about her fallen state and how she had gotten pregnant too late, being careful to be sure the queen didn't hear. She probably would have burst a blood vessel if she was here so it was for the best that she was stuck in bed.