A Careful Alliance

~ ZARA ~

Getting to the dining room for breakfast the next morning was an odd internal conflict. The anxiety I'd felt yesterday was back—a kind of creeping dread that convinced my body someone was hiding somewhere and about to attack.

At the same time, I was dying to see David, and maybe Roselind, to see if they'd successfully thwarted yesterday's Duke. That curiosity—and burning sense of injustice—shoved me forward. So by the time I got to the dining room I was tense, my chest twisting with conflicting emotions.

Neither of them were there, of course. But Roselind arrived soon after me, sweeping into the room in the way she did, once again the perfect picture of poise. But I didn't miss the smudges under her eyes—or the fact that she didn't look around the room like she usually would, to choose the chair she thought would most likely put her close to whoever she was aiming for. Which was usually David.