Lady Grey,
I have today off, if you’d like that tour of the city you requested. Meet me in the stable yard.
Yours,
Aidan
Kara rolledher eyes at ‘Yours, Aidan.’ She was loathe to go. The man had disastrous timing.
Merry read the note over her shoulder, then squealed and shuffled her feet. “What would you like to wear, mistress?”
“Who said I was going?”
“You—you’re not?”
The level of censure in her voice made Kara blink. She dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her temples. Kendrick was the best connection she’d made at the palace besides Serena and a mage that wanted to bleed her. It’d be foolish to miss this opportunity. She couldn’t let Logan disrupt her life anymore than he already had. If anything, her contract with Calim was even more important now.
Kara collapsed backwards into bed. “Whatever you deem suitable, Merry. I’ve no energy for decisions today.”
Merry’s eyes lit up. She hustled to the armoire, pulled out a low-cut, golden dress the modiste had sent, and laid it out on the bed. “We must do something with your hair, my lady.”
“Must we?”
A week ago Merry would have probably apologized for being too presumptuous, but she was growing used to Kara’s attitude. She nodded fervently and patted the back of the dressing chair.
Kara rolled out of bed, slow as a sleepworm, and plopped down in front of the vanity. She motioned blindly for the coffee, and Merry passed it to her.
Merry began to brush Kara’s hair out, and Kara closed her eyes and relaxed into the sensation. “Are you good with hair?”
“I have four younger sisters that I practiced on.”
“You’ll have to remind me when mine looks a mess. In the country there was rarely a need.”
Fifteen minutes later, Merry had braided and wrapped Kara’s hair into an artful arrangement that hid a score of pins. Kara fought the urge to scratch her scalp.
Merry slid open one of the vanity drawers, and Kara’s heart stuttered, hoping it wasn’t the one with the demon’s drip. She relaxed when Mary pulled out a necklace and a pair of earrings strung with yellow crystals. The shade matched the dress perfectly.
Merry passed her the earrings, and Kara paused when she realized the implication. Her ears weren’t pierced. She’d had no jewelry growing up. Why put a hole in a perfectly good earlobe?
“My ears aren’t pierced.”
Merry looked more taken aback than when Kara had stripped in front of her. “Really? Most women in Lerathil have their ears pierced as children.”
Kara shrugged. “Never got around to it.”
“I can do it for you, if you’d like. I did my sisters’. With proper care, the risk of infection is low.”
The offer surprised Kara. It’d be a small sacrifice to fit in at court, and in truth, she thought piercings looked dashing on both men and women. “I’ll take you up on that.”
Merry put the earrings back and draped the necklace around Kara’s neck, snapping the clasp closed with a click.
Kara hardly recognized herself in the mirror. Seeing herself like this made her miss a part of herself that’d never existed—made her imagine a life where her parents had survived the Curse Wars and she’d had a normal childhood. She had no memory of her parent’s faces; she’d been too young. As a child, she’d convinced herself Da was her real father, ignoring Wesley’s insistence on disabusing her of that notion.
“Would you care for any cosmetics? Glamours?”
Kara tilted her head back and blinked away a tear. Of course the aristocrats were rubbing magic on their faces. “Not today, Merry. Thank you. This is perfect.”
“You don’t need them. You look beautiful. Kendrick will fall at your feet.”
