He Sold Me Into Slavery, I Returned as Queen novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: The Sleeve
By morning, half the palace knew a candidate's squire had been caught in the dungeon with a poison reed.
The Council sat at nine, with the gallery packed to the doors.
The trader was brought in on a chain, gray-faced from the night's coughing.
Maud stood at her elbow with a vial in case her lungs gave out.
Lysander sat on the throne with his hands flat on the armrests.
He had not spoken to me since the cell, and I had not slept.
"You asked to be heard," he told the trader. "Speak, and the Crown will weigh what you say."
"I want a pardon first," she said.
"You'll get a hearing first."
She spat to one side and shrugged.
"Fine. For fifteen years a boy has paid my yard every spring to keep selling a girl off to farther and worse places. Ten silver, Highmoor wax. The last spring, he came himself."
"Who?" Aldous Pellam snapped.
"That one."
She pointed at Corvin, who sat on the first bench with Rosamund gripping his arm.
Corvin looked around the chamber in blank astonishment.
"I have never seen this woman in my life," he said.
"You'd taken off your gloves that day," the trader said. "You'd got your first beard stubble. You stood in my yard and said, 'Sell her further,' and your voice cracked on the last word."
Somebody in the gallery laughed.
Corvin flushed, and for the first time in two days it did not look rehearsed.
"Speak again, boy," the trader said. "Say it the way you said it."
"This is outrageous," Corvin said.
Keep reading free with an account. Start He Sold Me Into Slavery, I Returned as Queen from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 5 · All chapters · Chapter 7 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend