Chapter 5: Lady Sabelle

Lady Sabelle Vassey took tea with me every Thursday, and that Thursday she came early.

She brought six of the court's ladies with her, as she always did.

They settled on the silk chairs in my solar with their cups in their laps.

I sat at the head of the room with my back straight and my crown on, and I let Sabelle pour.

"You gave us a fright, Majesty," she said. "Edmar was beside himself. He hardly touched his dinner."

"I'm sorry for his dinner."

The ladies tittered.

Sabelle smiled the smile that had won her half of the court.

Everyone remembered her name, you see, and everyone liked saying it.

"We only want you well," she said. "The strain of being so perfect, all these years. Anyone would crack."

"I didn't crack. I counted the steward's sacks."

"Of course you did, dear." She patted my knee.

"It's just that people grow so fond of you in your quiet way, and then you do something dramatic."

"They don't quite know whose Queen they have. A crown is only as strong as what the court remembers."

I put down my cup.

"What does the court remember about me, Lady Sabelle?"

She tilted her golden head, pretending to think.

"That you are very good at ledgers," she said gently.

One of the ladies coughed into her napkin.

I stood up.

I had been planning this since the grain report, and I had been nervous.

Now that I was standing, I was not nervous at all.

"Ladies," I said, "I would like to read from the household roll."

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