Written to Die for the Angel, So I Exposed Her First novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The King's Hearing

The court sat in the old customs hall, because the royal palace had been given over to a wedding.

The King had said he would hear the matter where the port could hear it.

By nine in the morning the hall was full to the doors.

Merchants, pilots, fishwives and nobles stood shoulder to shoulder under the hammer-beam roof.

Outside, in the square, a crowd of thousands waited in the rain for news.

The King sat on a plain oak chair on the dais with the Queen at his side.

Below them stood a long table.

At the table sat Aurelie Quillon in a pale grey gown, her hair simply plaited and her hands folded in her lap.

She looked about fifteen.

Perrine stood on the other side of the floor in the brown wool dress, with Garance behind her and a guard at each elbow.

Lucan stood at her right.

Nobody had told him where to stand.

"Let us begin," said the King.

It took two hours.

The Queen's chamberlain read the letter from the cutting-room desk.

The bowman was hauled in with an iron on his ankle.

He repeated that the Warden's guards had beaten him, and that the girl in blue had paid.

Aurelie wept twice, quietly, and each time the Queen's face softened.

By noon Perrine felt the room settling toward a verdict.

"Lady Valmorin," said the King at last. "You have heard the evidence. Have you anything to say?"

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