Chapter 10: No Permission to Propose

Othriel arrived for breakfast carrying a cushion and no proposal worth hearing.

He placed the cushion on the chair opposite Seravelle.

"For your comfort," he announced to the crowded dining room.

She looked at the portrait of himself embroidered across it.

"You have given me your face to sit on," she said.

He reached for the cushion before the nearest table could examine it.

Caedrin offered him the empty chair beside the cold fireplace.

The little dog remained asleep on the royal mounting stool.

Othriel stared at it long enough to miss his first opportunity to sit.

"I have prepared a private explanation," he told Seravelle.

"Then you need fewer witnesses," she replied.

The prince looked behind him at the two musicians in the doorway.

He sent them outside with a small, furious movement.

One took a bread roll from the serving table as he left.

Seravelle kept her sister's folded map on her lap.

She had knocked at Ilysanne's door before coming downstairs.

Her sister had asked for time to dress before they spoke.

The private letter remained safely hidden between the map's folds.

Caedrin had not asked what she had found beneath the table.

When the innkeeper reached to move the map, he offered an empty tray instead.

Seravelle watched him protect a confidence nobody had asked him to keep.

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