Chapter 10: The Silver Hare

Ravielle sat down on the floor under the window with the empty prayer book in her lap.

"Hanne!"

The maid came at a run, and stopped when she saw Ravielle's face.

"Who's been in my rooms?"

"Nobody, my lady." Hanne thought. "Master Damien came up on Sunday while you were at Vaelhart house. He said you'd sent for your grey shawl."

"I don't own a grey shawl."

"You own four, my lady."

Of course she did.

For three years that woman had written down every frightened thought she had, and now the book was in Damien's pocket.

Ravielle made herself breathe.

Damien had the book, but she had something better.

She had been to the Silver Hare.

At nineteen she had won her first hundred crowns there, masked, and lost them again the same night, and gone back the next week for revenge.

And she had seen Damien there more than once, at the deep-play tables in the back.

He lost.

She had thought it was funny.

She had thought him harmless.

"Hanne," she said. "Find me a mask. And my black domino cloak, if she didn't give that away too."

"The young lady gave it to the Temple, my lady."

"Then find me one of the duchess's."

The duchess's domino was dove grey and smelled of lavender.

The Silver Hare hadn't changed at all, with the same red walls, the same smoke and the same roar of voices from the long room.

The same woman sat in the high chair by the cash table, with rings on every finger.

She took one look at the way Ravielle walked in and lifted a painted eyebrow.

"Well," said the owner. "I'd heard you'd taken up praying."

"I've put it down again."

"So I see." She smiled like a fox. "You still owe the house twelve crowns from three years ago."

"Put it on my account."

"You don't have an account anymore. You closed it. You wrote me a letter of apology."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Villainess Woke Up Mid-Confession from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.