The Villainess Woke Up Mid-Confession novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Keys

Ravielle didn't go down the steps.

She stood in the open doorway in her wrapper, with the freezing wind blowing her hair across her face, and looked at the cart.

"No," she said.

"Ravielle." Her father's voice had gone thin. "Don't make this harder."

"I'm going to make it a great deal harder, Father. You might want to sit down."

The servants had gathered.

The footmen lined the back of the hall, the housemaids crowded the stairs, and the cook had come up from the kitchen in her apron, wiping flour off her big forearms.

And at the top of the stairs, in a grey dressing gown, stood the duchess, with Liliane beside her.

Liliane didn't look at Ravielle.

"By the law of this house," Ravielle said, "the heir carries the keys of Ardentis once she's of age."

"You gave them to me," Damien said. "Of your own free will. You said you weren't fit to carry them."

"I've changed my mind."

"You can't simply change your mind."

"I'm the villainess of the Empire, cousin. It's the one thing I've always been allowed to do."

Damien's face didn't move.

He looked to the duke.

The duke looked at his slippers.

So Ravielle turned her back on both of them and faced the hall.

"My cousin the steward wants me sent to the Sisters of the Faith," she said. "They lock their doors from outside. If I go, I don't come out until they carry me to the Assize. I imagine I'd arrive very quiet."

Nobody spoke.

"So you can choose," she said. "Anyone who thinks I belong in that cart can carry my trunks down to it. Anyone who doesn't can carry them back upstairs."

She folded her arms.

"I'll wait."

Thirty people stood in that hall.

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