They Broke the Duke's Bastard, Now She Is His Only Heir novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The King's Court

The throne room of Aldermark was longer than the whole Lantern Hall, and every lord in the river lands seemed to be standing in it.

I walked up the red carpet on my crutch, with Doran at my elbow and not touching it.

Every step was a blade in both knees.

I did not let my face show it.

The King sat at the end on a tall chair of black oak.

He was sixty, thin and gray, with a hollow cough he covered in his sleeve.

At his right hand stood the Duke.

At his left stood Odette, in white, with her head bowed and her hands folded.

"Your Majesty," she said in a trembling voice, before anyone else had spoken. "I did not wish to bring this woman before you. She was my dearest friend. But she stole from my mother, and she has run from justice, and she has frightened the people in the Square."

"She healed a dying child in front of three thousand people," Doran said. "I saw it."

"A trick, Marshal. A convict's trick."

"Let her speak," the King said.

He looked at me for a long moment.

His eyes were tired and sharper than I had expected.

"Liora Ashdown. They say you danced the Midsummer lanterns four years running."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"They say you stole a necklace."

"I did not."

"Who did?"

I took a breath.

"I can name the maid who carried it to my trunk. She is at the Duke's hunting lodge at the weir. I ask for the King's wardens to bring her here to answer."

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