They Broke the Duke's Bastard, Now She Is His Only Heir novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Inquiry Opens
The inquiry sat in the Hall of Justice, with the King on a high bench and four hundred people on the stone benches below.
I stood in the witness box with two steel braces strapped over my gown, because Doran had sat up half the night making the smith fit them.
They held my knees straight.
They did not stop the pain.
"Liora Ashdown," the King's clerk read. "Tell the court what was done to you at Greywater."
I told it plainly.
I said that on my first night two guards took me to the empty storeroom and held me down.
I said that a third man swung a mallet, once for each knee.
I said that the steward wrote *fell on stairs* in his ledger while I lay on the floor and listened to him write it.
A woman in the third row began to cry.
"I object," Odette said.
She sat at the Duke's right hand in white, with a black ribbon at her throat for the chaplain.
"Your Majesty, the witness is a convicted thief. We have only her word."
"You have more than her word," Doran said, and stood.
He held up Moxon's black ledger.
"This was found in the steward's trunk. It records forty deaths in three years, a vial of blood drawn monthly from this woman and sent to the lady, and a single sheet dated the week before Midsummer."
He gave the sheet to the clerk, and the clerk read it aloud.
*Break both knees on arrival, the first night. Not the hands. She is never to dance again. By the Duke's seal.*
The Hall was so quiet I could hear the King's chair creak.
"Seen, O.," the clerk finished. "In a second hand."
"A forgery," Odette said quickly. "My handwriting has been copied before. Father, tell them."
The Duke sat with his hands on his knees.
His eyes were glassy and slow, and his lips had a sheen of sweat.
Keep reading free with an account. Start They Broke the Duke's Bastard, Now She Is His Only Heir from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend