They Gave the Doomed Duke the Wrong Bride novel · Chapter 26 of 32
Chapter 26: The Hall
Two guards in palace red took Everard by the arms.
He let them.
A third came down the hall toward me with his glove held out.
I lifted the cord over my head myself.
The key swung from my fingers, black and plain.
"Here," I said, and dropped it into his glove. "It won't open anything for you."
The Prince laughed.
"It doesn't need to," he said. "It only needs to stay shut."
He came down two steps, smiling at the court.
"My lords. The Chancellor warned me about this. His bastard keeps her stolen goods in some witch's cupboard nobody else can find. She claims there are books in it. Books that blame good men for a coward's defeat." He spread his hands. "So where are they? Show us."
My father stood on the step behind him.
He looked at me the way he used to look at me over a column of figures. Patient. Sure of the total.
"There are no books, girl," he said gently, for the hall. "There never were. You wrote them on the road, out of spite. I should never have taught you to write."
Somebody in the gallery laughed.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of They Gave the Doomed Duke the Wrong Bride are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 25 · All chapters · Chapter 27 →
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