The Hidden Route Picked the Friend novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Regent's Offer
The Regent received them in her morning room, with the windows open on the garden.
She sat at a small round table laid for tea, in a violet gown, with her silver-streaked hair pinned in its crown of braids.
She did not look up when the page announced them.
She went on buttering a piece of toast.
Briony stopped three steps inside the door.
Sevrin stopped half a step ahead of her, with his hands at his sides and the plate over his face.
In the corridor, a moment before, his fingers had found hers and held them hard, once.
Then he had let go and become the under-steward again.
"Sit, child," said Isidora.
"Not you, Dray."
Briony sat.
The chair was low and soft, and put her eyes below the Regent's.
She understood that was the point.
"Tea?"
"No, thank you, Your Majesty."
"You are very polite."
The Regent set down the knife.
She looked at Briony for the first time, with grey eyes that were warm and attentive and utterly kind.
It was the look of a woman choosing a cut of meat.
"I do hold quiet girls dear," she said.
"They see so much and say so little.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Hidden Route Picked the Friend are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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