The Duke Should Divorce Me, So Why Is He Stalling My Death? novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: A Letter in My Hand

The Temple tea was held on the fifteenth day, in a glass hall full of white flowers.

Forty ladies of the Court sat in rows of gilt chairs, holding cups they were too nervous to drink from.

Lysandra took the seat the Saintess had marked for her, in the front, next to the aisle.

She wore green, and she carried a small flat satchel on her lap.

Anneliese poured the tea herself.

She moved from chair to chair with a silver pot and a soft word for each woman, and when she reached the Duchess she smiled and set the pot down.

"Duchess. How good to see you home and well."

"Saintess. I hope the road was kind."

"It was long," said Anneliese. "I found the Duke well, praise the Founders. Not a scratch on him."

"We were lucky."

"I would call it very lucky indeed."

She went on to the next chair.

Lysandra watched her go and tightened her hand on the satchel.

Last night, in bed, Alaric had told her what would happen at the tea.

"They'll try the adultery," he'd said into her hair. "It was a letter, the first time. A love letter, in your hand, to a count. The Prince's mother found it in your rooms."

"It's page one-twenty," she'd said. "A Temple tea. It's read out loud."

"By whom?"

"The Countess who runs the Temple board. She's very fond of reading things out."

He had looked at her for a long moment.

"Then let her read," he said.

The Countess rose now from the front row, a stout woman in a purple gown with a heavy red face.

She held a folded paper in two fingers.

"Ladies," she said. "I have been asked, with a heavy heart, to share a letter that was found in the Veyrath house."

A murmur went around the hall.

"I do not read it with pleasure. But a Temple is a place of truth. It was found, we are told, in the Duchess's own writing desk."

Lysandra sat very still.

The Countess unfolded the paper and cleared her throat.

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