Their Hidden Princess novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: The Commandant's Study

I fished the note out of my porridge and licked my thumb.

"Tell your uncle I'll come straight up," I said. "In something nice."

Clarice's smile flickered.

Maudie snorted into her milk.

I didn't change.

I went up the Commandant's tower in my shirt and tie with oats drying on my cuff.

His study was at the top. It had been the old Commandant's, all books and maps and a dog bed nobody had taken away.

Varrick had taken everything else away.

Now there was a bare desk, a black coat on a hook and a fire burning too hot.

My portrait sat on the desk, propped against the inkwell.

Me at nineteen. Pearls in my hair. A sour little mouth.

Varrick didn't look up from his letter.

"Sit."

I sat.

He wrote three more lines, blotted them and folded the paper. He sealed it with black wax and his ring.

Only then did he look at me.

"Clarice says you fought Dunstan in the yard on your first day," he said.

"Briefly, my lord."

"Good. Girls should learn what a fist feels like."

"So should men," I said.

The words were out before I could stop them.

His pale eyes rested on me.

Then he laughed. It was a short dry sound.

"Fenmarch manners," he said. "Tell me about the hunt."

I told him about the boathouse, the crypt and the granary.

I told him nothing at all.

He listened with his fingers steepled under his beard.

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