than I believe Your Majesty would look lovely in this fashion, and the idea of the Aulunian queen echoing it amuses me. It would suit Your Majesty; it would not suit her.”
Nor would it. Belinda thought Lorraine too wise to fall for such an obvious prat, but she was vain and considered herself-rightfully, as a queen-as a maker of fashion. Moreover, there was something inherently youthful about the loose lines of Eliza’s design, and Lorraine’s vanity was tightly tied to an unaging, girlish self-image. To have such a fashion come out of Lutetia and to have it look poorly on her might injure an enormous pride that Belinda had no need to prick, but which suited Beatrice enormously.
Emotion raged behind Sandalia’s mild expression. Belinda could all but taste it, sudden glee on the Essandian princess’s part at the idea of flaunting the sixteen-year gap between her age and Lorraine’s. Belinda had no need to touch the queen’s hand and read her thoughts: amusement and avarice washed off her, almost as clear as words, and echoed the lines Belinda wanted her to follow. Setting a new fashion, one that played to her youth, would remind not just the Gallic and Essandian peoples but the Aulunians, that Lorraine was aging, and Sandalia still so young as to be able to bear another heir. That she was only just young enough hardly mattered; Lorraine, at fifty-five, still seemed to flirt with the idea, and if a people could accept that, they could far more readily believe that thirty-nine-year-old Sandalia might mother a second child.
Moreover, there was the question of Javier. Lorraine had no heir and Javier, as grand-nephew to Lorraine’s father’s, first-and by the Ecumenical church, only legitimate-wife, had in the eyes of many the only genuine claim to the Aulunian throne. Sandalia was comfortable in her position as regent, reluctant to give away her power to a son whom some murmured should have taken the throne at his sixteenth year. Reminding Aulun of Javier’s presence, even in so simple a way as introducing new fashions that played to vitality and beauty, could benefit an intention to set the prince on Aulun’s throne, leaving her own seat in Gallin unchallenged.
Belinda lowered her eyes, no longer certain if she followed Sandalia’s emotion or her own-plan, she found herself thinking, and the stillness came over her whether she wanted it to or not.
We face insurrection against our own beloved queen. Robert’s words hung heavily in Belinda’s mind, his voice as clear as if she heard him speaking now. She had come to Lutetia to seek out a plot against a pretender reaching for Aulun’s throne, and to whisper word of that plot in her father’s ear when the time came. That the seeds of it lay dormant in the men and women she’d met, Belinda had no doubt. It was too soon, too soon by far, to know whether Sandalia herself strove for the ends threatened by Robert’s warning, but something new shaped itself now. If those ends were not yet in place, then Belinda herself might put them there, might push and prod the pieces into place in order to devastate Gallin and Essandia alike, leaving Aulun and Lorraine and the Reformation unchallenged in western Echon.
Coldness spurted through Belinda’s hands, alien ambition rising in her so rapidly that only the safety of self- imposed and uncrackable control kept her breath from quickening. All her life she had been sent to spy, to do murder, and to inspire treacherous lust. Never had she found herself so close to guiding strings with her own fingers. There did not have to be rebellion to root out, nor a queen piece to dislodge. She could build the rebellion, and damn a princess in the making of it.
Inexplicable joy tore her heart upward, giving it the wings of desire and excitement, so unfamiliar to her as to nearly undo her. For an instant even her control faltered, a smile of astonishment playing at her lips. Had Robert intended her to step into such a powerful position, or did his intelligence lead him to deeper plots than she had yet seen? The latter she would discover, and the former, if it was not so, would be a jewel in her crown of quiet triumphs.
Sandalia saw the smile that touched Belinda’s lips and read it the only way she could, her voice light and amused. “It is a dangerous thing to heap laughter on one monarch’s head when you stand in the presence of another, Lady Beatrice.”
Belinda lifted her gaze to the Gallic queen and let her smile come more fully, no repentance in it. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
To her delight, Sandalia laughed aloud and Javier, at his mother’s right elbow, slumped a few inches in his seat, shooting Belinda a look that told her all too clearly what a fine line she’d chosen to walk. She didn’t dare drop a wink of reassurance, both propriety and her own relief preventing it, but her smile crinkled her eyes, more emotion than she was accustomed to letting through. “We will see your Eliza in our private chambers next week, Javier,” Sandalia said. “We prefer not to be offered pink. You may go.”
Fierce delight and a thick wave of gratitude swept out from the ginger-haired prince, though he merely inclined his head and crooked a small smile of his own. “Yes, Mother. I’ll tell her.” He stood, executing an elegant bow to the tiny woman who’d birthed him, and Sandalia put a hand on his arm as he turned away.
“Do not become too attached, Javier.” She spoke precisely loud enough for the command to reach Belinda’s ears as well as her son’s. “Your young lady is bold and clever, but Essandia and Gallin’s crown prince will not marry a Lanyarchan upstart.”
“I never dreamed he would.” Javier pitched his voice as she had, courtiers straining to hear and to look as though they weren’t trying to. “Nor did she.”
“Women always say that.” Sandalia released Javier’s arm, then offered Belinda a token that would have the court dancing on her wishes: “We would enjoy your company at supper tomorrow evening, Lady Beatrice. Wear something impetuous, and be prepared to discuss Lanyarch and Cordula. I would fain to hear how our sister Ecumenics do under Alunaer’s rule.”
“Your Majesty.” Belinda curtsied so deeply as to doubt her own ability to rise again, Javier saving her from an ignominious failure by offering a hand as she began to straighten. She ducked her head in thanks and slipped her fingers into the crook of his elbow, listening to a wave of murmurs crest before them and ripple after them as they left the hall.
Only outside it did she clutch Javier’s arm in half-real alarm. “Wear something impetuous?” she whispered. “What would she have me do, wrap a sheet in ribbon and leave my breast bared, like the statues of ancient Parna?”
Javier laughed aloud, as easily as his mother had done moments earlier. “We’ll ask Eliza to dress you, and your tongue will be impetuous enough. What were you thinking, Bea? Comparing Mother to Lorraine?”
“Comparing her favourably,” Belinda retorted. “Sandalia is nearly as close to belonging on the Aulunian throne as my queen as you are to belonging on it as my king. She should sit in Lanyarch as queen and you are to be crown prince to-”
“To a land of rabble-rousers in skirts, by your reckoning,” Javier said coolly, “as well as heir to Essandia and Gallin.”
Ice flew over Belinda’s skin, caution come too late. She drew her lower lip into her mouth, a show of contriteness that went deeper than she expected it to. “I’m sorry, my lord.” The apology was whispered, all she dared. “I meant no disrespect for the position you now hold. It is only-”
“An endless desire to replace Lorraine with an Ecumenic ruler,” Javier said, still cool. “Your lust, Beatrice, has better places to show itself. I will not hear words of sedition against Aulun spoken near my mother, not when the Titian Bitch seeks any excuse she can find to unseat her and have her put to death.”
“Sandalia is a queen in her own right,” Belinda said steadily. “It does not do to openly commit regicide, even if, especially if, you’re another regent. Take her power, yes, I’m sure Lorraine would do that. But having her killed, Javier.” Her voice softened. “I think even the Aulunian queen would balk at that.”
More than Beatrice’s naпvetй allowed Belinda to speak the protest. Lorraine’s reluctance to have another sovereign put to death was a topic at her court, discussed vigorously, well out of the queen’s hearing. Men thought it a sign of a woman’s weakness and her unsuitability to rule; women, if they thought anything, kept it to themselves, opinions private enough that not even Robert knew how the ladies of the court felt about the queen’s reticence in securing her throne through bloodshed. Belinda believed them to think as she did, because she did, that regicide was a dangerous precedent, and should it be used it must be done untraceably. It was not weakness, but prudence, and moreover, a public and well-known horror of such means could only stand the queen well should her rivals fall unexpectedly.
A bloom of satisfaction took Belinda’s breath, then eased it into a smile. She made it winsome, turned it on Javier in hopes of soothing his pique, and let herself ride pleasure that had nothing to do with gross physical delight and everything to do with a necessary job done well. It cannot be found out. It never would be. There were far worse things than a lifetime spent in the shadows: a lifetime of uselessness was a condemnation Belinda couldn’t imagine. Lorraine could, and would, retain her moral stance, and might well never know the details of the
