Look Beyond What You See

Tangled Intentions

 "Dmitri?" I call softly as I reach the top of my ladder to the roof. No one answers except the whispering wind in the leaves. An unseasonable chill embraces me and a light drizzle falls from the cloudy night sky. I pull my shawl tighter around my shoulders and shiver. Normally he would be up here by now, but with this weather...

Maybe he won't be up here tonight.

But he has to be. I need to talk with him. I need to show him this letter from Kyla. I'll go into his suite if I have to.

But there's no sign of Dmitri amongst the plants of the rooftop garden, not yet. That's all right. I can wait, in spite of the weather. Maybe by the time I go back inside, I will be grateful for Juniper's July fireplace-lighting habit.

At least this way I have time to process what I overheard while I was meandering towards my suite after supper. I had decided to explore some of the secret passageways I hadn't gotten to yet, which I thought was a safe decision because Wesley and Zinaida ate supper far more quickly than usual and left together with grim expressions; I knew they would not interfere with my exploring. Giacomo and Yekaterina were both served their meals apart from us. Giacomo was "indisposed" after training with Dmitri—I fear I ought to ask about that—and Yekaterina didn't want to leave the sewing maids unsupervised, which I appreciate because the sewing maids were quite surly during fittings this afternoon.

One of the secret passageways I explored, however, ended up taking me behind a panel in one of Zinaida's rooms. I opened it just a crack to see where I was and saw pink. I dared not open it further because I heard Zinaida and Wesley talking....

"Such terrible rumors are going around amongst the staff about Yekaterina and Dmitri," Zinaida pouted.

"With good reason," Wesley remarked with an eerie sense of calm. "Haven't you seen the way she acts around him? Are you sure your relatives sent us one of their own, or might they have sent a prostitute in the place of your cousin's daughter?"

"They would never do such a thing!"

"That speaks the worse of your cousin, for bringing up her daughter to behave so promiscuously."

"If you've known that the rumors are true, why haven't you done anything about it?!"

"Only some of the rumours are true, dear. I do not believe our son would betray Aerys for anyone, let alone take Yekaterina in a cleaning closet."

"Still! Can you not silence the servants?"

"Your initial reaction is to ask me to silence the servants, rather than to reprimand Yekaterina for her behavior towards Dmitri? Perhaps I should send you back to Russia, as well."

"You can't send her back! What would the relatives think of me--I mean, of us? Speak to her--gently, of course--and let her know that her behavior is offensive."

"Dmitri tells me that he has already told her exactly that, to no effect, and has no idea how to make her conduct herself more discreetly. He fears that at some point, his or Aerys's temper will snap--"

"Aerys and Yekaterina are good friends! I have heard nothing of them being anything but sisterly together!"

"That may be, but Dmitri also mentioned that Aerys has been very cool to him since Yekaterina's arrival, and that he thinks it stems from the way Yekaterina acts towards him. He feels trapped. He does not want to insult Yekaterina and cause disharmonious relations with your family, but he wants less to lose his fiancée's goodwill because of the harlot living under our roof. He fears that Aerys will lose patience and take this problem into her own hands. From watching Aerys's training with Giacomo, I suspect that if she does so, we will have a dead body on our hands, and then your relatives will really be displeased."