One for Cards

Chapter Eleven

17/05/2020: I missed another week, but I'll try to be better! I've also altered my update schedule such that One For Cards updates are just on the weekend in general and Sirius Rising, I suppose, is on hiatus. Either way, I hope you enjoy this one!

ADDIE FOUND HERSELF QUITE SORRY TO LEAVE COLOGNE. SHE HAD PROMISED TO write Lady Maria often, and received a similar pledge in return, but it would not be the same. How could correspondence ever measure up to talking in person? It was very unusual for her to take such a liking to any stranger: genuine confidantes were hard to come by, and it did not please her in the very least to have to part with one.

But she had to soldier on. So she did, and, after a tight embrace in goodbye, sat in a carriage with Mr Williams, on their way to their next destination. Her carriage was originally intended for her alone, and one or two chambermaids to serve her, but she found her needs better met with her private secretary on board with her and alone. That way they could discuss the trip in private.

They did. They analysed each host's behaviours and personalities, each territory's strengths and weaknesses. They drew up a chart – Mr Williams had a surprisingly steady hand even in a moving vehicle – of all the places they had visited and the status of Lastyrian relationships with those places. He told her about all the things he'd heard in the men's conversations, things she was not always privy to, and she kept him updated on what quiet words she had exchanged with the ladies. Oftentimes, the women were more powerful than they seemed, and had insights very much worth hearing, subtle as they were about it.

They powered through Frankfurt, and then Prague, Vienna, Budapest. They stayed one day or two at each, rubbing shoulders with their noble hosts while they changed horses and restocked their wagons with whatever they needed. Addie continued to be systematically excluded from important conversations and she continued to learn about them anyway. After what felt like a million years but was really only three months, they approached the Ottoman Empire. Addie watched as the scenery changed – and the people did, too. Increasingly, the people she saw from inside her carriage resembled Prince Hasan more and more, from the shape of their eyes to the shade of their skin. Some – well, in fact, most – members of her entourage seemed to turn their noses up at these people, who looked so different from themselves; while the foreignness of it all unsettled her too, she did her best to conceal it. She had been taught better than to discriminate.

Discriminate. It might not seem like such an evil word, but Addie felt the ugliness and malice behind what it represented. She shuddered to think that she might ever treat another in the same way she had been treated – her womanhood placed a target on her back, and while her red hair was considered pretty enough by Lastyrian norms, she knew that their English neighbours did not think so highly of it. It was one thing to distinguish and another altogether to ostracise.

They were met in Belgrade by an official sent by the royal court. Shortly they had crossed the border, the door to her carriage swung open, and one of her footmen helped her out. The man was waiting outside.

"Good evening, Your Highness, my lords." It was already sunset when he greeted them. He spoke in heavily accented English, but she understood him well enough. "Welcome to the Ottoman Empire."

"Yes. It is a great pleasure, Lord...?"

"Ah! Emin will do." He smiled broadly. She wondered if his pleasantness was deceptive or merely who he was. She had not expected someone so warm, not after meeting Prince Hasan, who sent a shiver down her spine even when he smiled. Especially when he smiled. It always seemed to forebode something dangerous.

Still, it would not do to let her guard down.

"Agha Emin." She nodded civilly.

"Your Highness, I will take you to our lodgings for tonight. We may rest here tomorrow, and continue to Constantinople after that. You must be very weary, and Belgrade has much to offer."