Vendetta

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Kilaix consumed Adrastia’s thoughts, as she changed into something more appropriate for dinner. The evenings in Castel were chilly, no matter what time of year: already a fire roared in the hearth. Adrastia, clad in a long-sleeved gown, sat before the mirror, watching as Dalina piled her hair up on top of her head, setting it in place with various pins.

“Have I made the right choice, Dalina?” Adrastia suddenly burst out, startling the woman.

Bending down to retrieve the pins she’d just dropped, Dalina replied, reassuringly: “It looks beautiful, my lady. It really accentuates your neck.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Adrastia turned to stare down at her maid. Her hair half-finished, it overbalanced and spilled down her back, destroying Dalina’s careful work.

Flustered, the maid gathered it back and quickly set it to rights. “Then what troubles you, my lady?”

“Kilaix.” Adrastia hated the way her insides quirked at the sound of his name.

Dalina remained wisely silent, continuing to pin Adrastia’s hair. In the silence, Adrastia found herself voicing her fears.

“He doesn’t seem like somebody who really needs – or even wants my help,” she sighed. “Yet he asked me.”

“Then he must have a reason.”

“But why did he ask me?” she asked, perplexed. “What do I know about Lord Martek or Lady Margravine?”

Dalina intervened. “Don’t trouble yourself, my lady. I don’t think that young man intends to have you involved.”

“That’s what intrigues me,” Adrastia protested. “The more he tries to hide from me, the more I want to know.”

Dalina’s tired sigh coincided with the knock on the door. Forgoing what she would have said; the maid stuck in a few more pins to make Adrastia’s hair stable, before she left the bedroom, to answer the door in the main wing.

Adrastia was left to her own thoughts, and how tumultuous they were! She should have stayed clear of the issue, but it didn’t matter now. She was determined to uncover Kilaix’s secrets.

Her clue would have to be Lady Margravine. Martek’s widow was probably the best chance she had of finding a connection to Kilaix. Of course, that presented another challenge. She didn’t know very much about Margravine – except that she was in the most prestigious of social circles.

She had but one link to Margravine, which was tenuous at best; residing with the woman who had married Margravine’s nephew. She was one of the two dark-haired women who now loitered in Adrastia’s doorway.

“Why are you still here?” Emilana demanded.

All thoughts of greeting abandoned; Adrastia was left to be perplexed by her sister’s question.

“I’m not coming down to dinner,” she explained.

Her sisters exchanged a look, before the eldest stepped forward. Lizanne was a raven-haired beauty, with a set of sharp brown eyes that seemed almost harrowed with suspicion. Her lips seemed always pressed together; her jaw set stubbornly. Physically, she was the least beautiful of Adrastia’s sisters, but Lizanne emanated a grace that had its own appeal.

“We’re not talking about dinner,” she said flatly. Her tone implied that Adrastia should already know the reason.

Adrastia glanced between her sisters; hoping for a straight answer. “Then what are we talking about?”