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She realized afterwards that she had decided to do it almost as soon as the idea took shape in her mind
Before the morning market had closed she had managed to be alone long enough to purchase what she neededEarrings, gown, black comb
And it was while doing these things that she'd begun to think about her mother and to remember the bridge in TregeaNot surprisingly: the mind worked in patterns like thatSuch patterns were why she was doing this, why she'd even been able to think of itWhen night fell she would have to come away by herself, telling none of themA lie of some sort for AlaisNo farewells; they would stop her, just as she would have stopped any of them
But something had to be done, they all knew itA move had to be made, and that morning in the market Catriana had thought she'd discovered what that move might be
She'd spent the first part of this solitary walk through darkness wishing she were rolex watches ladies braver though, that her hands would not tremble as they wereBut they'd stopped shaking after all when she reached the garden wall and saw a star fall in the blue-black velvet sky
"We'll have to search you, you understand," said one of the two guards outside the gates, a crooked smile on his face
"Of course," she murmured, stepping nearer"There are so few benefits to standing watch here, aren't there?" The other one laughed, and drew her forward, not ungently, into the light of the torches and then a little past them, to the more private shadows at the side of the squareShe heard a brief, low-pitched altercation between the two men on the other side of the gate, ending in a concise six-word orderOne of them, manifestly outranked, reluctantly began heading inward through the courtyard to find Anghiar of Barbadior and tell him his dreams had just come true, or some such thingThe other hastily unlocked the gates with hermes bags a key on a ring at his belt and came out to join the others
They took some with her, but were not unkind, nor did they presume too much in the endIf she was going to the Barbadian and found favor there, they could be at risk in offending herShe had counted on something like thatShe managed to laugh softly once or twice, but not so much as to encourage themShe was thinking of patterns still, remembering the very first evening she'd come to Alessan and BaerdThe night porter at the inn groping for her as she went by, leering, sure of why she was there
I will not sleep with you, she'd said when they opened to her knockI have never slept with any manSo much irony in her life, looking back from these tangled shadows, the guards' hands moving over herWhat mortal knew the way their fate line would run? Inevitably perhaps, she thought about Devin in the hidden closet of the Sandreni PalaceWhich had worked our rather chanel earrings differently in almost every way than she had expected it toNot that she'd been thinking of futures or fates that day
And now? What should she be thinking now, as the patterns began to unfold again? The images, she told herself, cloaked in shadow with three guards: hold hard to the imagesEntrances and endings, a candle starting a blaze
By the time they were done with her the fourth guard was back with two BarbadiansThey were smiling tooBut they treated her with some courtesy as they led her through the open gates and across the central courtyardLight spilled erratically downward from interior windows aboveBefore they passed inside she looked up at the starsEvery one of them with a name
They went into the castle through a pair of massive doors guarded by four more men, then up two long flights of marble stairs and along a bright corridor on the highest levelAt the end of this last hallway a door was partly gucci canvas bag openBeyond it, as they approached, Catriana caught a glimpse of a room elaborately furnished in dark, rich colors
In the doorway itself stood Anghiar of Barbadior, in a blue robe to match his eyes, holding a glass of green wine and devouring her with his gaze for the second time that day
She smiled, and let him take her red-gloved fingers in his own manicured handHe led her into the roomHe closed and locked the doorThere were candles burning everywhere
"Red vixen," he said, "how do you like to play?"
Devin had been edgy all week, uneasy in his own skin; he knew they all felt the same wayThe combination of building tension and enforced idleness, coupled with the awareness, one had only to look at Alessan's face sometimes, of how close they were to a culmination, created a pervasive, dangerous irritability among them all
In the face of such a mood Alais had been extraordinary, a blessing of grace these past few chloe bags paddington |
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