By breakfast, half the palace had heard Lucian Ravencrest’s words.
Tell me to kneel, General, and this time I’ll do it for you.
The servants whispered the sentence in corridors. Guards repeated it near the gates. One diplomat’s wife arrived at Celeste’s salon already smiling behind her fan.
Celeste greeted her as if nothing unusual had occurred.
Direct attacks produced defenders.
Questions produced witnesses.
The blue salon filled before noon with noblewomen, two eastern diplomats, several officers’ wives, and three women whose families had signed the petition against the legions.
Celeste had chosen every guest carefully.
Tea passed from hand to hand. So did the rumor.
Lady Maren was the first to give it a respectable voice.
“Surely Lucian Ravencrest did not kneel to General Vesp
