The rumor did not move around subtly. It was more like a fire, waiting to consume, to obliterate everything it touched.
It crackled through corridors, leapt from kitchen to courtyard, curled its way into servants’ quarters and noble parlors alike, feeding on shock and outrage and the pack’s barely restrained delight in watching someone fall.
Mira’s name became a spectacle. Giselle heard it everywhere.
“She was bold enough to meet him in the forest—”
“—a guard, can you believe it?”
“Tobias looked like he’d been gutted—”
“She humiliated the whole bloodline—”
Giselle kept her head bowed as she scrubbed silver platters in the scullery, pretending to do her work as she enjoyed the gossip. It was music to her ears. Oh, how the mighty has fallen.
Water sloshed. Metal clinked. The heat fr
