House Vale returned to its usual quiet rhythm quickly.
Too quickly.
Servants moved through familiar halls. Meals were shared at expected hours. Conversations returned to ordinary matters that carried no real weight beyond estate responsibilities and neighboring noble affairs. Everything resumed exactly as it had been before the banquet. Which should have made things easier.
Instead, Kaelira found herself increasingly aware of how little interest she suddenly had in normalcy.
“You’ve been staring at the same page for several minutes.”
Kaelira looked up from the book resting open in her lap as her mother stepped into the garden sitting area. “I’m reading.”
“You haven’t turned the page once.” That immediately ruined her defense.
Kaelira closed the book calmly before setting it aside. “
