“It’s fine,” she replied.
Ferisa frowned. “Fine? That’s all you have to say about your marriage?” Her eyes glinted with contempt. “He’s already taught you to be like him? All proper and forbidding?”
Melia opened her mouth to explain that things were different here, that the coarse manners of Syr were unacceptable…and closed it immediately. There was nothing wrong with Ferisa, shewas the same as she’d always been. It was Melia who’d changed covertly, unexpectedly.
“I’m sorry,” she said, reminding herself that Ferisa was the one who knew her, the one who cared about her. The one who comforted her when there was no one else around. “I don’t know what came over me. This place changes you.”
“Resist it,” she said, and this time, her grip on Melia’s chin was firm, and she welcomed it. “Don’t forget who you are and why you’re here.”
The shape of her, compact and firm, made Melia feel safe. “The people are so terrible here. The women are haughty and harsh. And the men are worse. Amril is a self-centered monster determined to make every woman who crosses his path uncomfortable. And the king, he sleeps with his wife’s ladies and doesn’t even try to hide it.”
“Yes, I’ve heard,” Ferisa muttered.
“I want to go away. I want to leave this place and never look back.”
“Then we’ll do it.” Ferisa pulled Melia into a firm, sharp embrace. “As soon as our duty here is done.”
Chapter 7
Liana
The villa stoodon a quiet street surrounded by a blooming garden and a high wall. Liana knocked on the back door, tucked away in a narrow alley. She’d hidden her hair under a scarf, cast her eyes down.
“Mistress Sariza sends me. She said you’re short of girls for tonight.”
The woman at the door—short, gaunt, middle-aged—scrutinized Liana. “If all you do is pour wine for the high and mighty with that face, you’re wasting your life, girl.”
A genuine blush warmed Liana’s cheeks. She could hardly escape her looks. “That’s all I do, ma’am.”
“Well, come in, then. What are you waiting for?”
She followed the woman through a cool whitewashed corridor, walking past a pantry and a bustling kitchen. The scent of hazelnuts and caramelized sugar made her breathe in deeply, imagining bittersweet brittle crunching between her teeth.
“Hurry up.”
She followed the woman up the polished wooden stairs to the first floor. The house was decorated with superb taste in soft shades of mint and aquamarine, with glazed tiles on the floor, soft gauze curtains, and frescoed walls. The room at the end of the corridor was shaded, the wooden shutters letting in only a handful of slanting rays. Dust danced in the rose-scented air.
“My lady, a new girl from the palace arrived.”
“Why are you bringing her to me? She should be in the kitchen.” The woman lounging on a low sofa removed a coldcompress from her eyes and looked at Liana. “Oh, I see. Come closer, please.”
The woman was in her late thirties and pretty in a fragile way, with dark hair, pale skin, and large gray eyes which took in every detail of Liana’s appearance. “Could you let your hair down for me?”
Liana removed the scarf, unbraided her hair, and let the honey-colored waves tumble down to her waist.
“She says she’s just a server, my lady.”
The pretty woman stood up and touched Liana’s chin, urging her to lift her face. “Oh no, that’s a complete waste.”
“That’s what I said, my lady.”
Liana kept her mouth shut. She’d begged and bribed the maids at the palace to tell her where Amril would have histhing, as Amron had called it, that evening. A few girls mentioned an additional source of income, but only as servers. Lady Celandina had her own girls who entertained the visitors, she only needed the maids to bring food and wine and clean up afterwards.
“Show me your teeth.”
Liana stretched her lips into a weak semblance of a smile.
“Perfect. Would you mind taking your clothes off for me?”
