Reign of Shadows - Deborah Chester [76]
“There, she admits her guilt to you, my lord,” Hecati said now while Elandra faced her father’s glare. “She has cost you nine hundred ducats—no, double that if the robe is to be replaced suitably. And all because she envies her half- sister’s good fortune.”
Elandra glanced at the jinja, but it was still pouting on the windowsill, gazing outside. It was a creature of whim. Its only allegiance was to her father. She couldn’t depend on its help at all. Her heart sank.
Albain looked at her with disappointment. Her throat choked, but she refused to lower her proud chin even a fraction. All she’d ever wanted was his affection, but he was a busy man who spared scant time for family. She had been hoping that with Bixia and Hecati gone, she and her father might finally become companions.
It killed her for him to look at her this way now.
“I admit no wrongdoing,” she said, her voice low with the effort not to cry. “I deny their accusations.”
“Wicked girl!” Hecati said angrily. “Your defiance does you no good. You hale and envy your half-sister. Admit your jealousy. You are a horrid, lying troublemaker.”
“Lady Hecati,” Albain said sharply, “mind your tone.”
Hecati bowed al once. “Forgive me, my lord. But this wretch—”
“—is my daughter.”
Something unreadable crossed Hecati’s face. She swallowed. “Yes, my lord. But as a bastard—”
He scowled. “Elandra’s maternal side comes from one of the most venerable and ancient bloodlines in Gialta. My own lineage is equally faultless. The fact that she was born of a love union rather than a sacramented one does not give you leave to yell at her like a fishwife.”
A tiny smile quivered on Elandra’s lips. He filled her eyes, a hero. His fairness and justice was on her side today, and she gazed at him with love, pleased to have such a champion.
Hecati turned red. She curtsied. “Again, I beg my lord’s forgiveness.”
He grunted and turned back to his daughter. “Elandra, you will tell me the truth of this matter.”
For a moment it all rushed up inside Elandra, the urge to tell him everything about the way she was treated, the trick Bixia had pulled with the bridal robe, the scuffle with Hecati that had torn it. But instinct warned her to take care. She felt danger around her, like a hot wind blowing across the plains. The jinja apparently did not sense it; perhaps it was only her imagination. But she had learned the hard way not to underestimate Hecati’s menace. And if she lost her temper or grew shrill in what she said, her father would not listen to her. Experience had taught her that as well.
She could not accuse Bixia, his golden child. His sense of fairness would stretch only so far.
Swallowing hard, Elandra said, “Last night before she retired, Lady Bixia asked me to shorten one of her dressing robes because it was far too long for her.”
“A lie!” Hecati broke in. “You took the robe from the box and deliberately ruined it—”
“No!” Elandra insisted, her eyes flashing. “I knew nothing about its special significance. I never saw any box.”
She turned her gaze to her father, who was frowning. “The robe dragged on the floor, and Bixia was very upset.”
“Everything was made to exact measurements,” Hecati said. “I do not understand why you persist in this false tale when anyone knows it’s untrue.”
Elandra picked up the robe off the door and held it up. “Look,” she said. “I worked all night to replace the hem. See where I didn’t finish? See how long it is?”
She held it against her. “As it was, it would have fit me because I am much taller than Bixia. But it looked terrible on her. I really tried to help her, Father.” She upended the garment and showed him the stitches she’d sewn. “See the embroidery? I tried very hard to