Chapter 117: THE SIGNATURE

DIANA’S POV

Valence wanted Diana to sign Selena.

The request arrived disguised as routine diplomatic paperwork.

The morning session concerned three follow-up matters: outstanding language for the historic financial settlement, implementation terms for future engineering obligations, and a preliminary joint statement summarizing what the delegation had accomplished so far.

The third should have been easiest.

Diana sat beside Blackharrow’s treaty lawyer while clerks compared the final wording. Raigoro remained at the head of the Government Terrace table.

Cold again.

The dance had changed something for six minutes. Apparently six minutes were all she received.

Since then, he had returned to professional distance. Diana had Maerissa’s letter locked upstairs. Raigoro knew it existed, and she had chosen not to show it to him. He had accepted that answer.

The distance was partly hers now.

At least one problem remained under her control.

The Valence treaty lawyer passed the draft statement across the table.

Diana read.

Both Crowns acknowledged delivery of the first restitution convoy, continuing negotiations, and the preservation of records related to historic supply failures.

Standard.

Then she reached the signatory page.

GRAND DUKE RAIGORO KAEL OF BLACKHARROW

WARDEN OF THE ASHEN GATE

Below it:

PRINCESS SELENA VALENCE

GRAND DUCHESS OF BLACKHARROW

Diana read the name twice.

They had used a deliberate personal name instead of Her Grace or Grand Duchess.

She looked toward the Valence lawyer, who was reviewing another copy. Lady Jessa sat two chairs away with her attention fixed on the table.

Too deliberately.

Diana understood.

This was not an identity confession. Valence wanted something smaller and much easier to defend.

A fresh document created in Blackharrow after Raigoro’s investigation, after authenticated evidence naming Diana, after Lord Rovel recognized her, and after the dance.

A document Diana would personally sign as Selena.

Then no one could later say the false name existed only because Odran had forced the original wedding. Diana would have renewed it herself.

Maerissa had said she did not need a response.

Apparently this was the response she preferred.

Raigoro looked toward Diana rather than the page.

He had noticed.

Diana expected him to ask, but he remained silent.

The Blackharrow treaty lawyer said, "Your Grace?"

Diana took the slate and wrote:

CHANGE SIGNATORY.

The lawyer frowned. "To what?"

GRAND DUCHESS OF BLACKHARROW.

The room quieted.

The Valence lawyer looked up. "Without the royal name?"

Diana nodded.

The man looked toward Raigoro, who said nothing.

Good.

This belonged to Diana.

The lawyer returned to her. "The statement identifies the parties by full diplomatic title."

Diana pointed toward Raigoro’s line.

RAIGORO KAEL.

"Yes."

HE USES HIS NAME.

The lawyer hesitated.

Exactly.

Diana could not provide the equivalent without choosing which one.

The senior commissioner entered the discussion. "Princess Selena is the name currently recognized under the marriage instruments."

Diana wrote:

THEN LET THE MARRIAGE INSTRUMENT KEEP IT.

Daric looked up from the papers. Raigoro remained where he was.

The commissioner chose his next words carefully. "This document concerns restitution between Crowns. It is customary to identify royal participants precisely."

Diana wrote:

I AM SIGNING AS BLACKHARROW’S GRAND DUCHESS.

"Yes."

THAT TITLE IS PRECISE.

The Blackharrow lawyer considered the draft. "Legally, for this document, yes."

The Valence lawyer objected immediately. "It creates ambiguity."

Interesting.

Apparently, ambiguity had become unacceptable only when Valence could no longer control which version filled it.

Diana wrote:

THERE IS ALREADY AMBIGUITY.

Nobody answered.

The sentence had done enough.

The commissioner said, "This may be interpreted as Blackharrow refusing to recognize the current Valence succession record."

Diana looked toward Raigoro.

He had been silent since the page appeared.

"No."

Everyone turned.

"It will be interpreted as my wife signing a Blackharrow restitution document under the office relevant to the agreement."

The commissioner said, "Grand Duke, the personal identity of your Duchess is not irrelevant to Valence."

"No."

Again, the immediate agreement.

Raigoro continued. "But you do not need her personal name to acknowledge receipt of grain."

Daric looked down.

The commissioner did not.

"The omission will be noticed."

"Then people will have noticed something accurate."

Diana stared at Raigoro.

He had declared neither Diana nor Selena. He had simply refused to make her repeat a name she had not chosen today.

The Valence lawyer turned to her. "Your Grace, are you refusing the name Princess Selena Valence?"

There.

A cleaner trap than the honey cakes.

If Diana said yes, she exposed herself. If she said no, she reaffirmed the lie.

She wrote: I AM TELLING YOU HOW I WILL SIGN THIS DOCUMENT.

The lawyer read it and said nothing more.

The commissioner looked toward Raigoro again, still seeking the man who might overrule the silent woman.

Raigoro leaned back.

"You have her answer."

Cold. Final.

The page was redrafted.

GRAND DUCHESS OF BLACKHARROW.

A blank line beneath.

When the clean copy returned, Diana looked at it before placing the Blackharrow ducal household seal beside her title.

She had signed neither Selena nor Diana.

The truth remained incomplete, but this time she had not added another lie to it.

Raigoro signed above her without looking at Diana afterward.

She had just moved one step away from Selena in front of Valence, and some unreasonable part of her wanted him to understand what it had cost.

He probably did.

The meeting ended.

Lady Jessa remained while the other delegates gathered their documents. When she approached Diana, her attention went first to the revised signatory page.

"Your Grace."

Diana waited.

"Queen Maerissa will hear about that."

So Lady Jessa knew something. Perhaps not about the letter itself, but enough.

Diana wrote: I ASSUMED.

Lady Jessa glanced again at the page. "She will consider it a statement."

Diana looked toward the document.

It was.

Just not the statement Maerissa demanded.

THEN SHE MAY READ IT.

Lady Jessa was quiet for a moment before she bowed and left.

Diana remained by the table while Raigoro spoke with Daric at the far end of the room.

She wanted to cross to him.

The impulse surprised her.

She wanted to tell him about Maerissa’s letter and show him the sentence Maerissa had planted there. More dangerously, she wanted to ask the question she was still too frightened to write.

Would you have chosen me?

Diana stayed where she was.

Raigoro finished speaking with Daric and left through the Government passage.

She let him.

The revised document remained on the table.

Yesterday, Maerissa had asked Diana to remember which woman Raigoro demanded.

Today, Valence had asked her to write that woman’s name again.

Diana had refused.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: There was a publishing/order error while I was correcting Chapters 117–118. The correct sequence is 117: The Signature followed by 118: Wrong Stone. WebNovel’s Premium editing restriction is currently preventing me from fully removing the duplicated text. I’m already working on getting it corrected. Please don’t worry, the story itself has not changed. Sorry for the confusion, and thank you for your patience. ??