Chapter 142: DIANA CHOOSES TO GO, PART II

DIANA’S POV

The rest of the day became unbearable.

Household preparation began with Mistress Hale bringing a tailor, followed shortly by another.

Mistress Hale had apparently anticipated the summit wardrobe before Diana agreed to travel. The Northern dressmakers had sent finished gowns and prepared pieces from the household’s formal reserves. The tailors were there to make the final alterations, not create an entire diplomatic wardrobe overnight.

Diana looked toward Alma.

"Formal summit," Alma explained.

Diana pointed at the existing wardrobe.

"You own clothes."

Correct.

"You apparently do not own enough sovereign-level diplomatic clothing."

Diana disagreed with the entire concept.

Mistress Hale did not care.

The first fitting took place in Diana’s dressing room with heat stones warming the floor beneath the platform. The tailor measured her shoulders, waist, hips, sleeve length, and height, with every measurement belonging to the body actually standing in front of her.

Nobody brought Selena’s measurements or pinned excess fabric because the dress had been made for another woman. Nobody shortened a borrowed hem while guards waited outside with orders concerning Alma.

Diana stood quietly while the wedding morning returned without permission.

She remembered red and gold, Selena’s crest over her heart, and fabric that had fit badly almost everywhere.

The tailor stepped back.

"Your Grace?"

Diana looked at her.

"Too tight?"

She shook her head.

The woman adjusted the shoulder anyway.

"This line should sit here."

Exactly where Diana’s shoulder was.

The formal wardrobe arrived in stages.

One black evening gown had silver thread worked into the lower panels. A second came in deep charcoal with a narrow structured collar and sleeves cut for long council sessions rather than dancing.

There was also a heavier cloak lined for the road and two formal day dresses severe enough for Blackharrow taste and expensive enough that no one at Concord Hall could mistake restraint for poverty.

The workmanship came from Northern houses. None of the pieces used Selena’s royal crest, while the ducal insignia appeared only where protocol required it.

Diana touched the shoulder clasp of the evening gown.

Alma stood behind her.

"This one fits."

The words were quiet.

Diana met her eyes in the mirror.

Raigoro arrived while Mistress Hale was arguing about whether Diana needed another formal cloak.

Conversation stopped when Diana turned toward him.

Raigoro’s gaze moved over her once before returning to her face. His silence lasted long enough for Diana to begin questioning the dress.

She reached for the slate.

TOO MUCH?

"No."

Diana waited.

Raigoro looked at her again.

"You look beautiful."

Heat reached Diana’s face.

Alma became extremely interested in the clothing cabinet, while Mistress Hale appeared equally interested in surviving the moment.

Diana wrote:

THE DRESS IS EXCESSIVE.

Raigoro considered it.

"Yes."

She stared at him.

His amusement returned.

"Still beautiful."

Diana considered murder.

Mistress Hale cleared her throat.

"I believe we have finished for today."

Coward.

She collected the tailor and escaped.

Alma followed considerably more slowly and closed the outer dressing-room door behind her.

Only then did Diana notice the small box still in Raigoro’s hand.

Raigoro crossed the room and set it on the dressing table rather than handing it directly to her.

Diana regarded the box with suspicion.

"What?" he asked.

She pointed.

"For you."

The answer did little to improve the situation.

Diana opened it.

Inside lay a narrow ring of dark silver set with a pale blue-gray stone that caught the light without flashing. It carried no Valence red, Blackharrow seal, dragon, crown, or other heraldic mark.

Diana looked at Raigoro.

He had become suspiciously interested in the mirror.

She wrote:

WHAT IS THIS?

"A ring."

Diana stared at him.

"Technically."

She continued staring until he surrendered.

"I saw it months ago. Before the restitution delegation."

Diana had not expected that.

Raigoro glanced toward the ring.

"I did not know whether giving you something then would feel like another obligation."

Gifts in Valence had rarely existed without negotiations, expectations, displays, or the suggestion that someone had purchased access without using the word purchase.

Raigoro continued.

"After last night, I decided I was tired of deciding not to."

Diana looked back at the ring.

She wrote:

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Raigoro read the question.

"Nothing official."

She frowned.

"No treaty," he added. "No household authority. No promise you have to answer."

Diana looked up.

He met her gaze.

"I wanted to give you something."

Diana looked down at the ring again.

Raigoro had seen it and wanted Diana to have it. It had never belonged to Selena and carried no obligation she was expected to repay.

She removed the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger.

It fit.

Diana narrowed her eyes.

Raigoro understood immediately.

"Mistress Hale knows your size."

Traitorous household.

Diana looked at her hand.

The stone was expensive enough that nobody would mistake it for casual decoration, but it carried no public meaning she had not chosen.

She wrote:

I LIKE IT.

"Good."

Diana added:

DO NOT BECOME UNBEARABLE ABOUT THIS.

"I will try."

Unconvincing.

Diana looked at herself again.

The woman reflected there wore Blackharrow silver and a gown made for her body. At her throat remained the dragonstone connected to a history none of them yet understood, while her hand carried a ring with no legal meaning at all.

Tomorrow Diana would leave for a Five-Crown summit under a name she had asked Raigoro not to correct yet.

The name remained wrong, and both of them knew it.

The clothes had been made for Diana. Raigoro had chosen the ring for her.

She had chosen to go.

Tomorrow she would begin the six-day road to Concord Hall.

Diana had spent most of her life learning about governments from rooms where nobody expected her to participate. This time, she would arrive with her own work behind her, her own place in Blackharrow, and questions she intended to hear answered for herself.

For the first time in her life, Diana was traveling toward the political world because she wanted to see what happened when she entered through the front doors.