Page 38 of The Golden Rose Of Valenul

“Hardly.” Emillie sighed, her heart kicking up its speed. “They asked if the rumors about you and Darien were true.”

Her sister went painfully still but said nothing. She did not need to. The rumors surrounding her and Darien were just that: false information passed around to make trouble. Some said Darien had deceived her into running away with him and, when she refused, he stole her before being brutally murdered by soldiers. Others claimed it had been Ariadne who lured him into the mountains, where she killed him in an old, forgotten mage ritual like the one which brought about the vampirism curse. Still more swore they eloped and ran away together before being discovered by her father.

No matter how much Emillie tried to shield Ariadne from the whispers, she knew her sister heard them all. None, of course, were true, and Emillie knew that even if she only knew part of the story herself.

“Camilla told them to stop believing all the gossip,” Emillie said after a moment. “When they pressed the matter and made some rather backhanded comments about you being the Golden Rose, Camilla told them to either shut their mouths or leave.”

At that, Ariadne gaped at the ceiling. “She did not.”

“Oh, she did.” She chuckled at the memory. Both Dierdre’s and Belina’s faces had gone ghostly white with disbelief. “They were so taken aback that they actually stopped.”

A small smile curled the corners of Ariadne’s mouth. She closed her eyes for a long moment and said, “I would have loved seeing the looks on their faces.”

“It was perfect,” Emillie admitted. “But that is what I mean: I would never have the same confidence as Camilla to put an end to their nagging so quickly.”

Turning her head, Ariadne frowned at her. “You are far more courageous than you believe.”

“Hah!” Emillie shook her head, unable to scrape up a single incident in which she felt remotely brave. “Not like that.”

“Perhaps not,” Ariadne agreed. “But I have seen you face off with Father many times and walk away victorious, and he is one of the most frightening Caersan I know.”

That had not occurred to Emillie. While in many circumstances, she stood up to their father in order to protect Ariadne from his onslaught of constant questions, never once had she believed herself to be brave because of it. It had only been natural to keep her from suffering through the same round of interrogations over and over.

“Tell me, then,” Emillie said slowly, “why I cannot seem to talk to him about…”

“About liking women?” Ariadne sat forward again and looked at her. “Because when you told him off before, it was for me. Not you.”

Not promising, then. “I do not think I can.”

“For this,” her sister said, squeezing her hand again, “I cannot tell him for you, but I can be with you when you do it.”

Emillie swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and blinked back the burning tears in her eyes. “Thank you.”

A silence descended upon them for a long moment. Emillie did not know when she would tell her father the truth about her preference for women, but she knew it needed to be soon. If she was to continue through the Season, he needed to understand that she would never make a decision about a suitor. He would have a fight ahead of him if he wanted her to marry a Caersan man.

“How was the visit with the General?” Emillie asked, grappling for anything to keep herself out of her head. At least by deflecting, they could speak of something more pleasant.

Ariadne loosed a long sigh, her cheeks coloring. “He is everything I desire in a husband.”

That was not what she had been expecting to hear. “How so?”

“He makes me laugh and reminds me of…”

“Of Darien?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “It is strange, though, how much he seems to dislike Mister Tenebra.”

Emillie raised a brow at that. Why her sister bothered to worry about their guard, she had no idea. “What happened?”

“Well…” Ariadne glanced at her. “I had been in the library with him when Father and General Gard came in.”

Her jaw fell open, and she turned her entire body to face her sister. If anyone had heard about that, the scandal it would cause would be one for the ages. “You were in the library alone with him?”

But Ariadne laughed. “He is our personal guard, Em. Are we not often alone with Madan as well?”

She had a point. Nonetheless, Emillie could not help the rush of curiosity and excitement from their strange rendezvous. “True. But why were you in the library with him?”

Ariadne gave her an exasperated look. “I had not planned it. I went to read, and Mister Tenebra was already in the room.”

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