Chapter 20: Mira Is Followed — And Does Not Run

The morning after the Council, Mira dropped a linen shift.

It was not an accident. She had been carrying four items from the upper laundry to Lady Elara's chambers — a shift, two underskirts, and a linen cap she had collected because it gave her a reason to be in the east corridor at the seventh hour, which was when the junior clerk from Lord Vane's household crossed between the secondary kitchens and the administrative passage. She had been collecting reasons for ten months. She had enough reasons, by now, to wallpaper the building.

The shift fell near the base of the south stairwell. She crouched to retrieve it and, in the three seconds her eyes were at floor-level, confirmed what she had suspected since the postern gate.