Chapter 4: The Queen's Particular Interest in Lady Joanna

The invitation arrived the following morning on paper of such quality that Joanna held it at arm's length to admire it, the way one admires a painting before reading its title.

"Her Majesty Queen Cerissa," she read aloud, with the careful pronunciation of someone unused to reading sentences that began this way, "requests the pleasure of Lady Joanna Stark's company at her private needlework circle, to be convened at the second hour after noon in the Green Sitting Room of the eastern apartments, and trusts that Lady Joanna will find the gathering both agreeable and — " she paused. "Improving."

"Improving," Aria repeated, from the window ledge where she had arranged herself with a studied casualness that required significant effort to maintain. She had found the window ledge on her second morning at Redkeep, when it had become apparent that the chairs in their assigned apartments had been designed by someone with a philosophical objection to sitting. "That is a word."