Chapter 12: Lady Morrow Explains How the Last Girl from Province Twelve Died

The tea arrived before Honoria did, which Lady Morrow had arranged deliberately.

This was apparent because the pot was still steaming when Honoria knocked at seven precisely — not six fifty-eight, which would have indicated anxiety, and not seven and a half minutes past, which would have indicated either poor timekeeping or a calculated test of her sponsor's patience — and the tray bore two cups already positioned, two small plates, and a selection of biscuits that suggested Lady Morrow had consulted someone about Province Twelve's dietary customs, or possibly had not consulted anyone at all and simply provided what she herself considered adequate, which amounted to the same quality of outcome by different reasoning.

"Sit," said Lady Morrow, without preamble, and without looking up from the document she was annotating with a pen of dark red ink.