The entire court was in her thrall. The weapons she used shifted imperceptibly, so that as soon as you felt you were beginning to resist her, you would realise you were capitulating in some other way. If you were a man, she would start with a look of undecided interest, as though you were somebody different, but she was not sure what to make of you. Impress me. When, inevitably, you made a clumsy joke, she would meet it with a laugh; a noise Bellamus thought he had only heard her make in earnest a few times. It sounded like a magpie, or the rattle of dice in a wooden cup. Her attention was
...more
