The Tears of the Rose by Jeffe Kennedy

if answering my thought.
    â€œYou have always been loyal and selfless, my Amelia. Fine, then—have the babe at Windroven, but then he shall come here, to be raised by me and to rule as High King from this throne. I have decided. Go rest yourself and the burden you carry. King Erich, attend me in my study and we shall discuss this in private.”

    I did not mind at all being essentially sent to my rooms. Ursula fell into step beside me, but I ignored her. We didn’t speak until we reached the rooms I’d been assigned. My childhood chambers had been refurbished after my wedding. Still I’d expected to return to the rooms I’d shared with Hugh those fateful few nights we’d stayed until the Tala attacked.
    Instead, they showed me to my mother’s old suite.
    Marin bustled in, finding a space to brew her teas for me. As always, anticipating my need. Ursula stayed beside me in the doorway, equally astonished, I think. The rooms had been cleaned but otherwise were much the same. So far as I could tell—I’d been in here only a few times, when the three of us snuck in to poke around, to learn what we could of our mother.
    Until Uorsin had found us out and ordered them locked and sealed.
    â€œDid you know about this?” I asked Ursula under my breath.
    â€œNo. I would have warned you.”
    â€œIt was my idea,” Lady Zevondeth cackled out behind us, making us both jump like the guilty girls we’d been so long ago. “I informed the chatelaine that these rooms should be prepared for you, Princess Amelia. As a widow and the future Queen of Avonlidgh, no others are worthy of your rank. Let it never be said that Ordnung does not follow proper etiquette. Especially for our own.”
    â€œUntil our father finds out,” Ursula observed in a dry tone.
    â€œI’ll handle Uorsin,” Zevondeth said, painfully hobbling the circuit of the outer room, examining the few artifacts of our mother that remained. Like Andi, our mother had never been much for books—something I knew because Ursula used to tease Andi so about it—but there the shelves held a surprising number of them. Zevondeth pulled a chair up to the newly kindled fire and bade a serving girl to build the blaze hotter and to give her an extra lap blanket. Oh, and to bring her tea. Then she cocked her head at us, milky eyes finding us unerringly. “Come, come, girls. We have things to discuss and I don’t want to miss my regular afternoon nap.”
    Obediently, as if we were still girls and attending her for lessons in manners and elocution, we settled ourselves in chairs near her, Ursula perching on the edge of one to accommodate her sword. Zevondeth scowled at her.
    â€œIt’s unladylike to wear a sword in the first place, Miss Ursula—much less indoors, and with a gown.”
    Ursula smiled, affection in it that surprised me. “I cannot wear pants in court and I cannot appear as less than any of the men or I lose their respect. This is my compromise. If you have another that meets the same criteria, I’ll entertain it.”
    Zevondeth snorted. “By the sound of it, losing the men’s respect is the least of your worries. Uorsin barely stopped short of disinheriting you entirely.”
    Ursula lightly brushed the jewel in the hilt of her sword. That was her other reason for wearing it all the time, I knew. It was her talisman, that jewel that had belonged to Salena. Ursula thought I didn’t know, but bratty little sisters have ways of finding out such things. I’d kept the secret, biding my time until I could use it against her. Then I grew up and the moment never came.
    Or had it?
    â€œHe’ll come around.” Ursula spoke reflectively, almost more to herself than to Zevondeth. “This is a difficult time—losing Andi to the Tala, the implications that she and Annfwn might be forever beyond his reach, on top of the crop failures and various forms of