Chapter 19: ALL OF THESE?

DIANA’S POV

The housekeeper arrived after breakfast carrying enough iron to arm a very small rebellion.

Diana stared at the ring in both of the woman’s hands.

Keys hung from it in different lengths, shapes, and colors. Some were small enough for cabinets. Others looked capable of opening prison doors. Several had wooden tags tied around their necks, while the older ones were marked directly into the metal.

The housekeeper placed the ring on Diana’s writing table.

It landed with a heavy clatter.

"These are the household keys assigned to the Grand Duchess."

Diana looked from the keys to the housekeeper and took her slate.

ALL OF THESE?

"Yes, Your Grace."

The woman did not appear to understand why this required confirmation.

Alma came closer.

"How many?"

"Seventy-three."

Alma looked at Diana.

Apparently marriage to Raigoro came with guards, two trunks of clothing she had never asked for, and seventy-three opportunities to lose something important.

The housekeeper sorted the ring into practical groups for household offices, guest rooms, storage, supply cabinets, service passages, and emergency access.

She lifted one long black key.

"East service passage. It opens the emergency stair from the Great Hall to the lower east household court."

Diana examined the two square cuts near its base.

The oldest iron keys belonged to storage rooms older than the present Citadel. Alma stopped touching those.

Diana approved of that decision.

The housekeeper continued explaining.

Diana had expected the keys to be ceremonial.

Blackharrow seemed incapable of leaving anything safely ceremonial.

Every piece of metal opened an actual door: food stores, guest chambers, household records, supply cabinets, service routes, heating access, or emergency corridors.

These were not ceremonial privileges. People actually needed what was behind those doors.

Diana picked up one smaller iron key.

In Valence, even the door between her private rooms and the old musicians’ gallery had eventually acquired a lock she could not control.

After Queen Elara died, other people had decided which rooms Diana could enter, which corridors she could use, when palace guards should follow, and when a door should remain closed until someone remembered she was behind it.

Blackharrow did not trust her enough to let her near a military map, but it had still placed seventy-three household doors in her hand.

Diana was beginning to understand that trust here came in pieces.

Alma lifted the ring carefully.

"It is heavier than it looks."

Diana held out her hand, and Alma gave it to her.

The weight pulled immediately against Diana’s wrist.

The housekeeper remained completely serious.

Diana wrote:

DO I CARRY THIS ALL DAY?

"No."

Good.

"There is a smaller daily ring."

The housekeeper produced another set from her pocket.

Diana stared at her.

Alma turned away.

The smaller ring contained twelve keys.

"This is what you will normally carry. The full set remains secured in your household office or apartments unless required."

Diana wrote:

WHY DID YOU GIVE ME THE LARGE ONE FIRST?

The housekeeper considered the question.

"Because those are yours."

That was apparently enough explanation for her.

A knock came from the outer room.

One of Diana’s guards opened the door, and Daric entered carrying a sealed dispatch. His boots were damp with melted snow.

"Message from His Grace."

Diana set down the slate.

Daric broke the smaller household seal attached to the outer copy and placed the copied dispatch on the table.

"The recovered patrol is moving toward safer ground. The ward itself weakened, so His Grace pulled everyone off the exposed ridge and established a stronger temporary line farther south. No sabotage has been found."

Diana wrote:

HE GAVE UP THE STATION?

"Temporarily. Holding bad ground would spend soldiers to defend a position that no longer helps us."

He tapped the report.

"The temporary line is holding. His Grace still does not expect to return before the morning after tomorrow."

His answer sounded so obvious that Diana almost wondered why anyone would do otherwise.

Then she remembered Valence.

Men there had protected appearances at considerably greater cost.

Daric glanced toward the keys spread across the table.

"What happened here?"

"The Grand Duchess has received her household keys," the housekeeper said.

Daric looked at the full ring.

Then at Diana.

Diana had expected amusement.

Instead, he seemed more interested in the daily ring still in her hand.

Diana set it on the table.

"These are ordinary household access," Daric said.

Diana raised one brow.

That did not improve matters.

"No military rooms," he added.

She wrote:

I KNOW.

"Good."

Daric turned toward the housekeeper.

"Any problem?"

"None."

Diana considered throwing one of the smaller keys at him.

Alma, who knew her too well, quietly moved the key ring farther from the edge of the table.

Daric noticed that too.

His attention returned briefly to Diana and the keys before he picked up the dispatch.

"The reception begins this evening. Keep the daily ring with you."

Diana wrote:

I WAS ALREADY TOLD.

"Then consider yourself told twice."

He left with the dispatch.

The housekeeper resumed the lesson.

By noon, Diana could identify twenty-six keys on sight and another fifteen by their tags. The rest began blurring into increasingly creative pieces of iron.

They walked through the household levels testing the most important ones: guest linen, winter stores, service passages, a small locked cupboard beside the infirmary containing emergency blankets, the family dining room, and the upper reception chamber.

Then they climbed to Government Terrace and stopped beside the east service door off the Great Hall.

The housekeeper held out her hand.

Diana searched the daily ring until she found the key with two square cuts.

The lock opened.

Beyond it, a narrow stone corridor descended toward the lower household court.

"It is opened when extra service access is required during large gatherings," the housekeeper explained. "Otherwise, it remains locked from the hall side. I carry one emergency copy of this key. This is yours, and the passage can also be used for evacuation if the Great Hall stairs are blocked."

The passage emerged in the lower east household court, well away from the Great Hall’s ceremonial entrance.

Diana locked the door again.

The key returned to the ring.

By late afternoon, preparations for the winter gathering filled the Citadel. Music carried faintly from below. Servants moved winter greenery into the Great Hall, and black mourning cloth was hung beside repaired military banners.

Diana returned to her apartments to dress for the reception. The full set of seventy-three keys remained secured on the table while Alma fastened the twelve-key daily ring at Diana’s belt.

All her life, other people had carried the keys. The daily ring remained with her, and no one came to take it.

Tonight, she would carry them into a hall full of people waiting to meet Selena Valence.