Chapter 35: THE WOMAN WHO FITS HIS WORLD

DIANA’S POV

The dragonstone stopped burning before dawn.

Vharos’s name did not become easier to ignore.

By afternoon, Diana found Raigoro at the Muster logistics council.

Lady Tavia Morcant had found him first.

She told him he was wrong in front of six officers.

No one died.

Diana watched from the upper gallery with Alma while the Muster’s afternoon logistics council spread across the open court below.

A large map had been fixed to a board beneath the covered command awning.

Raigoro stood beside it with Dragon Host officers, transport clerks, two territorial representatives, and Tavia.

One officer tapped an eastern district.

"We can take four teams from Morcant territory and still move the northern harness supply before next snowfall."

Tavia answered immediately.

"No."

"No?"

"You can take four teams."

For a moment, Diana thought Tavia had agreed.

"Or you can move the civilian grain before the next snowfall. You cannot do both."

The officer’s expression tightened.

"The military request has priority."

"The district does not produce extra horses when someone writes military on a page."

Diana liked her more every time she became inconvenient.

"How much grain?" Raigoro asked.

"Three winter settlements rely on that route before the deeper snow."

"How many transport teams are necessary?"

"Four if the road remains clear. Five if the eastern slope ices again."

"And how many can the territory spare without touching grain movement?"

"Two."

The officer said, "We need four."

Raigoro asked the quartermaster, "What does Lower Fen have after tomorrow?"

The man checked his ledger.

"Three transport teams completing ore movement by midday."

"Use two Morcant. Two Lower Fen."

Tavia studied the map.

"That gives the grain enough margin."

"Change the order," Raigoro told the officer.

Tavia had challenged the order, given Raigoro the information he needed, and remained exactly where she belonged when the decision changed.

Diana kept watching her.

Tavia belonged here without needing to explain why. That was the part Diana could not stop measuring.

Nobody had lowered his voice for Tavia or explained the map before she spoke. She had entered the argument already knowing the roads, the settlements, and what four missing transport teams would cost the people waiting for grain.

Diana knew what it was to be present in a room where everyone assumed someone else understood more.

The meeting ended.

Officers began carrying away ledgers.

Tavia rolled one transport list and tucked it beneath her arm.

Raigoro remained by the route board reviewing another report.

Tavia said something, and Raigoro laughed once. It was quiet and gone almost immediately.

Diana had never heard Raigoro laugh before, and she disliked how quickly she registered the sound.

Alma said absolutely nothing, which was worse.

Diana left the gallery and made it halfway to the next corridor before Tavia called after her.

"Your Grace."

She approached carrying the rolled ledger.

"I was looking for you."

That seemed unnecessarily alarming.

Diana waited.

"The eastern roost households need additional hot-water access tonight. Their ordinary service room has been taken for dragon medical storage."

The question was entirely practical, and Diana’s relief arrived with embarrassing speed.

Tavia continued.

"Mistress Hale suggested the lower family washroom. I wanted to confirm before moving military staff into domestic space."

Diana considered.

The family rooms were currently occupied by relatives of hospitalized soldiers.

The washroom was close enough that Dragon Host staff moving through all evening would disturb them.

Diana wrote:

USE THE OLD GUEST BATHS.

"Farther," Tavia said after reading it.

Diana added:

EMPTY.

"And the service corridor?"

Diana knew this one now.

EAST STAIR. SECOND DOOR.

Tavia nodded.

"That works."

She turned to leave.

Diana wrote before she could stop herself.

YOU KNOW THIS PLACE BETTER THAN I DO.

Tavia looked at the sentence.

"You arrived less than a month ago."

It did not make Diana feel better. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Tavia seemed to understand.

"You notice parts of the household I don’t."

Diana raised an eyebrow.

"I know the eastern roads," Tavia said. "You knew why an empty room near the infirmary mattered to one mother. Blackharrow is too large for either of us to know all of it."

Diana looked down at her slate.

Tavia had not dismissed the difference between them. She had simply refused to turn it into a contest.

Diana had been doing that part by herself.

She made the mistake of glancing toward the gallery where Raigoro still stood among the military maps.

"Someone told you about the old marriage assumption," Tavia said.

Diana turned back to her.

Tavia remained perfectly composed. Of course she did. This was a woman who told Raigoro his orders would make grain disappear.

Diana wrote:

ASSUMPTION?

"That my family and his might eventually find marriage useful."

Tavia adjusted the ledger beneath her arm.

"Nothing was arranged."

Diana wished she had not asked.

Or rather, she wished she had not accidentally asked by existing near someone observant.

Tavia continued.

"Raigoro never proposed."

Diana could have lived comfortably without hearing that from Tavia herself.

Diana wrote:

I DID NOT ASK.

"No."

Tavia almost smiled.

"You looked as though you were trying very hard not to."

Diana had no answer for that.

Tavia had the decency not to smile fully.

"There was no romance, Your Grace."

Diana wrote:

THAT IS ALSO SOMETHING I DID NOT ASK.

"Then we agree twice."

Tavia turned toward the stair.

Diana almost let her go.

Then wrote:

WHY DID PEOPLE EXPECT IT?

Tavia read the question.

This time her answer came without humor.

"Because it would have been easy to explain."

Diana understood. Tavia came from an old Blackharrow house, knew its systems, and could stand beside Raigoro speaking under her own name.

Nobody would have needed to teach Tavia which doors she could enter or which questions she was allowed to ask. Her place beside him would have required no forged name, borrowed dress, or covenant collected from another kingdom.

Tavia seemed to read part of the thought.

"People found the idea convenient. Raigoro never owed them the marriage they imagined."

Diana looked at her.

Tavia nodded.

Then left.

Alma emerged from the corridor where she had very obviously remained within hearing distance.

Diana raised the slate before Alma spoke.

NO.

"I haven’t said anything."

NO.

"Still nothing."

Diana started down the corridor.

Tavia had not behaved as though Diana had stolen anything from her.

That was inconvenient. It left Diana with no one to blame for the comparison but herself.

Resenting Tavia would not teach Diana how Blackharrow worked.

Unfortunately, learning it might.