Human Realm:
The afternoon was quiet.
Mabel sat near the window, with one leg crossed over the other, and a painting book resting on her lap.
She hadn't turned a page in several minutes.
Her attention was elsewhere.
Outside, the garden stretched across the back of the estate. The flowers were beginning to bloom again, and the gardeners had spent most of the morning trimming the hedges and clearing the paths.
Mabel watched one of them bend to collect a fallen branch. Then she looked away.
She still could not understand why her father and Ashmere sent her here. Fitzgerald seems to have no plan of betrayal. Even if he does, what would it benefit him?
She had been so taken by the idea of becoming queen that she hadn't paused to reflect.
Her fingers moved over the edge of the book.
Fitz had been away for most of the morning.
He had left shortly after breakfast, telling her he had matters to attend to. He hadn't explained further, and Mabel hadn't asked.
