14
ON THE WALK back to the theatre, Sariandra chatted about dresses and fabrics and in fact wouldn’t shut up, so that Ellisandra suspected she didn’t want to be quizzed about what had been going on at home. But her cheeks were red and she seemed happy and Ellisandra didn’t need to know any more. She knew what older men did to their daughters when they failed to obey. The fact that she could see no bruises didn’t mean that there were none. The fact that Asitho’s former wife was a very timid woman who had felt so desperate that she had seen no other option but to leave was another sign. Everyone knew that he was a hardline manipulative bastard.
To be honest, she didn’t understand why Nemedor Satarin was happy to have this arrogant, controlling prick in the High Council. She thought better
