**THE BRAZEN SERIES is part of the GOLDEN UNIVERSE**
♦YOU MUST HAVE READ BOOK ONE, A BRAZEN MAIDEN, TO READ THIS SEQUEL!♦
♦♦It is ALSO recommended that you read THE GOLDEN GIRL/DUCHESS/PRINCESS & QUEEN to better understand events in this novel, as...
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♪ When will we stop sayin' things 'Cause they're all listening ♪ {Dua Lipa—Boys Will Be Boys}
Harriet woke the next day to shouts from downstairs and yells from outside. It had become something of a habit; jumping awake to the noises of Torrinni in the morning. She'd overhear the disputes between hungover gamblers in the parlor, and the hustle and bustle of other patrons as they rose from their slumber.
As she draped a robe over her shoulders, she padded to the door to find a note slipped under the threshold. It bared her father's former seal—meaning a message from Jacob or Harriet, back home. She had asked them to send her news if needed.
Her heart lurched at the idea of reading Jacob's smooth, always appealing handwriting. But it was Johanna's precise but a little shaky penmanship that curled along the paper.
Her happiness at viewing her half sister's words only lasted a few seconds, for Johanna mentioned riots breaking out in town.
"Riots?" Esther later asked, as they took tea in the deserted parlor whilst the men plotted who-knew-what upstairs. "What does that mean?"
Harriet shifted in her seat, her corset too tight for her taste. Or perhaps she was more uncomfortable with Johanna's letter than she had anticipated. "Not sure. She said nothing to worry about, but..." she sipped on her beverage and smacked her lips, "the notion of a riot provokes a bit of angst in me."
"What are the riots about?" Cristina had warmed up a tad in passing days, and more so since the night before, when she and Esther cornered Harriet and drowned her in questions about Prince Jules. She was intrigued, having once been courted by one of the Princes, and that opened her up, made her more approachable.
"Johanna said certain rumors reached Limesdale... stories that my father was involved in the Giromian attacks. And some..." Harriet winced and looked into her lap, "some believe I helped. That I am, against my promises... like my father. A betraying, back-stabbing anti-Totresian."
Cristina wrinkled her nose, and Esther took Harriet's free hand. "No, the people cannot believe that. Not after everything you did to get rid of your father's legacy! How?"
Though she gritted her teeth and tried to swallow her disappointment, a few tears gathered at Harriet's lash-line. "Probably because... I am a woman." She sniffled, and Cristina reached across the coffee-table to give her a kerchief. "My advisors continue to imply it is a problem. They keep wanting me to marry." She bit her lip, sensing her self-control slip. All her careful composure melted as she revealed how oppressed and untrustworthy she felt.
Both Esther and Cristina suggested she should go lay down, and as Esther guided her to the stairs, nudging her upwards, she squeezed her hand once more. "No man can tell you how to run your estate, Harriet. The King made you responsible, and none can force you to marry and give the reins over. There is no law in Totresia that says you cannot remain..." she leaned in close and whispered, "unmarried."
