A Court of Pain and Sorrow

Light

Rhaella frowned as she gazed her meal.
Or the lack of it.

She looked at the rest of her family's dishes and her frown only became deeper.

While they were enjoying a thick, juicy steak with baked potatoes and salad, Rhaella only had the salad. And a smaller one.

She looked at her father, sitting at the end of the table and waited for an explanation.

He didn't give her one.

"What's this?" She breathed, trying hard not to curse and demand her food.

"What?" Her father asked, shallowing the food he was eating.

"Where is my food?"

"In front of you."

Nesta watched them both argue from her sit besides Rhaella, a brow raised. She leant back and looked at Elain in front of her.

Elain sat there as well, waiting to see how things evolved.

"This is hardly an appetizer." Her frown became even deeper if that was possible. "We ate more when we were poor."

"We thought..." His father started.

"Who is 'we'?" She asked, interrupting him. Her father didn't pay any attention to her.

"We thought it would be nice for you to start a diet to get rid of all that muscle. You don't work anymore and it's not very ladylike."

"Excuse me?"

Her father sighted.

"People talk, princess." He said and, suddenly, Rhaella wanted him to stop calling her that. "You wouldn't want this to harm Elain and her possible engagement, do you?"

"Graysen didn't seem to mind my figure." Rhaella frowned and leant back on the chair, her corset digging in her ribs. "He actually seemed to really like it."

"Rhaella Nyx Archeron!" His father exclaimed. Rhaella grimaced at the name and Elain looked at her with tears in her eyes. "You will not make that kind of comments! You won't even think about them!"

"Oh! So you can just make me starve to death but I can't make a comment about how Graysen has eyes on his face and can see I'm beautiful?" She cocked an eyebrow, a sly smile on her lips and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Not about that man." Her father said, placing a hand over Elain's.

There was silence for a few seconds before Rhaella shrugged and started to eat her salad.

"You are not going to apologize?" Elain's sweet voice asked.

"No. I'm not." Rhaella called a servant who just happened to be Kalta. "Bring me a steak as well, I don't care how long it takes."

"Of course, milady." Rhaella could see her bitting the inside of her cheek, dreading her current role.
She made a mental note to apologize for that.

"Don't be like that." Nesta said. "You hurt her feelings."

"And you all hurt my stomach." She knew she was in the wrong, but after years of breaking her back for them, they shouldn't really care if she talked back once.

Or twice.

***

That night's ball was in the house of someone she dreaded.

Lord Byron Sinclair and his family were valued by all court.

The court even felt sorry for them, after loosing their beloved daughter, Evelyn Sinclair to the hands of one of Dante's criminals.