It had been some time since Lilia had an excuse to wear a dress, but that part of her they could never touch- that never broke- still remembered what it was to be a Lady.
She didn't know where Andro had the dresses made, or how the seamstress knew her exact measurements, but she wasn't about to ask either. Not as she stood before the floor-length mirror in a dress of ruby red taffeta that cinched to her in all the places it should and billowed out to the floor to complete its elegant form.
Running her hands over the delicately embroidered bodice, Lilia's eyes almost stung with tears as she tried to remember the last time she could wear such a garment. Or considered the times she thought she would never wear one again.
Almost.
She had to remind herself this wasn't a ball or any other social engagement- it was merely an invitation to dinner with the Lord of the castle where he was going to finally explain to her why Sebastian Gaylen had a Mark on his head, and how she was thrown into the middle of it.
But if that was all it was, why was her heart feeling as though it was beating right against the boning of that bodice?
She placed a hand on her chest, right above that beating heart, and Lilia made herself take a breath- once in and once out. Her attraction to Andro was ill-placed and had been ever since that damn Solstice masquerade. And somehow, someway, Baz knew it too, and she played right into his deceitful trap. The bastard...
She hissed as her nails dug into the flesh of her breast, where it peaked out over the top of the corset. Lilia needed to get a grip on her temper, or else find some way to channel it, or she was going to get herself, or someone else, hurt in the process.
Groaning at the red marks the nails left in their wake, Lilia reached down to her vanity and applied a few puffs of powder to the affected area. Hopefully, that would be enough to conceal the self-inflicted damage to keep anyone from asking questions at dinner.
Dinner. Of course.
It was only dinner.
A dinner where it would be only she and Andro, where she was wearing a gorgeous gown and he- well, she could only imagine what he would be wearing. He could show up wearing a page's riding leathers and it would suit him perfectly.
She shook her head violently, grateful she had yet to do her hair. Only dinner, only dinner, only dinner...
If she had allowed the maidservants assigned to her to remain, she would have been ready by now, but she dismissed them as soon as they brought her the dress. Not that she didn't appreciate the offer from either of them or Andro, but Lilia was more used to dressing on her own that having anyone else. It used to drive Lucas mad she would never hire herself a personal assistant- she wondered if Cass would have done that for herself as yet.
Oh, Cass...
Lilia all but crashed onto the bench before the vanity, looking at herself in its mirror. She hadn't allowed herself to think of her sister since the day she signed her life away upon Baz's gods-damned contract, and now that her younger sister's name flitted across her mind, she couldn't get the image of her from her head.
What was Cass thinking of all of this? Did she truly believe her dead? Long and deceased after a folly of a mission?
Was she moving on, accepting her new role, her position as the Lady Cortova?
Or was there a chance she finally saw through Baz and his lies- that she would discover what a monster he truly was and what he had concocted while he shared her bed...
A knock on the door sent her reeling, almost falling from the bench as she snapped from her thoughts.
"Dinner is ready," of one the maidservants said through the doorway.
Lilia sat there, and by habit waited for a title or term of respect to follow the announcement, but she reminded herself she was no longer a Lady, and within Andro's castle she wasn't even high enough within the hierarchy to be called Mistress or Ma'am.
She was merely Lilia.
That Lathos whore who almost killed their Lord.
The pathetic excuse for an Assassin whose own Guild no longer wanted her.
"I'll be there in a moment," she called it in response, standing from the bench.
There was no use in delaying any longer. She didn't get the chance to fix her hair, but she still wasn't trusted with combs or pins, so it would need to remain down her back, anyway.
Giving it a final fluff and stepping into the satin slippers that matched the red of the dress, she opened her chamber doors and followed the maidservant to dinner.
It wasn't a dinner- it was a feast.
Lilia was uncertain she was within the right room or had the correct date, but when Andro stood from his chair at the opposite end of the table, wearing a tunic that matched the red of her dress over elegant black pants and shiny knee-high boots, she knew she wasn't mistaken.
"Lady Cortova," he said way of greeting with a small bow at the waist. He didn't have his hair back either, the dark strands brushing against his shoulders as he moved.
"You know that's no longer my title," she reminded him as she took her seat. It was the only other place setting on the table, and it was to Andro's right. The significance was not lost on Lilia.
"Though you may no longer be a Lady by title," he mused as he, too, took his seat. "You are still one by spirit, so a Lady you shall remain, as far as I'm concerned."
She attempted to hide her blush as she set her napkin across her lap.
"I see you received the dress I bought you."
His gaze was already trained on the embroidered bodice, and Lilia looked down to admire the gift again. "Clearly or else I'd be sitting here in my undergarments."
"Not that I would have minded that either."
Her head snapped up, and Andro chuckled softly as he poured the wine.
As he poured the wine...
It was then Lilia realized there were no servants there with them. No one to serve them their meals. It was already spread out before them, for their own consumption.
They were truly alone.
"So, when are you going to tell me what I want to know?" she asked as she picked up the now-full wine glass. Taking a sip, the alcohol sang on her tongue, and she had to wonder when she last tasted a vintage so delicious.
"Can we not eat something first?" he offered as he motioned to the food between them. "Politics on an empty stomach always seems to give me indigestion."
"I thought, as a Lord, you had to eat, sleep, and breathe politics to survive."
"As a Lady, did you?"
"But I was a Lady out of respect- yours is a title of power."
He smiled slightly at that as he served them garden greens and vegetables. "Ah, yes- I forget things are different in Lathos. Here, the title, the respect and the power are hand-in-hand, merchant or not. Those who control the trade, control the land. But I'm not talking about your silk expertise."
Lilia perked a brow at that as she reached for her fork.
"Yours was a power quite different, yet still similar."
Her gaze returned to her plate. She knew where this was heading, and she was about to lose her appetite.
"We've already talked about me," she reminded him, finally raising her eyes to meet his. "Tonight, you said you were going to talk about you."
"That I did," he confirmed as he finished a mouthful of food, leaning over to reach for the meat and serve himself a helping. "But what do you want to know?"
Lilia felt as though she was going to bend the fork within her hand in half. Or throw it between Andro's eyes. Maybe both. "Why did Baz want you dead?" she ground out through clenched teeth.
Andro smirked at her reaction as if he could tell she was trying her damnedest to keep herself in control. "Because we are the same, he and I. And the loss of one is the rise in power of the other."
Lilia blinked at that.
"How did you think I knew to have the anti-poison made for the wine at the Solstice masquerade?" he asked casually, admiring his next forkful of food before putting it into his mouth.
"But.... but that was Baz's creation. You would have needed to request it made from him directly..."
"So, I did."
"But as the Leader of the Guild of Assassins," she pushed. "He's a diplomat by day- no one who wasn't involved in the Underground would have ever known to ask it from him otherwise."
Andro gave her a knowing grin, and his eyes lit up as the further realization crept over Lilia's features.
"Then you're..." she started, but before he could answer, their conversation was cut short by the sound of the dining hall's main door opening and closing, and in stepped a servant balancing a silver tray upon his palm.
Stepping between them, he lowered the tray so that Andro could accept what he was offering, and Lilia's throat went dry at the sight.
For upon the silver tray were two letters- two notes on completely different stationary, but the seals...
For on one was the red seal with crossed swords of Lord Sebastian Gaylen.
And the other...
The other was the purple wax seal with its blooming rose of the House Cortova.
Lilia could only stare as Andro nodded his thanks to the servant, taking the notes and sending him on his way. Could only watch as he opened each one slowly, almost painfully slow. But his countenance didn't shift, not once, as he read their contents.
It wasn't until his storm gray eyes met hers that she realized she was staring.
"This one," he finally murmured, holding the one with Baz's seal. "This is a request for my presence at the Midsummer Solstice festival, hosted by none other than Lord Sebastian Gaylen of Lathos."
Of course, it was, Lilia reminded herself. He had threatened it only so many times. But if that was the case...
Her eyes glanced at the other already-opened letter before him.
"And this one," he said as he picked it up. "This is an invitation."
"To what?" she asked, her voice calm yet quiet.
Andro looked at her as if he knew what to expect the moment he told her, but sighed and continued on, anyway.
"This is an invitation to the wedding of Lady Cassandra Cortova and Lord Sebastian Gaylen."