The Duchess Appears
Her gaze jerked sideways when she spoke - total surprise on her face.
A hush passed over her face, then tightness pulled at the corners of her mouth. Not long after, those clear blue eyes stretched wide, alert and unyielding. Into the quiet, her words arrived - clean, sudden, slicing through everything.
"What? Play dumb? What are you talking about?"
Sound lingered after speech, stretching just past now. A pause took shape where silence should have returned.
