The main door into the manor was the closest—the most convenient for a Duke who was often in the stables—so that was where she was heading, though she did make sure her shoes were cleaned first. Because she had been raised in a household that had not, at the time, had one of the Imperial “gift” manors, she was struck again by how very odd the manor at Valdemar looked, poking up out of the landscape with nothing to anchor it to the landscape it was in. Her father’s manor just fit into its surroundings, the two-story stone walls echoing the exposed stone of the hills above, and centuries-old trees embracing it. The Valdemar manor stood out. No trees embraced its walls, not even bushes. The walls were smooth, and a rather unnatural shade of pale pink, like the inside of the shell she had among her curios. Not unpleasant, just unnatural. The thing wasn’t made of any stone that could be found around here, like the walls, stables, and barns, which were built of the native gray granite. There were far too many towers. There were no kinds of defensive walls around it. It looked like—

Like a giant piece of sugar-paste sculpture!

There had been something like that as the centerpiece of Isla and Kordas’s wedding feast, a replica of the Valdemar manor with the banners of both houses hanging from the towers. She had thought it too pretty to eat, but that hadn’t stopped anyone else from snapping off pieces to munch. But then again, pure sugar wasn’t something that appeared on tables very often around here. Sugar was something used sparingly in baking, so people who got a chance to have a bite of the pure stuff generally took full advantage of the opportunity. That wasn’t the case, away in the Capital, at least if the things she’d read were true. The Emperor had a kind of chronicle sent to every noble household in the Empire twice a year that, in addition to informing households of any changes or additions to the laws of the land, detailed all the goings-on of the Capital. She used to read the things avidly, wishing she could be there to see the festivals, taste the amazing things described for the feasts—

Until Kordas had pointed out that the sole purpose of this was to make people like him and his household discontented with what they had, and goad them to attempt the same. All that would be a heavy drain on their income, and that would lead to them trying to exploit more out of their properties, all to the detriment of their homes and the people that depended on them.