“Wait . . . you possess common human decency?”

“In very small quantities, so I don’t use it often,” he teased. And, because it was funny, I laughed. “Just follow our lead, stay with me, and be as friendly as you can. After that, all you have to do is eat and dance.”

I chuckled. “Ah, finally, something I’m good at.”

Etan’s smile was wide as we walked into the Great Room, and I found myself gripping his arm tighter for support. The thing about a minority of people disliking you was that there was no way to tell on sight who fell into that minority. So, to not walk into a situation I’d have no hope of escaping on my own, I had to act like everyone was in that minority until proven otherwise.

Our seats were incredibly close to the head tables, which made sense, as the Northcotts and Eastoffes were the only blood relatives of Quinten’s in the room. The only ones in the world, as a matter of fact. It left me feeling exposed, and I wished there was a way to wrap all the fabric dripping from my arms around me like armor.

“Etan Northcott, is that you?”

He and I both turned to a woman staring across the table in wide-eyed wonder.

“Lady Dinnsmor, Lord Dinnsmor! It has been too long!” Etan’s face was bright, such as I’d never seen it. He reached out to take her hand, and she gripped it in both of hers.

“The last we’d heard, you were at the front again. I didn’t think we’d see you here,” the lady gushed.

“I did go back,” he clarified, “but then my father sent for me. I’m sure you will have heard that my uncle, Lord Eastoffe, and his sons were recently . . . they died. It was my job to fetch my aunt and cousins.”

He said this so calmly, linking me in with Scarlet seamlessly.

Their faces said what we already knew: this was news.

“How did they die?” the gentleman asked somberly.

“They were murdered. A raid at my cousin Silas’s wedding in Coroa. Allow me to introduce his widow, Hollis Eastoffe.”

Their hollow eyes came over to me. “You poor girl. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you, my lady,” I replied, taking in her genuinely sympathetic eyes.

“Silas was such a clever one, a peacemaker,” she commented.

I thought about that, about how Valentina had once told me that Silas just wanted people to think, how he walked into a swordfight without anyone’s colors on, how he never seemed to flinch. No wonder people rallied behind him; he’d been made for peace.

“He was. I count myself lucky to have loved him. And to have gained a new family because of him.”

She smiled, looking me over. “So, you’re from Coroa, then?”

I swallowed. Minority or majority, minority or majority? “I am.”

“And yet you braved coming here with your in-laws?”

“My parents were also killed in the raid. Lady Eastoffe and Scarlet are my only family now.”