Chapter 23 The Unexpected Interest

• Nicholette had never crossed swords with Theobald before. The Captain had his everyday dealings with the troops, with the House and reports to do. He was a staple presence in her life, since she could remember, but they never did share a battlefield.
• Until her tender fifteen years of age, Nicholette had been content jumping from dress to dress, make-up to make-up, reception to dinner party. And when she wasn't being displayed as the prominent daughter of the House of Veritas, she'd attend to hobbies that would allow her to go by the house staff as any acquaintances: people that were just there all the time. The chef, the chamber maids, stable boys, the guards and their leader, Theobald.
• It all changed when the girls her age started talking about joining the Academy that Nicholette realized she had only left the walls of their keep to go to the market. And the expensive ones. Suddenly, the towering building felt constraining and even if she knew that even if Lords travelled to other cities in the Realm, it wasn't good enough for her.