Chapter 23
Marta studied her a moment longer, saying nothing further, before returning her attention fully to the dough beneath her weathered hands. Callie remembered, suddenly, that this was the same woman who had walked past her and the guard in the servant corridor without a single word of alarm or accusation days earlier. She wondered, briefly, whether Marta had said anything to anyone since, whether the old cook's silence had been simple indifference or something more deliberate.
She did not ask. Some instinct told her it was safer not to draw further attention to either incident, safer to let both moments fade quietly into the background of the household's daily business rather than risk stirring up questions she was not prepared to answer.
She busied herself instead with the even
