"Thank you, your highness," Alethea bowed her head. "Liana was my youngest, it is always hardest to see your baby grow up and leave." She was always aware that she had been quite old for a maid when her parents had finally found her a match in Symon. Though Alethea was archly proud of her integrity and her intelligence, when she was young, it stung to hear the gossip of the other girls.
"Then let me not keep you, your highness." Alethea curtsied again. The Queen looked very stressed - if this business wore so harshly on Kaelyn, Alethea wondered how William Stark was holding up.