"I feel so badly for her," Elia said with true sympathy. "It must be very difficult to go from never being a part of the court to trying to hold it." She sighed. Watching Kaelyn Stark was watching someone drown without asking for a rope. Even though she didn't so much mind the wolf queen's drowning, she didn't have to enjoy watching it. Already the whispers among her own ladies were sharp enough to cut class. "All one must do is look at her face to see that she's lost and determined not to ask for help."
"But you do not seem so lost, Hester." Elia smiled. "Your little cousin is the sweetest child, I think she has found a very worthy model to fashion herself on." It would keep Genna Stark safe from the cutting words of the court if she modeled herself on her fashionable and polished aunt, Elia thought. If the times had been easier for Hester's debut at court, she suspected the lady would have already been hailed as a leader of fashions.