STEP SEVEN: ADOPT A CAUSE
"Champion something publicly. Orphans. Education. Widows. The cause is irrelevant. The optics are everything. A woman who feeds the hungry cannot be abandoned by a man who wants to look moral."
Onyx was in the bathing chamber.
Petra was kneeling beside a copper tub, sleeves rolled to her elbows, washing a baby dragon who was sitting in warm water with his wings extended and his eyes half-closed, fully surrendered to the experience. The tuxedo was hanging on a stand beside the door, a towel beneath it, because Bellatrix had instructed Petra to treat the garment with the care afforded to royal vestments and Petra had complied because compliance was her primary professional skill and her secondary survival strategy.
Bellatrix was in the chair beside the window, drinking tea, reading the Knotty Omega's Step Seven with the focused attention of a woman executing a campaign.
"Orphans," she said.
