The Great Hall of La Douairière had never been intended for the delicate, perfumed dances of high court politics. It was a fortress dining space, built from rough-hewn basalt and heavy oak timbers, designed to withstand the brutal winters of the Vexin and to seat hardened mercenaries who preferred the honest, boisterous camaraderie of roasted boar and spilled ale. Its acoustics were meant to amplify the songs of battle and the clash of tankards, not the whispered treachery of dukes and kings.