The man had grown bolder faster than Baron had anticipated, and Baron couldn’t see a clear path to spring harvest, much less to Corvin’s seventeenth birthday. Perhaps the steward truly thought he was benefitting Corvin by distancing the estate from its Caster connection. Perhaps he simply feared for his own safety.
Something tapped at the window, startling Baron, and he heard a sharpcawjust before a crow swooped into the narrow tomb enclosure. In a burst of black mist, the crow turned into a gangly boy. The transformation took barely a moment, and the mist dissipated at once, fading to imitate a puff of dust in the sunlight.
Baron forced himself to relax. This place was likely safer than his bedroom.
“You abandoned Mr. Shaw,” he said disapprovingly.
“He’s in Stonewall today, but I wasn’t about to tell Huxley.”
Corvin rested his hand on their father’s plaque, shoulders drooping. Then he moved beside Baron, leaning his back against the stone wall, eyes on the floor.
“It’s hopeless, isn’t it?” he whispered at last.
Though Baron had been thinking along much the same lines, he wrapped an arm around Corvin’s shoulders. “We won’t let it be,” he said.
Corvin smiled. From somewhere distant, a bird screeched, and the boy perked up.
“Another carriage?” It was foolish how quickly Baron spoke, more foolish still how that was his first hope.
“No, it’s—hang on.” Corvin weaseled out from under his arm, turning with a clever gleam in his eye. “Do youwantit to be?”
“I want only to be prepared for any unexpected visitors. Thelast caught us all off guard.” Baron pushed away from the wall and ducked into the fresh air.
Corvin scrambled to catch up. “Did she say she’d come back?”
“She said no such thing.”
“Oh.” The boy’s steps slowed, then increased again. “Maybe we could go to the castle. Or to Sutton, at least. I’d like to talk to Jenny again. She hardly said anything with Huxley hovering, but I think she grew up near here.”
Baron relaxed, coming to a stop beneath a tree, dappled with the shadow of leaves. “I suppose a trip to Sutton could be arranged.”
Though Huxley would no doubt find an excuse to deny it.
Corvin nodded. “Great. Then you could talk to Aria, like you’re dying to.”
A leveled stare did nothing to wilt the boy’s devious grin.
“What I said about Jenny’s true. And what I said about Aria’s true too.”
“PrincessAria, and you’re far ahead of yourself, Corvin.”
“You could send her a letter, you know. You don’t even have to leave for that. I happen to know thebestdelivery crow in the entire kingdom, one you never use for anything. Mr. Shaw told me he’s worried you don’t appreciate what an incredible rarity that trained crow is.”
Baron snorted. “I appreciate that crow plenty, even if he sometimes pokes his beak where it doesn’t belong.” He sobered. “It isn’t ... simple, Corvin. Not as simple as I might hope.”
The boy’s expression fell. “What do you mean?”
The matter was tangled up in words likeroyaltyandCasterandNorthglen. If that weren’t enough, there wassteward,harvest,twins. Baron could not risk dividing his attention. The cost for a failure at home was far too great.
Even if he thought of the princess’s strange journal and remembered Leon’s words about her voice at court. Even if hecould not remove the memory of Aria in the orchard, looking up at the trees with the sun shining against her dark hair, reaching for a lemon and saying,It’s breathtaking.
“Come on.” Baron nodded toward the path to the hamlet. “If Mr. Shaw is gone, that means you’re my assistant for the day, and last I heard, there was a concern about the central well.”
Hopefully he could find a way to solve the problem without access to estate funds or resources.
60 days left
Something’s wrong with you,” Eliza said.
