He became serious now.‘What if you did?’
‘Then my husband will send his armies after us and we will die, or worse.’
She pushed him away and returned to sitting at her dressing table, but she did not resume brushing her hair.Instead, she met his gaze in the mirror.His eyes were grey like mine.
‘Would you have married me if you had the choice?’he whispered to her.
‘What does it matter now?We need to stop torturing each other with what ifs.’She sounded sad and hopeless.
Before the man could reply, there was a knock at the door.He took one last longing look at her and left through the open window.
†
The scene changed, and Queen Yaris was noticeably pregnant.She was sitting with King Hared in the castle dining room.It looked the same as it had when he insisted that Bethel and I attend dinner and dance every night with Goodwin and Capita’s other lords and ladies.But there was no dancing or food on the table.They were alone, and King Hared was furious.
‘I know the child is not mine!You thought you could marry me and cover up your disgrace?’His words echoed loudly around the empty dining room.‘Whose is it?’
Queen Yaris didn’t reply.
‘I’m not naming another man’s child as my heir!’His red, contorted face was almost touching hers.I don’t know how she tolerated it.
‘You could name Goodwin your heir if it’s a girl,’ she replied calmly.
‘If the child is born alive, it will not stay that way for long.’
His cruelty made my stomach churn, and her calm demeanour slipped away.
‘No!Please!’she begged, grabbing his arm in desperation.
‘You will have more children.I’ll make sure of that,’ he snarled as he pushed her away.
†
Adorned in a flowing white nightgown, Queen Yaris lay in a grand bed, cradling two infants.A younger Mae stood protectively at the head of the bed as the queen cried softly.
Two knights stood nearby, waiting to take the newborns from their mother.When the first knight leaned in to grab a child, Queen Yaris placed a hand on his arm and whispered frantically.The knight’s eyes glazed over, and with slow, trance-like movements, he took the infant without a word and left.
My heart plummeted when I saw the other knight.He had pale blond hair and blue eyes.
Iain.
Queen Yaris kissed the second babe’s tiny head and carefully passed it to Iain.As she stared at him, his eyes became vacant, and he nodded like a puppet to whatever it was she had said.
†
Queen Yaris was in the dungeon, chained to a chair.She was still wearing the nightgown she had given birth in, and it was soaked in blood.King Hared stood in the cell with a man dressed in black robes.I felt her terror and cried out as the man forced his fingers into her mouth.King Hared watched unwaveringly as the other man took a knife and cut out his wife’s tongue.
†
I didn’t want to see any more.The echoes of her suffering lingered in my mind, foretelling the pain and torture that lay ahead.I had already seen what became of my mother hours before she died.
‘It’s over, it’s over.’Mae’s voice cut through my grief as I lay sobbing in her arms.
‘She was my mother, and I promised we would rescue her.’I clutched Mae’s arm desperately.‘That day I saw her – did she know who I was?’
‘She knew you were her daughter the moment you touched her.’Mae’s eyes filled with unshed tears.
‘She did?’I remembered her frantic calls as we left her.
