She winced when she smelled his breath. “Ergh, what have you been eating?”
The memory returned in full colour, and then he could see poor Henry beneath Duke’s boot again.
“They…made me eat Henry!”
His mother’s jaw clenched, and then she had thatlookon her face. The one she got whenever she went on a rampage through the village.
She was always arguing with Duke’s mother, and the two were constantly at odds.
“He didwhatnow?” she whispered, her voice dark and almost bordering on dangerous.
Tegwyn scooted back on his stool, swallowing hard. Should he bother telling her about the next thing on his mind?
“Also…I said a bad word…”
Her eyes narrowed. “Which one?”
He gazed at his boots again. “The… the one you call another boy if his parents aren’t married…”
Tegwyn tittered, hoping it would lighten the sombre mood, but his mother was furious.
She tossed the cloth into the bowl, placing her hands on her hips. “Tegwyn, you know you’re not supposed to say words like that.”
He grinned. “But it can also be used to describe a really awful person, like Duke! I read it in a book once...”
Tegwyn’s voice trailed off when she gave him thelook. “That’s no excuse.”
He dropped his head, andmore tears slipped from his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
She sighed, pulling the stool close. She wrapped her hands around his cheeks, wiping away his tears with her thumbs. “I forgive you. Just don’t resort to name-calling again. All right?”
“All right.”
Mother smiled, and there was no denying the affection she had for him now.
After all, she did promise the merchant that she would love and raise Tegwyn like her very own son, and Tegwyn could finally see that it wasn’t just magic that bound her to the contract.
She truly meant it when she said, “I love you, Tegwyn.”
“I love you, too, Mother.”
And he did, too.
Tegwyn couldn’t even remember his real parents or his family; he had never even met another faerie. He did love her with all his heart, and he didn’t care what anyone said.
She would always be his mother…
“Tegwyn?”
“Yes?”
“Wake up.”
“What?”
“Wake up!”
His mother shook him roughly, and then the small farmhouse kitchen shattered to pieces.
