Her widened eyes flew back to Thorn. “How did you—Why are you awake?” she demanded.
“Why did you put her to sleep?” Clotaire shot back.
“Clotaire,” Jada said placatingly, changing in demeanor like a lizard in the garden going from brown bark to white stone. She went to him to lay a hand freshly tipped with jeweled nails against his chest. She smiled up winningly at the taller man. “You have to understand—Thorn is recalcitrant. Stubborn, like her father.” That winning smile faded as he remained stony. “She kept trying to escape,” Jada added with urgency. “Which I knew I couldn’t allow. She didn’t seem to understand that I was only acting to keep her safe, no matter how many times I tried to explain.”
“You never explainedanything,” Thorn said. “No matter how I asked. Begged.”
“I couldn’t tell you the truth.” Jada, clearly uncomfortable, stepped back from Clotaire, gesturing widely and looking athim, though her words were technically aimed at Thorn. “I wasn’t allowed. Remember, you made me vow, Clotaire. It would have jeopardized everything you worked so hard for.” She held Clotaire’s gaze and attention, beseeching. “I had to take extreme measures lest I fail and disappoint you. It was a temporary solution, just until Thorn got past this rebellious phase.”
“I see,” Clotaire said, very neutrally. He moved to put an arm around Thorn and, even though she didn’t trust him and knew him for a liar, she nearly sagged with relief at the protective gesture. They really, truly wouldn’t allow Jada to hurt her anymore. “And the reason for your extended absences?”
“I was, ah, scouting. For you. Getting the lay of the political landscape,” Jada continued when he didn’t immediately challenge that. “I knew that, with the girls reaching their majority, you would be looking at placement. I wanted to have information for you, to assist with the next phase of the project.”
He narrowed his gaze at her. “You wanted to ensure you would have a role in this ‘project.’”
Something in his changed aspect gave Jada caution. “No, I mean, I wouldn’t presume to—”
“And yet,” he interrupted, “you did and are. Unless you’re lying about where you’ve been.”
“I only wanted to do well by you,” she protested.
“Yet you failed,” he continued implacably. “You had a single responsibility: to live here and care for and guard Thorn.”
“Which I did for thirteen years,” she replied tightly. “I only began to stay away longer since then.”
“I see. Only nearly seven years of less than stellar devotion to actually staying here then.”
“She hardly suffered. Look at her.” Jada flung an arm in Thorn’s direction, though without actually looking at Thorn herself. “Alive, well, grown-up, and I educated her exactly as you specified, no more, no less. There’s plenty of food, fresh from the livestockand the gardens, the cottage is secure behind the warded rose hedge. She was never in danger.”
“Ah, well that’s good to know.” He nodded thoughtfully. “Very good to know thatmybriar-rose hedge did the job so well.”
“It truly did, Clotaire,” Jada gushed, cloyingly, flicking a triumphant glance at Thorn, as if they’d been waging a contest between them. “You’re such an accomplished sorcerer.”
“I am. Thorn, are you ready to go?”
She doffed her apron, and nodded. Clotaire gave her a quizzical look. “Don’t you want to pack your things?”
She didn’t want to have to explain that she really had nothing to pack. “There’s nothing here I want to take with me.”
“We’re leaving?” Jada asked, clearly excited by the prospect. “Where are we going?”
“Thorn and I are going to a hunting lodge owned by a friend, not far from here. You are not.”
“But—”
“But nothing, Jada. We need teach Thorn to control her dreams and to outfit her properly. Which reminds me.” He retrieved a box from the kitchen counter by the broken door and set it before Thorn. She opened the hinged lid and gasped at the glittering contents. Rose jewelry of all sorts, all arranged in tiers, in strangely lurid colors, just like her sister’s.
“I never forgot you, Thorn,” Clotaire said gravely, plucking out a large pendant, the twin of Rose’s, strung on a black velvet ribbon. Beckoning for Thorn to turn around, he fastened it around her throat, adjusting the fit so the rose rested exactly in the hollow between her collarbones. He took her by the shoulders. “Everything I gave Rose, I also bought for you. It’s all waiting for you at Rupert’s hunting lodge. I have a tutor in oneiromancy waiting to teach you what you need to know to be a sorceress. And someone else who is eager to meet you and groom you for your new life as a princess.”
Her heart fluttered. “My mother?”
“Your mother,” he confirmed, with a wry twist of his lips. “She is willing to help with this part, at least. We can’t have you greeting the prince looking like a country ragamuffin, lovely though you are.”
“Prince?Whichprince—one of Soren’s?” Jada looked sharp.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to die not knowing,” Clotaire replied without a flicker of emotion.
Jada gasped. “Die? What? No. I’ve served you well.” She fell to her knees, grasping his trousers. “I’ve never spilled your secrets.”
