Page 23 of Triumph at Pemberley

Instead, sympathy dawned in her eyes. “It is not an uncommon thing, but it must be a terrible shock.”

“It gets worse. The woman who gave birth to me—” Jack was damned if he would call Lady Catherine his mother. “She performed the rites for a land Bond before I was taken from her. That is the Talent I am supposed to learn to use.”

“But a land Talent takes years to develop.”

“It is worse than that. The woman had royal blood from many generations ago, and the man was a royal. And the rites were done at Windsor, where many of our kings and queens are buried. Which means…” He could not say it. He could not bear to see that now-familiar look of awe and fear enter her eyes.

She waited for him to continue until the silence became uncomfortable, and then her mouth dropped open.

This was it. Now everything would change. Why, oh, why had he told her anything? Now even his refuge at Darcy House would not be the same. She would be afraid of him, too.

He turned to stare at the opposite wall, where he would not have to see her expression. And then his hand was enveloped in warmth.

“Oh, you poor thing! What a burden to have thrust upon you!” she exclaimed.

Jack caught his breath. She understood! “It was a shock, but they hope it can be useful in slowing the French invasion.”

“They want you to use it? With no training? Did no one think of the danger? No wonder your Talent is so disturbed!” She sounded indignant.

“With the war, there is a pressing need, and very little training to be had.”

“Does your king know about this? Mein Gott, what is he thinking? The heir to the King’s Curse is supposed to start training as a child!”

“The King’s Curse?” That very appropriate name made him smile.

“We call it that in Prussian. Is it different in English?”

“The King’s Bond, but it feels more like a curse.” He looked down at his hand, cradled in both of hers. “The worst part is everyone has been frightened of me. But not you, apparently.”

“The King’s Curse is not a strange thing to me.” She turned her gaze away. “It is not something I would want widely known, but my cousin held the King’s Curse for a tiny principality, not even as big as one of your counties. A former principality, I should say; Prussia has devoured it. And he was just a gangly boy with spots who tripped over his own feet and stuttered whenever he spoke to a girl. It is hard to feel intimidated by someone who tried to put frogs in my bed. I hated frogs!” Her eyes brightened, as if the memory amused her.

He let out a long breath. Someone who did not think he was a dangerous beast! “I promise, no frogs in your bed here.” And suddenly he thought of the bed she slept in, and what she must look like with her dark hair spread across the pillow.

What was wrong with him? She and her children were his guests.

“In fact, that tutoring I mentioned – it was about the Curse. All of us were taught a little about it, in case anything ever happened to my cousin. No one could predict where the Curse would go, though the boys were trained far more. The girls were just an afterthought, so we could recognize it, should it ever turn up in our children.”

He hated to think of little Alexandrine or Friedrich bearing this horrible burden. “I hope that never happens.”

She gave a soft laugh. “Highly unlikely, as my cousin now has daughters of his own and a younger brother. I never thought about it much, as I was the least likely to inherit. My father was a foreigner, and we lived outside… the principality.”

“I wish I had tutors to prepare me for this.” Or a father, the way it was supposed to be, though Prinny would have been no use at all.

But mostly he wished it had never happened to him.

“What did they teach you?” he asked. Not that it was likely to be useful.

She bit her lip. “I do not remember much of it. Nothing about how to use the King’s Curse, of course. That was supposed to be a great mystery except to the… prince and his heir. I only recall one exercise we had to do again and again, and that because it was entertaining in a way.”

“What was it?”

Her eyes grew distant, as if seeing into the past. “He told us to think about who we were, what made us ourselves. What we liked, how we felt about people, how we behaved, what pleased us and disappointed us. Then we were supposed to turn it into a sort of portrait in our minds, framed and unchanging, and think about it every single day so we would never forget it. I can still remember the portrait I made. It is like visiting myself when I was eight years old.”

Odd. “Is there a point to doing that?”

“It was to protect us from the danger of getting lost in the land. He said that is easy to do with the Curse. If someone gets lost, they should find the portrait in their mind and use it to remember who they are.”

Getting lost in the land – yes, he could easily imagine that. Without Roderick to hold him back, he might have done that today, let himself become the land. “I wonder how that would work. If I were lost in the land, how could I even remember about the portrait?”