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My eyebrows scrunched together. Servant? That’s what he called the woman who’d nurtured him as a baby and raised him as a child? Olwen didn’t seem to take offence and preened under the prince’s attention.
When Bleddyn faced his liege lord, his face had an unnatural stillness to it that gave nothing away. Prince Prys finally acknowledged him with a slight lowering of his chin, but his gaze was riveted on me. Scrutinizing me like a fly pinned down for the amusement of a spider, his expression was as impassive as Bleddyn’s.
“You must be the girl who claims to be my sister’s child. Of course, I shall not take your story at face value.”
I bristled at his words, but a glance from Bleddyn told me to stay respectful and keep my mouth shut. The prince pulled out a chair and sat down opposite me. I folded my hands and tried to look as meek and mild-mannered as I could. Mistress Olwen brought drinks and snacks for everybody without being prompted.
Prys locked his intense gaze on me as he took a sip of the mulled wine and a bite of the cake Olwen had placed before him. For my part, I kept my eyes trained on his face, examining his features for any semblance with my mother.
I had no memory of her, but my dad had had pictures of her all over the house. There was one I loved where she held me, and my dad had his arms around both of us. She’d been so full of love, and he’d looked fiercely protective. In the end, it hadn’t mattered. He’d lost her, and then I’d lost him as well.
I swallowed hard, hoping Prys wasn’t a mind reader. Those were memories I didn’t want to share.
The prince’s gaze intensified, and then he placed his mug down. “You looked very sad all of a sudden. Perchance your claim could be true, and you are my sister’s child.”
And then he smiled.
I choked on my breath, because there she was, my dead mother revealed in his features. Any doubt I’d had was gone. Prince Prys was my uncle, which made me the Lost Princess’s child.
Chapter seventeen
Mybeautifulmother,whomy dad had called Erin, was the lost Princess Arwen, sister of Prince Prys and daughter of King Rhys. And it seemed I was his granddaughter.
I could barely sit still as Prys explained how much his father would love to meet me. Bleddyn stood apart from me as if he was a stranger. When Prys addressed him, he put even more distance between us.
I didn’t know the reason, and I worked hard to hide my disappointment. Maybe it was my newfound status as a member of the royal family, or he already regretted the one-night stand. Either way, I couldn’t deal with his mood swings, not when information was pouring at me like from a fire hose.
“Your life at court will be very different from what you were used to in the human world. Did you receive any training?” Prys asked.
“What training?” Was he referring to my time at the Academy? Or was there more Fae magic I should have learned by now?
I hedged my bet and answered, “I went to a school that taught me how to manage my powers.”
Prys studied me as if he could pull the truth from my head. My eyes narrowed at the screeching of his thoughts against my brain. But just as with Bleddyn, whatever Fae mind-bending magic he was using didn’t work on me.
Actually, it pissed me off. I copied Bleddyn and kept my face expressionless. The prince sat back, clearly irritated at his failure. He finished his snack, and when Olwen cleared the table, he wordlessly dropped several coins on the surface.
He was still treating her as a servant and not as the woman who must have been like a mother to him as he grew up. He didn’t even look at her, and that more than anything convinced me this guy was no good. I needed to be very careful with what I said to this dangerous man.
His sharp eyes never left my face, as if he could stare me into submission. “I shall expect you at the palace tomorrow. I will prepare your grandfather, the king, so that the shock will not be too much for him.”
For the first time, he addressed Bleddyn directly. “I need to speak to you and the mistress privately about other matters. Follow me to the back.”
He got up, dismissed me with a polite smile, and entered the kitchen, leaving his guards behind. Bleddyn followed him, his face stony. But when he glanced back over his shoulder, his eyes looked worried.
I stayed at the table for another few minutes, wondering if they would return. But soon, the men’s gawking and whispering made me so uncomfortable I decided to go for a walk.
I half-expected them to stop me, but nobody said anything as I stepped outside the building. I scanned my environment warily, remembering Bleddyn’s dire warnings.
But when we’d gotten separated, I’d be wearing tightly fitting human clothes, easily giving away my gender. Now, my body was covered with shapeless peasant garb. My hair was so short that if I pulled my hat deep into my forehead, there was no way I was even recognizable as a woman.
And I really wanted to get a feel for what this Fae city looked like. If things didn’t work out, I’d have a much better chance if I knew at least the general layout.
***
BLEDDYN
I worked hard to keep the growing horror off my face as I watched my liege lord manipulate Beth, putting her down one moment and building her up the next. By the time he was done speaking, Beth believed she was Arwen’s daughter.
