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“It was all gossip—”
I cut her off. “Maywin, I’m not asking you to go around spreading rumors, but if it pertains to the fae I’m about to marry, I think I should know everything there is to know, don’t you?”
“Only if the rumors are true,” Maywin insisted uncomfortably.
I smiled weakly at her. “I know you’re not a gossip, Maywin, and that you don’t go around spreading stories. But if you have heard about something that affects me, I would like to know what it is.”
She bit on her lower lip and stared at the bed, picking at threads of the bedcovers before opening her mouth again.
“The King was orphaned quite young—something that you already knew,” Maywin mumbled slowly.
“Yes, of course. His parents died when he was barely fifteen, if I recall,” I replied. “Yet he still managed to run the kingdom with the help of his advisors. He was legally unable to claim his official title until his twenty-fifth year, however.”
“Yes…” Maywin agreed, but I stopped my historical analysis as I realized that she was not leading to any of that. “But he wasn’t ever really alone.”
My eyebrows shot up, but Maywin appeared to have drifted off in thought. For half a moment, I thought she was concocting a spell in her mind. Impatiently, I lifted my hands.
“Maywin…” I prompted gently. “What does this have to do with the King?”
She exhaled as if my question pained her, but when she met my eyes, she fell out with it immediately.
“There’s a servant, a maid. Stralia. She works here in the palace,” Maywin explained. “She’s been here for years.”
“What about her?”
Maywin drew in a sharp breath and blurted out what she had been holding off saying all along. “It’s believed that the King is in love with her, and he has been for years.”
Wind knocked out of my lungs again.
It was more than I could handle for one day. I fell fully back against the pillows, blinking rapidly.
“That’s vicious gossip!” I countered immediately.
Maywin balked, and I instantly felt shame.
“I’m sorry, May. Forgive me. I’m not accusing you of lying. I’m sure you’re not. I-I’m just stunned to hear it. I didn’t mean it.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything, miss. You’re right. It is most likely gossip.”
“Tell me exactly what you’ve heard about this Stalia—”
“Stralia,” she corrected me, and I whimpered lightly.
I believed it more every time Maywin spoke.
“Did you see her yourself?” I pressed. “Was she at this meeting?”
“Yes. I figured out who she was, but I didn’t ask any questions.”
“Nor should you have,” I agreed, nodding. “That’s very wise, Maywin. What part of the palace does she work in? Whose maid is she?”
“I don’t know. Possibly the King’s?”
I had never seen a single servant near Cade, except for the one serving us soup during our first training session. Thinking back, that maid kept wanting to call him “Alpha.” I saw something wrong that day and didn’t figure it out!
More humiliation burned my cheeks. He had already fooled me into believing that he was a servant himself.
“Was she pretty?” I asked, my voice cracking.
