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Scarlett turned to look at Tarley, ignoring Auri and Brinna for the time being. “I came to tell you dinner is ready.” Then she left.
Tarley stood, grabbing a cloth to dry off.
“Divert us, sister. What does Ollie look like? Is he handsome?”
“Why did you get in an argument with Mr. Uraiahs?” Tarley avoided Brinna’s hopeful look, maintaining focus on drying off.
“You’ve met him?” Brinna asked, her eyes wide with surprise. When she looked at Auri, she looked hurt. “I haven’t.”
“Don’t blame me. You were out in the woods, and Mother and Jessamine on a call. I made a run for it.”
“The one time,” Tarley told Brinna and shrugged into a clean chemise.
“Why we argued doesn’t matter,” Auri said. She sounded miserable. “He’s gone.”
“He’ll be back though?” Tarley asked.
Auri shrugged, and for the first time Tarley noted the paleness of Auri’s skin, the pinched look as if she might be in pain. She’d seen this look before, just after theGreat Nap Escapade,when Auri looked about as brittle as a fire-ravaged tree.
“Aurielle?” Tarley grabbed hold of her sister’s arm. “He’ll be back?”
She nodded. “There’s little choice of it.”
Confused, Tarley jerked back and tilted her head. “What does that mean? You don’t want him to return?”
“Of course I do,” she bit out, then shook her head, but not before Tarley caught the tears shining in Auri’s eyes. She seemed to collect her emotions and stash them somewhere for safekeeping before saying, “I’ll tell you later, after we eat. I’m sure you’re hungry.” Auri offered her a wan smile.
Tarley’s gut twitched with concern, but she nodded.
Brinna and Auri disappeared through the door, and Tarley hurriedly dressed in one of her everyday dresses, a dark burgundy cotton splashed with tiny ivory blossoms. She left her hair unbound to dry and joined her family at the dinner table.
Once they were seated and Tomas offered thanks, they dug in to eat.
“How is the queen?” Mattias asked, scooping a helping of mashed root vegetables onto his plate. He passed the dish to Tomas and turned to Tarley for the next dish of fowl covered with fragrant herbs.
Tarley blinked, and the room shifted, swirling away revealing a dark room beyond, a woman—a stranger—sitting up in the bed looking at her. Her face was marred with bruises and cuts, her eyes ringed with dark circles.
“Tarley?” Mattias snapped.
She blinked, the image gone, and looked at Mattias holding the dish now.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She glanced around the table, each member of her family staring at her. “Jessamine is with the queen?”
“What is it?” Scarlett asked, her brow drawn together with worry.
“Just got a bit dizzy,” Tarley said, unsure what to say to keep her mother at arm’s length, and hesitant to admit that it had happened before, unable to explain the sensation away again, even if they were slightly different. She knew the moment she did, her mother would jump into action with healing remedies—but Tarley wasn’t sure what she’d be trying to heal. She blinked, wondering if the headache would follow, but while her stomach expressed a touch of discontent, her head remained clear.
“Yes,” Scarlett answered, though she was still watching Tarley with her shrewd eyes. “She’s watching the queen at the inn.”
“Is she going to make it?” Tarley asked and blinked again at the vegetables on her plate wondering if it would happen again, but her plate remained the same.
“She was in and out of consciousness when I left,” Scarlett said, adding leafy greens to her plate. “I’ll check on her again in the morning.”
“Do you really think it was Jast?” Brinna asked. “Such a shame if it was. We could have visited another kingdom.”
“Visited? I’d have moved,” Tarley added with a sarcastic chuckle.
