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“Every morning, I’d pray at my bedside. I’d pray for Father to come home… for Mother to come back, too, although I knew she couldn’t. She was with the angels. But Father could come back. And if God were good, he’d send him my message and bring him back to me.”
“Didn’t… didn’t Rowan ever visit you?” Blanchette asked, already fearing the answer.
“I don’t think so. I can’t remember the last time I saw him.”
Blanchette shook her head, her heart aching for the little girl. What could she even say? What could she do? “He regrets that. I know he does. But it’s never too late, you know.” Blanchette smiled at Mary, brushed the curls from her eyes, and tucked them behind her tiny ears. “You can know him now. Wouldn’t you like that?”
Mary nodded, her pretty face breaking into a smile. Her front tooth was missing.
“God has given you both the gift of time. It’s up to you how you spend it. I suggest you cherish it well, every day…” Blanchette felt Mary’s eyes on her. She tried to harness the sudden rush of sadness. “You never know how much time you’ll have left.”
Mary gave a sulky look, then pulled her knees against her chest. “He’s like a stranger.”
“He’s a good man. Truly.”
Mary gazed up at her, her brows knitted in confusion. Blanchette observed as she stared into the flames with a strange intensity. Her blond curls seemed to catch fire. “Didn’t Father do bad things to you? To your family?”
Blanchette shook her head and inhaled a fortifying breath. “It isn’t as simple as all that, my love. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve come to see your father is a good man. Mine was not. You will come to see it, too, in time. I promise.”
I promise…
Blanchette heard Governess Agnes’s voice in her ear. There is light, and there are shadows in all of us. And sometimes bad things must happen to bring about lasting good. Sometimes winter comes, and it is dark and painful, but it clears the earth for spring.
Mary’s eyes narrowed. She was looking inwardly, Blanchette knew. It was the same expression she often made before her looking glass when her thoughts shattered apart. “I don’t know him at all,” she whispered. Her breaths wafted close to the flame, making it waver. Blanchette watched as it cast long shadows on the stone walls. They shifted and seemed to change shape.
What kind of shape? What are they transforming into?
“He is doing everything he can to change that. He brought you here because he wants to know you, Mary. Because he loves you.” Blanchette set her fingers on Mary’s chin and tenderly lifted her face. “He deserves that chance. And so do you.”
* * *
Rowan sat in the throne’s massive chair, his fingers wrapping around the ends of the armrests. Prisms of light shot through the line of hexagonal windows and dappled the marble floor. Smoke sat in front of the chair like a loyal guardsman.
The royal crown rested on his lap, twinkling in the emerging dawn, its rubies and sapphires bright and furious. Rowan gripped the chair’s gnarled armrests, his nails unconsciously digging into the wood. The massive oak door, studded with iron, pushed open. Edrick stared at him from the archway, his chain mail armor clinking as he sealed the door again with the crossbar.
“Sir Rowan,” he said, his voice lacking any inflection. Rowan stared at the crown in his lap and gripped the armrests tighter.
“Come forward, Edrick.”
He did as ordered. The sound of his boots rapped against the marble floor. He watched as Smoke’s golden eyes narrowed on Edrick. The wolf lowered his head, and a deep, rumbling growl filled the room.
Edrick halted before the wolf, just at the edge of the stairs that elevated the throne from the rest of the great room. If he feared Smoke, he did a good job of hiding it. He folded his arms behind his back and raised his chin at a sharp angle.
Defiant, and growing more so by the day.
Dangerous.
Especially with Blanchette and my daughter about.
When did our friendship come to this?
Rowan met his steady gaze. “I have an assignment for you. One that shall take you from the capital.”
The corner of Edrick’s lip twitched. “With fighting all around us, what could be more important than having me here, in the city, by your side?”
Rowan took the crown into his hands. The metal felt cool against his fingertips as he traced its points. He set it on the armrest, then came to his feet. He recalled what Blanchette had said about her lady-in-waiting. And how Edrick had fervently denied any wrongdoing.
What was her name? Elise?
