She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. It was simple, short, and warmed him to his soul. “Thank you,” she whispered.
A throat cleared behind them, and Venn twisted in his chair to see David Holm standing in the open doorway, Rebecca cradled in his arms.
Venn had given the man some of his clothes, and they hung loose on David’s emaciated frame. The loose collar showed swaths of bruised skin around his neck, and Venn couldn’t forget the welts and blood he’d seen streaked over the man’s chest and back. His torture had been extreme, and healing would take time. Though it seemed being reunited with his children had done much to strengthen him already.
“May I join you?” he asked, his voice low.
Venn nodded.
“Where are Finn and Sarah?” Vera asked.
“Sleeping in the other room.” David’s eyebrows tugged together. “I won’t leave them long, but . . . Finn told me who you are, and I wanted to speak with you before you return to the princess.” He sat in a chair slightly away from Venn, keeping space between them. His eyes were on his sleeping daughter’s face for a moment, and then he looked up. “Before anything else is said, I must thank you for taking care of my children. It’s a debt I’ll never be able to repay.”
“It was our pleasure,” Vera said at once.
David’s swollen and bruised face twisted a little, tears gathering in his eyes. “I would never have left them, but my wife was so ill, she couldn’t travel. I thought I’d find friends in Salvation—people who could help. But I was arrested almost immediately because I was on the Keeper’s list.”
Fates. He’d been a prisoner all this time . . . Venn felt bad for all the times he’d thought that David Holm had simply abandoned his wife and children. “I’m sorry for your suffering.”
“The greatest torture wasn’t what they did to me,” David said. “All I could think about was my Rebecca. My children. I . . .” His breath caught, and his words faded.
Despite the man’s obvious emotional frailty, there were things Venn needed to know. He leaned forward, his voice low. “Vera told me you confessed to being a rebel.”
David drew back a little. “I would have confessed to anything to protect my children.”
“Butareyou a rebel?” Venn asked.
David said nothing.
Vera broke the short silence. “Those things you said about Serene. Wanting her on the throne. I could hear the truth in your words.”
“The princess would make a far better ruler than the prince,” David said. “Or the king, who allows his son such power.”
“But are you a rebel?” Venn asked again.
“If I say yes, would you arrest me?”
“No,” Venn told him honestly. “I just don’t understand. The rebels have tried to kill Serene.”
“There are some who would let prejudice against Mortise blind them. Men who think that killing the princess—stopping the alliance with Mortise—is the answer. But not all men think that.”
“So . . . youarea rebel,” Venn said slowly. “One whodoesn’twant Serene dead."
David cracked a faint smile. “I would never wish the princess harm.”
Venn figured that was as much of a confession as he was going to get. Which was unfortunate, because he had questions. Were there two factions of rebels, then? The ones who wanted Serene dead, and the ones who wanted her in power?
It was a lot to process.
Vera spoke before he could. “That man you named—James Rubin. I think I may have met him.”
Venn shot her a look. “You didn’t tell me he named anyone.”
“I didn’t really think of it at the time—I was focused on other things. But that name stuck in my mind. When we were in Halbrook, there was a man who came to the inn to warn us that Serene was in danger at the dedication of the king’s new highway. His name was James.”
Venn hadn’t ever seen the man, but he remembered him. Bennick had wondered for a brief time if James might have somehow been the Rose—he’d disappeared, and then they’d found Ivonne’s body.
His forehead creased. “Didn’t Clare say that James was her friend?”
