“No need for introductions,” the king said. “I know you were young when your family moved out of the city, but we were all friends as children. Please, call me Edmund.”
Sophia looked between Caspian, Kellan, and the king. They’d been friends?
“I remember,” Caspian admitted. “But I’ve been training as a member of your Guard for the past two years and it seems quite irregular to call you by your given name.” He grinned.
The king sighed. “I’m sure the general would drop dead if he knew it, but I have no interest in continuing the stiff formalities of my father’s rule. I wish I’d known you were in Riyel all this time. I would have looked in on you. Is that how you met the lady in question?” he asked, turning to Sophia.
His gaze was intense, and Sophia forced herself to stand straight and not shrink into herself as she dropped into a curtsey.
“Actually, I met her in the Northlands,” Caspian said. “She’d run away from Lady Manning, who treated her quite terribly. It wasn’t until Lady Manning went to the trouble of tracking her down and kidnapping her that we discovered there was a reason for Lady Manning’s treatment of her.”
The king was still looking at her.
Sophia’s stomach hurt again.
“You look like her,” King Edmund said quietly. “Your mother, I mean. She was young when your father married her, and she didn’t mind breaking the rules to treat me like a child instead of the future king.”
Sophia’s mouth was dry, and she couldn’t find words to speak.
“I’m inclined to believe that you’re who they say you are,” the king said, nodding his head at her. “Do you have any proof?”
“Only the word of the cook who was given a child to raise,” Kellan said, nodding his head toward Rosaleen.
Sophia turned to see the sheer terror on Rosaleen’s face, but she took a deep breath and took a step forward, bobbing an awkward curtsey as she did so. “Lady Manning brought her stepdaughter to me a day after Lord Manning died. She told me that if I told anyone Sophia’s true parents, she would kill both of us, and I knew I couldn’t let that happen. I began calling her by her middle name and did my best to teach her all the things she would need to know. But Lady Manning was cruel to her, and it became clear that she was worried about someone recognizing Sophia for who she truly is. She is Lady Blanche Sophia Manning, Lord Manning’s daughter and heir.”
King Edmund nodded gravely. “Thank you for your testimony.” He crossed his arms across his chest as he turned to stare at Sophia. “And what about you?” he asked. “Do you believe it’s true?”
Sophia nodded. “If I may be honest, Your Majesty, I didn’t truly believe it myself until we visited the art gallery at the mansion yesterday. But when I saw the portraits of my parents, knowing they were most likely my parents…I couldn’t deny it any longer.”
“She looks just like them,” Caspian said. “I almost thought the portrait of her mother was Sophia herself.”
The king nodded and smiled at Sophia. “I hereby declare you to be the heir of the Manning estates, Lady Sophia Manning. Your stepmother will find that the punishment for hiding a child’s true parentage to gain a title is quite steep unless you wish it to be reduced.”
Sophia’s eyes widened. He was giving her the choice? She didn’t want to have to make that decision. She turned to Caspian, who could sense her indecision and reached for her hand.
“I think Lady Sophia will agree with whatever you see fit,” he told the king, and Sophia nodded.
“Would you like to be here when I speak to her?” the king asked.
A chill ran down Sophia’s spine at the thought of seeing Lady Manning again.
But no.
She wasn’t Lady Manning.
Sophia was now Lady Manning.
And being there was probably the proper thing for a lady to do, right?
“As long as you’ll stay with me,” she told Caspian.
“Always,” he said with a smile.
It wasn’t the first time he’d said that, but it still made her smile.
Always was a long time.
The king nodded to Kellan. “Would you tell the guards outside to bring her to the throne room?” he said. “I think the occasion warrants it.”
