His wife glanced over at him.
“Whatever it is,” he encouraged her.
Beatrice took a deep breath. “It sounded in your nightmare as if you were under a silencing curse.”
The words came out in a rush, as if she was afraid of his reaction, and Alexander's heart stopped beating for a moment.
In all his deliberation on how to tell her, he had never considered that she would hear it directly from him in a dream.
Apparently, the curse could be circumvented in specific situations.
“Is it true?” Beatrice asked.
He looked down at her, her eyes full of vulnerability, and said nothing but silently nodded.
Her eyes searched his, as if she could peer into his soul.
How could a woman who had barely known him for longer than three days see through him so clearly? Yes, she’d been his employee, but they’d had more contact in the past three days than the previous two years doubled.
“It's real,” she said.
Alexander nodded. He couldn't say it, but he could confirm it.
Beatrice looked away from him. Her gaze settled on some unseeing point far, far away. “Why?” she asked, her attention snapping back to him.
Alexander said nothing. He couldn't talk about that part either.
“Is that why you had to marry me?” she asked. “Am I part of it?”
Alexander tried. What words could he say that wouldn't be stopped by the curse? He opened his mouth to begin, but his tongue stopped working before he could say something about him marrying someone else.
“It's not you specifically,” he finally managed to get out.
“Is it stopping you from speaking?” she asked.
“You could say that,” he said, surprised that the words came out.
Beatrice frowned. “Is it dangerous?”
Alexander shrugged.
“Does anyone else know?” she asked.
“Guinevere discovered it yesterday.”
Her eyes widened. “And she didn't tell me?”
“I asked her to wait until today,” Alexander admitted. “I was hoping to find some way to tell you myself. I didn't expect it to be in the middle of the night, but I was completely unaware of that.”
Beatrice grinned. “Well, I always was too nosy for my own good.”
Alexander let out a laugh. “I think that you and your nosiness is the best thing that could have happened to me.”
His wife froze, staring up at him, suddenly looking as if she might cry. “The best thing?” she asked, her voice breaking.
“Yes,” he said, nodding at her. “I think so. At least, the best thing in a very, very long time.”
Beatrice sniffed. “No one's ever told me that before,” she said.
