I cast a glance around, because guards surely followed her here, but I see none. That doesn’t mean they aren’t waiting out of sight. “No, Your Highness.”
She watches me look for guards and she frowns. “Please. You don’t have to do that. You can say whatever you want to me. Really.” She pauses, evaluating me. “And . . . ?I know what you said to Rhen. Maybe you won’t believe me, but . . . ?I understand why you hate him. I didn’t know Tycho then, but Grey . . .” She swallows. “Grey had become one of my closest friends. I would have said thatRhenwas one of his closest friends. When I saw what Rhen did to them—I hated him, too.”
I’m frozen in place. I didn’t expect her to be so forthright.
She closes her eyes and hugs her arms to her body. “I’m not going to make excuses for him. It was . . . ?it was terrible. It was a terrible time. But he had reasons. I don’t expect you to forgive him, or to understand, but he hadreasons.”
That ice around my heart doesn’t thaw. Everyone hasreasonsfor the terrible things they do. I’m sure my father had reasons for drinking himself half to death and gambling away all our tax money. I’m sure Niall had reasons for coming after me last night.
But I doubt I can say any of that. I doubt it would matter.It’s clear she’s forgiven the prince for his actions. Nothing I say is going to change that.
I also can’t stand here looking at her, because she’s so ardent that it’s beginning to make me feel coldhearted, and I don’t like it.The princeis the one with a cold heart.
I thrust a fresh shoe into the forge, then bend to run a hand down her horse’s foreleg. He offers me his hoof readily, and I flip the pincers in my hand to cut the nails loose.
“Wait,” says the princess. “You don’t have to work! I didn’t come here for—”
“This one was loose anyway,” I say, snapping the nails away so I can pull the shoe free. “You would’ve lost it within a day or two.”
She’s silent for a moment. “All right.”
I don’t say anything to that, and maybe she takes her cue from me, because after that, the only sound in the forge is the bang of my hammer. Her horse is patient and well-bred, which I’d expect, but when I set the new shoe into place, he presses his muzzle right against my shoulder, resting the full weight of his head there.
“That’s very helpful,” I murmur to him as I hammer each nail. “Thank you.”
Harper laughs lightly, and I glance up. I’ve grown so used to peoplenot having any idea what I’m saying that I forgot she would understand me.
“Do you want me to move him?” she says.
“Nah,” I say. “I don’t mind if the horses are happy.”
“I know. Garson said you’ve gotten quite the reputation.”
I look up fully. “What?”
“You didn’t know? Garson told me you’ve handled most of the hardest horses, and none of them seem to faze you.”
No. I didn’t know. Part of me wants to scowl. I wonder if the soldiers have been sending me the worst horses on purpose, the way they’ve been taunting me in other ways.
“Horses never bother me,” I say. “The mean ones are usually mean for a reason.”
Her horse blows warm breaths against my neck, his velvet lip wriggling against my collar. I reach for my file.
“Maybe I’m unwelcome,” Harper begins, “but would it be all right if . . . ?if I just said a few things to you?”
I don’t stop rasping the file against the hoof. I really don’t want to hear more about Prince Rhen and whatever hisreasonsmight have been, but it’s not like I can stop her. “Of course, Your Highness.”
Another little laugh, but this one is under her breath, and it sounds a bit rueful. When she speaks, however, her voice is serious. “You saved a lot of people last night,” she says. “But I’ve learned that some of the soldiers were being . . . unkind.”
Unkind.That’s one way to put it. I set down my file and reach for the pincers again.
“I heard you were leaving the group,” she adds. “That some of them had chased you off.”
I think of Niall and Brinley, how I was terrified they were going to drag me off Teddy’s back and beat me to death. How they leveled arrows at my face and prepared to shoot.
I wonder how much of that they admitted—or if they just confessed to the chasing.
“But you turned back to warn them,” Harper finishes.
