No. It’s not possible.
I grab a new rag and start swiping the counters twice as fiercely. I need to worry about my sister. No matter what they do to me, there must be a way for me to protect Nora. Maybe Jax will look out for her. My shoulder aches from scrubbing so hard, but I move on to the bench in front of the window. I beat the dust out of the cushions, then set them aside to scrub the wood.
“Callyn?”
My breath catches, and I straighten. The queen has come down the stairs. She’s changed out of her stained attire into one of my loose linen dresses. Her bruised face is freshly scrubbed, her hair neatly braided in a plait that hangs down over one shoulder.
I curtsy hastily. “Your Majesty.”
She inhales to say whatever she came down to say, but I’m deathly afraid she’s going to take me away from my sister or chain me up in the barn, so I start babbling. “Are you hungry? I can make you anything you like. Would you care for a meat pie? Or an apple tart?” I sound addled, but I can’t seem to stop. “I believe Nora and Sinna finished the sweetcakes—”
“Callyn. Please—”
I recognize my error and flush. “Oh! Excuse me. Ah … I mean, Her Highness,PrincessSinna—”
“Please,” the queen says. “Stop.”
I stop.
But Ican’tstop. I feel my face crumple, and I press my fingers to my eyes. I choke on my voice as I say, “Please don’t hurt my sister. Please—please, Your Majesty. She didn’t know. She wasn’t a part of this. Please—please—Nora is so kind, so good, so innocent—”
“Callyn,” she murmurs.
And then, to my absolute shock, the queen’s arms come around my shoulders, and she’s holding me. She’s so warm and reassuring, and I’m clutching at her in response, soaking my tears into her shoulder before I realize what I’m doing.
But she’s stroking my hair down my back the way I do for Nora when she’s had a nightmare. She’s holding me up when I feel like curling into a ball.
“Your sister,” she says quietly, with a bit of humor in her tone, “got my daughter to fall asleep in mereminutes, which means I owe her a great debt, and I may in fact hire her to be a royal bedtime adviser.”
It’s so startling and unexpected that I giggle through my tears.
“She read Sinna a story,” the queen continues. “She’s quite animated when she does the voices.”
I draw back and swipe at my eyes. “She loves the voices.”
The queen brushes the tear-damp hair back from my face. “She said you always do them when you read to her, so she wanted to do the same for little Sinna.”
I swallow a hard lump in my throat. “I do. Mother used to do it for me, and when she died—” My voice breaks, and I touch a hand to my pendant again.
Oh, Mother. I don’t know what to do with this.
The queen wraps me up in her arms again, and I almost can’t believe it’s happening.
“Forgive me,” I say tearfully. “I shouldn’t cry.” On thequeenof all people.
“Oh no,” she says. “You should cry all you want. Big sisters rarely get the chance.”
Eventually, I stop and draw back. I have to swipe at my eyes, and I’m surprised to find that hers are red-rimmed, too.
“We have much to discuss,” she says to me. “Perhaps we should have a cup of tea?”
Yes. Good. Something to do. I nod quickly and dry my hands on my skirts, then move to set the kettle on the stove.
The queen sits on one of the stools beside my pastry table, the spot that Jax usually claims, and it’s bizarre to have her here in my bakery. But also … not.
She glances at the window, at the dimming sky. “The king does not think it would be prudent to return to the Crystal Palace until Prince Rhen’s forces arrive. We don’t know how many more members of the army and the Queen’s Guard may be disloyal. For all we know, they may have taken the palace. So for a few days, we will be staying here.”
My eyebrows go up. “There are far finer places in town, I promise you—”
