“Look at it,” he said, pressing the parchment into my hands with enough pressure to crumple it. “Please.”
I unfolded the parchment. A lovely, Hadrian script revealed itself to me, and I couldn’t read a word of it.
Quinn came around beside me, tracing the lines, and read them aloud:
“Sweet Quinn,
I woke yesterday with the strangest sensation, as if a fog had lifted from my mind. The physicians don’t know what to make of it, but I believe I am renewed. I walked the entirety of the vineyard for the first time since you were little.
The medicine you sent me has given me back my life. My thoughts and memories are clearer than they’ve been in a long, long time. So much joy, forgotten. So much pain, improperly felt.
Come home when you can. I have much to make up for.
All my love, Mother.”
When I looked up, Quinn’s composure ruptured. He took the letter back, tucking it into his pocket before his hands went right back to his hair.
“What medicine, Alana? I didn’t send her anything. All I know is that my mother’s been dying for as long as I can remember, and now she isn’t.”
“I made it.”
Quinn went completely rigid. “You…what?”
“Back in Thornmarsh, when you were with the healer, I couldn’t rest. I’d found some Silverwood Lotus in the marshes, which binds to heavy metals. I believed your mother had lead poisoning, so…”
My hands stilled. Quinn was pale enough to faint. He took steps back until he hit the wall. His words shuddered out. “You?”
I began to sign again, but he cut me off.
“Why would you do that?”
His knees gave out. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, head in his hands.
I kneeled beside him as his shoulders began to shake. When he finally looked up at me, tears were streaming down his face. He tried to speak, but a sob tore from his chest; then he took my hand and held it to his dampened cheek.
He pulled me, perhaps with a little too much force, and held me tight within his arms.
“You gave my mother back,” he whispered, digging into my hair. His body trembled against mine. I held him together in my arms; if I let go, he might have fallen apart. “You saved her.”
I smiled as much as I could, my fingers tracing patterns on his back.
“I don’t even know how to thank you. What do I give you, Alana?” he asked, pulling back to look at me. He brought one of my palms to his lips. Heat sang through my veins from that small contact. “My life? It’s yours.”
My lips twitched, wanting to smile, but… But I was already in possession of a life.
As good as his touch felt, it twisted something else inside of me. Not quite guilt, but longing. I missed Nicolas, and if he saw us now, if he knew the way Quinn held me…
“I should go,”I signed quickly, rising to my feet.
Quinn stared for a long moment and nodded, wiping his face on his sleeve. “Of course. I… Thank you, Alana.”
I fled before he could say more, my legs carrying me through the corridors with purpose. I needed to see Nicolas, to bridge this miserable distance between us.
The walk to his chambers felt longer than usual. My heart ached, throbbing faster with each step. I hoped he’d see reason; maybe I could leverage Adelaide’s revelation about the physician.
Sieur Eldridge looked at me as I came nearer, straightening his posture. He took a step forward, moving between me and the door. “Your Majesty? The king is not expecting you.”
I tried to move past him, only for him to, once again, stand in my way. All I could do was hold up my wedding ring and point to it. I mustered the sternest face I could make, and eventually, he buckled, though his gaze fell with such resignation that I almost wanted to change my mind about the whole thing.
