She gave me a simpering smile and dipped in a low curtsy.
“Yes, My Prince,” she said sarcastically. “Why do I have to hide?”
“So the King won’t find out you’re alive. So you’ll stay safe,” I said.
So my brother won’t find out I have you here and launch a full assault on my castle to get you back.
That explanation I kept to myself.
“And is it safe for him to knowyou’realive?” Raewyn asked. “Aren’t you afraid your visitor will tell someone, and the King will find out about you?”
“Awwww, love, I didn’t know you cared,” I drawled, and she frowned.
“Don’t worry about that,” I said.
I wasn’t worried. It was doubtful any of my guests would openly discuss their treasonous leanings outside of this house or their own.
And I’d be making sure none of them discussed seeing me alive.
“I do worry,” she said. “If the King finds out we’re alive, he’ll want to kill us both.”
No, just one of us,I thought to myself. Of course Raewyn still believed my father was on the throne.
“I’ll compel Lord Sillery to keep his mouth shut. And I’ll give him a vision of what’ll happen to him if he doesn’t. He won’t talk,” I assured Raewyn.
“How many glamoursdoyou have now?” she asked.
I gave her a cheeky grin and used a deliberately lewd tone. “We’ll discuss my manytalentslater. Now scoot on up the stairs. He’s almost here.”
She turned to obey, and I couldn’t resist adding, “Good girl.”
Raewyn shot me a glare over her shoulder but continued on to the spiraling library staircase and climbed to the second floor where she melted into the shadows.
My butler Glave rapped on the library door before announcing the visitor.
“Lord Mallen Sillery of Nordaris, My Prince.”
A distinguished middle-aged man, Lord Sillery wore his region’s colors of Dark Green and Brown. His pale, curling hair was cropped short, and he wore a purple flower of some sort tucked into his top buttonhole.
He stepped into the library and bowed. “Prince Pharis. My esteem shines upon you.”
“Welcome to Stormcrest. Thank you for coming. Please come in and have a seat.”
I gestured to the comfortable reading chairs in the center of the room, and Lord Sillery took one of them while I took the chair opposite his.
“I must say it is a relief to see you alive and well,” he said. “There are many who would rejoice at knowing King Pontus’ other son still lives.”
“Many thanks. If you have no objections, I’d like to converse mind-to-mind. Just so that there are no… misunderstandings,” I said.
And so that Raewyn wouldn’t overhear anything else that might clue her in that my father was dead and my brother was now King. That had been a close one.
If shedidfind out, my excuse of keeping her here far from the King’s reach for her own safety would no longer hold water.
Also, she’d be furious with me for withholding information again, something she despised.
Lord Sillery of course assumed I was ensuring he couldn’t lie to me, and admittedly that was a fringe benefit. He seemed nervous but nodded agreement.
What’s this about, Your Highness?he asked.
