I give him a pointed look. “We’re in the process of breaking that very curse. Once we do, these efforts your family went to need no longer apply. Besides, whatever truths you’re hiding could compromise my safety. You told me my parents feared retribution from Morgana’s husband, yet they were flummoxed to find you’d escaped the sleeping spell. If there are others who managed to escape, I could be in danger.”
“The only person you ever needed to fear was me, and look how swimmingly we get along.”
His reluctance to explain has my curiosity shifting to annoyance, then to fury. I lean forward and bat my lashes. “Mr. Blackwood, if you don’t answer my questions, I’ll keep asking. And asking. And asking. I’ll ensure you spend the next twenty hours of our trip hearing my voice—”
“For stones’ sake, woman.”
Mr. Boris clears his throat in a way that sounds more like a growl. “Highness, notwoman.”
Thorne shakes his head. “I’m not calling herHighness.”
“You aren’t calling mewomaneither,” I say. “We’ve already established that I prefer you call me Miss Rose. Now, as I was saying, the best way to get the peace and quiet you seek is to answer a few of my questions. Afterward, I promise I won’t bother you for the rest of our trip. If you refuse—”
“Fine. Just stop talking.”
I curl my lips in an innocent smile.
Thorne removes his spectacles and pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’ll answer your damn questions, but only if we speak privately.”
“I think not,” Mr. Boris says.
“Yes, why should our conversation require privacy?” I say. “My companions already know everything about our situation. The only benefit I can see to them leaving is that you may get away with lying to me easier. Or slandering my family without anyone around to correct you.”
“You don’t know a damn thing about your family.”
“Oh, and you do?”
“Yes, I do. Maybe you would see the truth if you weren’t so obsessed with impressing these people who are no better than strangers to you.”
Rage floods from my chest and surges down to my fingers and toes.
Obsessed.
Impressing.
Strangers.
His words dig under my skin until I want to fly at him. Slap him. Claw him with my nails. I curl my fingers to keep from lashing out. It takes all my restraint just to keep my voice calm. “How dare you act all high and mighty. How dare you act like the victims lie only on your side. Your family cursed me before I was born, and schemed to give you a name that would hurt me.”
He barks a humorless laugh. “Aren’t you forgetting something? Your family cursed me before I was born as well, that I would never know my mother’s face. To this day, I haven’t a clue what she looks like, for she wore a veil to circumvent whatever unexpected effects the curse could have. I only ever looked upon her without the veil once, and only because your cousin Ned thought it would be fun to trick a five-year-old.”
“I don’t know Cousin Ned—”
“My eyes melted out of their sockets. It was as painful as it sounds. I was blind for a year.”
My retort sticks in my throat, my rage replaced with disgust. I blink a few times, seeing his spectacles in a new light. Is that why he wears them? Because his curse melted his eyes? The thought of that pain, especially for a child, sends my gut roiling.
And yet…
I release a slow breath. It clears my shock, and I find my ire returning. This time, I manage to keep my composure with very little effort. “Mr. Blackwood, I’m not responsible for anything my family has done. I’ve never even met this cousin—”
“That’s because he’s dead, thanks to me.”
“You killed him?”
“No, but his death is on my hands.”
I’m tempted to inquire more about that, but I still haven’t finished my prior train of thought. “Regardless, I’m not responsible for the past. For the people I didn’t know at the time. I can only claim the burden of my own actions, and the same goes for you.Youtook vile actions against me.Youplotted.Youdeceived.”
