“I want to help,” she says, dropping to her knees before me. “Sune and Loki are my family, too.”
And she is right.
I raised all three as if they were my own. And although I never wanted to step into the role of Catherine’s mother because hers was taken by force, she has always seen me as one.
“I do not know where they are, sweetling.” I stroke two fingers across her cheek.
“But you know who can help.”
“Yes, I do. Skarth is their father. He is the only hope I have.”
“I want to come with thee.”
“It is too dangerous.”
But she stubbornly shakes her head. “I have faced worse, and if the Lord decides now is my time, then let it be dying protecting my brothers and you…Mother.”
She scarcely uses this term, so I understand the severity of her request.
“I am faced with a dilemma. I cannot leave Northumbria unguarded. The people cannot know that something is wrong. If word spreads, then the vultures will swoop in, and our kingdom will be overthrown.”
“I have an idea,” Catherine says, her eyes alight. “We ride to East Frankia on the ruse that you will accept Prince Ludwig’s proposal. Your mother can sit on the throne while you are gone, as she once was the queen of Northumbria, was she not?”
Catherine is right.
My mother was queen when my ghastly father was king.
“This will appease the people, as some still believe Northumbria needs a king. We take only our most trusted guards with us, and then…then we find Skarth.”
“Sweetling, you are far too crafty for your own good.”
Catherine smiles. “I learned from the best.”
“This is an excellent plan. I am proud of you for executing it. I think it may work. I cannot sit here and send my men to find Skarth, risking their lives for me. I need to fight this battle on my own.”
“What plagues you?” Catherine reads my regret, one which will weigh heavily on me for the rest of my days.
“I am at fault. I should have known something was amiss.”
“You could not have known. Sune and Loki were in their beds, safe within their home. You were not to know that Lord Rufus is a lying arsehole. I wish for my blade to sever his deceitful head.”
Lord Louis has told Catherine the tale, but I know he has omitted where I was and what I was doing, instead of protecting my children.
“We go inside before Lord Gunter returns for East Frankia and inform him of the joyous news.” She smiles a full-toothed grin, wishing for me to reciprocate.
All I do is groan. “You are right, but having to say those words asserts my failure.”
“It’s not real,” she reminds me. “We are outsmarting them.”
“They are rather thick, so that should not be a difficult deed.”
Gently placing the lamb onto the ground, I stand, stretching overhead. I look a mess. And I smell atrocious. Jethro’s blood is beneath my nails. Or maybe it’s Bianca’s. I don’t know anymore.
So much bloodshed has been spilled within these walls.
Catherine and I make our way toward the palace, and it takes all my strength to put on a brave face. I cannot allow anyone to know the war that wages inside me. I look at everyone with suspicion because they are all guilty until proven otherwise.
I don’t know why my reign has shifted this way. There’s been peace for many years.
