She pulls back, wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand. “Brennan sent me back. I didn’t want to go. I begged him to let me stay and help search, but he said?—”
“He was right.” I squeeze her hands. “There was nothing you could have done.”
My father steps closer. “There’s a healer waiting in your chambers. I want to make sure you’re all right.”
I let Nella lead me upstairs, while my father follows.
Mistress Laela is waiting in my chambers. She’s been the royal family’s healer since before I was born. She was there at my birth, tended every childhood sickness and hurt. She’s kind and warm, and sees too much.
My father kisses my cheek when we reach the door. “I’ll wait out here. I’m sure it will be more comfortable not to have me there.”
Laela takes one look at me and opens her arms. I find myself folded against her chest a second later.
“Oh, my child.” Her hand smooths my hair. “Let me look at you.”
She cups my face, tilts it toward the light, and studies me carefully. Her thumb traces under my eyes, dark with shadows from very little sleep.
“When did you last eat or sleep properly?”
“I ate at the Dell this morning. Sleeping is … I don’t know. The days blurred together.”
“Are you hurt anywhere? Any pain?”
“No. I’m just tired.”
Her fingers move to my wrist, checking my pulse. Then she has me follow her finger with my eyes, looks at my tongue, and presses gently on the glands in my throat.
“Did it—” She pauses, clearly choosing her words. “Did the creature hurt you? In any way?”
I know what she means.
“No.” That, at least, is true. “He didn’t touch me … not like that.”
Except that one time in the inn when the guards were searching for an escaped fae.
She searches my face. I hold her gaze and don’t flinch.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
Whatever she sees in my eyes satisfies her, because she nods and pats my cheek, then asks if I have any cuts or scrapes, whether the fae hit me or bound me. I answer as best I can, trying not to lie if I don’t have to, but making everything that happened sound … less … than it was.
She examines my hands and feet while I talk, then has me breathe deeply while she listens to my chest. Finally, she straightens.
“You’re such a brave girl. You always have been.” She pats my cheek. “A bath, a hot meal, and then rest.”
Nella draws me a bath while Laela helps me strip out of my clothes, no doubt checking for herself that there are no cuts or wounds that I might be hiding from her. I curl my fingers into my palm, hiding the scar there from sight. Once I’m chin deep into the water, and my skin is turning pink from the heat, Laela walks to the door to speak to my father.
“She’s well. Shaken, exhausted, and needs rest. But she’sunharmed. There are no injuries, no fever, and no …” Her voice drops and I can guess what she’s telling him. No signs of assault. “She was fortunate.”
I hear him let out a breath, then he replies in a voice just as low. “Thank you, Laela.” His voice rises. “Take your time, Alleria. When you’re ready, come to my study. I’d like to hear your account of what happened. Wil has already reported what he knows, and I’ll speak to Brennan while you bathe.”
“Yes, Father.”
The door closes, then it’s just me and Nella. She perches on a stool beside the tub and reaches for the soap.
“Let me.”
