‘I really ought to be leaving.’
‘It’s a long ride.Eat first, you’ll be happier for it.’
We found Johanna again in the dining room, setting places for Yann and Father.She scowled when she spotted me, her face twisting as if Raleigh himself were lurking behind us.
‘Three places, please, Johanna,’ Father said coldly.‘Yann will be back in a moment.’
Johanna took the hint, threw down an extra place setting and left us.She’d used the good silverware.Thesilversilverware.
‘I really am sorry about her.She took the news of your betrothal particularly poorly.’
‘She thinks I’m a vampire,’ I translated.I laid a hand over the base of a spoon, just to prove that I could.
Father flinched at the word.Even in our most overt discussions of our prince on the hill, no one usually dared give voice to the proper word for his kind.‘Goodness, sweetheart, no.They’re worried about you.No one else heard our conversation that night.Some people have been saying that you might have been unfaithful to poor Yann.You know how viciously rumours spread here.But at least we know the truth.That’s all that matters.’
‘Johanna heard our conversation.’
Father looked askance.‘I suppose she did.’
Yann returned then, looking dusty and faintly peeved.Johanna emerged long enough for him to hand her a bread-shaped package, then he took the seat across from me while she rushed back into the kitchen.
‘Where have you been?’I asked.
He didn’t meet my eye.‘Juri wanted bread.’
‘Right.’Had things always been so awkward between us?I couldn’t remember ever struggling to think of something to say to Yann, or ever having so many conversations that ended in terse disagreement.Surely he didn’t believe the rumours.He was there that night; he saw for himself that I never chose this.
Dinner was no less tense than with Raleigh.Yann and I did our best to pretend we weren’t fighting, while Father did his best to pretend that nothing had changed.Afterwards, Father tried to usher us both to the drawing room for a nightcap, but it was getting late.The sun was slowly dropping behind the mountains.If I didn’t leave soon, I’d break my promise to Moira.
‘I really do need to be leaving.’
Father and Yann exchanged a look.‘Are you really going back?’Father asked.‘You’re already free.Why not stay?’
‘Running didn’t exactly work last time,’ I said.
Father let out a heavy sigh.‘Then at least take a bag with you.You ought to have something from home.’
It wasn’t like Father to cave so quickly.He was right, though, it would be nice to have something familiar to take with me.Raleigh had already provided everything I could possibly need to the point of extravagance, but I longed to wear my own clothes again, to feel some of the normality of home.
‘All right.But could you bring Sovereign around while I pack a bag?’
I’d directed that to Father, but with a quick jerk of his head, he passed the request on to Yann, who silently slipped off to obey.
I didn’t like it.The Yann who had deliberately helped me undermine Father’s great marriage plot never would have slunk off to the stables at a jerk of the head.As I watched him go, I wondered what he’d told Father when he returned from the woods.Had Father quietly accepted me as lost?Had he blamed Yann?There was still no warmth between them and yet somehow they seemed closer than ever.
As Yann shut the door behind him, my eyes were drawn to the side table where I’d tossed Father’s letters.‘I almost forgot,’ I said, rushing over to retrieve them.‘Your mail arrived earlier.’I reached for the bundle and froze.
The letter on top was written in my hand.And it was addressed to Yann.
Father tried to grab the letters, but I darted under his arm, backing into the light to see better.The second letter was from me too, for Johanna this time, from over a week ago.As was the third and fourth, which really were for Father, several days apart.The fifth was penned in Raleigh’s hand, but by then Father had reached me.He grabbed my wrist so hard it hurt and tore the bundle away with the other.I tried to snatch them back, but all but one slipped from my grasp.I shoved the final one into my pocket before he could take that too.
‘That’s enough.’
‘Have these been reaching you this whole time?’There weren’t more than a fortnight’s worth of letters in the bundle, so this couldn’t have been the only delivery.
‘Of course not,’ Father said.‘These are the first that made it through.You said it yourself – Prince Raleigh is away.He must not have been able to censor these ones.’
‘Then why did you try to hide them?’
