My words sound like an ungraceful prophesy, and I see the shift in Simon’s eyes—the echoes of concern. I don’t know if he believes me, but I do know that he doesn’t fully believe that I’m joking anymore either.
“It’s the truth,” I promise him. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you. Matthias, the king’s astrologer, he knows, and he said I would mess up the timeline if I changed anything drastic. Maybe it was selfish of me to tell you, but I just... I want you to know the actual me.”
Silence surrounds us, squeezing tight against our ribs until we hear voices near the door at the top of the stairwell. My heart is hammering at light speed. The air feels static and frail between us, like I could snap it in two if I reached out and grabbed it.
“We can’t be found together,” Simon says, urging me back toward the stairs. “Go up and tell them that you’re alone. Say that you’re tired of hiding and then everyone will follow you.”
I latch onto the edge of his sleeves, unwilling to go. “What about everything I just said? Do you think I’m lying?”
He looks into my eyes, and I can see the chaos behind them, even as they never falter. “I don’t think that you’re lying.”
I’m so stunned, I could fall over. “Why not?” I whisper. I might cry. The tears are there, but I don’t let them loose. I need to focus on whatever it is that Simon is about to say.
“Because the one thing I believe in is you.”
He believes me. The realization is mind-blowing, and I can’t keep in my euphoric laugh as I kiss him. I don’t mean to cry, but my cheeks are wet as I rest my forehead against his. “Thank you,” I murmur. “I’ll see you in a few days. When you get back.”
He kisses me again, and I don’t know how, but I step out of his arms and dash up the stairs. I want to stay with him so desperately that each step up and forward is physically painful. But even so, I feel a strength bursting through me so powerfully that I may come apart at the seams.
When I emerge out the door, I end up face-to-face with Lady Wessex. “Well, it took you long enough,” I tell her with a smile, wiping under my eyes. “I was beginning to think you all went back to the party without me.”
“If only we could,” she says with her affectionate meanness.
We make our way back into my sitting room, where everyone is lounging and drinking once again. “What should we play next?” I ask.
Just then, Bessie and Richard stumble out from a side room, looking deliriously happy with their clothes noticeably off-center. Laughter and claps follow in their wake as they join us, but everything goes quiet when my sitting room doors suddenly burst open.
“His Majesty, the king!”
It’s dead silent as Henry walks in. His limp is more dominant. His eyes are icy. When his gaze finds mine, it feels like the floor has fallen out from beneath me and my breath get lodged in my throat.
“Hello, my love,” he says through a smirk. “Have you missed me?”
Chapter Twenty
“I...” My voice stutters as Henry’s eyes bore into mine. He’s really here in this room, and his presence is nearly overpowering. “Yes, I’ve missed you very much.”
He tilts his chin up, looking down his nose at me like he’s humoring a child. “If you have, then come here and greet me.”
I don’t feel my feet moving, but I’m slowly approaching him. When I stand before him, he seems taller. It feels like his arms could reach each wall. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing when I go up on my toes and kiss his cheek. He takes my hand in return and kisses it, squeezing a little too hard before he lets it go.
I force myself to smile as I take a step back. He begins to slowly survey the room, walking the length of it and looking into the eyes of everyone who is here.
“I have heard many a tale of what has gone on at court in my absence,” he says. “You have all been having quite the merry time, have you not?”
No one answers, and I don’t blame them.
I wring my hands together, knowing that it’s up to me to deal with my husband. “We tried to put on a brave face. But it wasn’t the same without you.”
Henry turns to look at me, and his eyes almost cut through me. The doting “lover” who cared for nothing so much as my happiness is long gone, and a stranger is here instead. Although this isn’t really a stranger, is it? I’m simply meeting the real Henry.
“Really? I have been told otherwise.” His words are still hanging in the air when Mistress Marshall enters the room. She smiles at me like a friend never would, and I blink against my rising panic.
I wait for her to speak, but nothing comes. What would be the point of it? Her entrance said it all.
Once Henry’s taken stock of each guest in the room, he makes his way back toward the doors. “The day has come to end,” he says. “Let us all seek rest or prayer.” He focuses his attention on me, and I don’t know if I should smile or run. “After I talk a while with Mistress Marshall, I expect to see you in my chamber.”
I nod and curtsy in response. Everyone files out of the room one by one, until only Mistress Marshall and I remain. She walks toward me with slow, delicate steps.
