“You are risking everything I have built, coming in here and having them announce a second Ashlin Cabril. Did you not hear the confused whispers? Go home at once.”
“No,” Ashlin replied. Her face was taut.
Neither woman had looked in his direction, and he felt as though he was listening to a conversation he should not be a part of. While part of him was afraid that Ashlin would choose to leave with her stepmother, he refused to leave her side while that vicious woman was anywhere nearby.
As if to defy his thoughts, the older woman’s face softened into a motherly gaze. “My dear, you are simply overwrought,” she said in a sweet, thick voice. “You should head home, and we can sort this out tomorrow.”
“No.” Ashlin’s voice remained calm and firm, but Onric detected the slightest tremble in her jaw.
Onric’s heart beat rapidly. He had never witnessed anything so brave.
Her stepmother’s face turned stone cold, and her gray eyes flashed fire. “How dare you defy me? Wretched, selfish, ungrateful... I gave you everything.” She moved in closer, keeping her voice low, likely to avoid attracting attention, but her spite was entirely funneled towards the small girl standing tall in front of her.
“You gave me nothing,” Ashlin replied. “I tried to help you. To lighten your load and share your grief. In return, you took everything from me, including my name.”
When Onric saw the rage in her stepmother’s eyes as the woman clenched her fist and started to move, he knew it was time to make his presence known.
“I believe this conversation has gone on long enough,” he said, inserting himself between them.
Lady Cabril’s eyes went wide as she recognized him, and her smile followed a second too late. “Excuse me, Your Royal Highness.” She bowed low. “This girl is my maidservant and should not be here. Allow me to remove her from your presence.”
“Actually, madam, I believe you are mistaken. This lady here is a rather courageous noblewoman, and it will be myself who has the pleasure of removing her from your presence,” he responded, not even deigning to return her respectful bow.
Ashlin stepped past him towards the door so he was firmly separating the two of them.
The older woman sent a sorrowful gaze after her. “Ashlin,” she said, “I am your mother.”
“You are not and never will be a mother to me,” Ashlin responded with a sad smile.
Onric followed her out the side door onto a small balcony. The guard who had been standing there prudently disappeared.
As soon as they stepped through the doorway, the noise from the ballroom disappeared and she turned towards him.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
She looked up at him, and the intensity in her gaze surprised him. He had expected to see the same scared girl who was too afraid to tell him her name in the courtyard staircase all those days ago. Instead, her eyes were bold and direct.
“Prince Onric,” she said, “I am so sorry for the abhorrent things I said to you yesterday. I was afraid of being controlled, and I believe I may have misconstrued some of your actions.”
He looked down at her earnest face, relishing every curve of it. Her words were quiet, but bold and honest. She was not hiding her face in fear or second-guessing her statements. She was being her true self.
“I do not expect your forgiveness, nor even the renewal of your friendship, as I know my words hurt you,” she continued, “but I had to let you know that you did not fail. You have been the hero of my smile, and you were so very right. About so very many things. I am moving forward now.”
At the word hero, his heart swelled. He held his hands out in front of him, palms open.
She looked down and accepted his silent invitation, placing her hands in his.
He gently clasped them, wrapping his large fingers around her small palms. He had broken his own heart when he had laid it at her feet, begging her to allow him to protect her forever. She had come back. She had come back to him.
He leaned towards her, dropping his head down closer to hers.
She looked up at him, confusion in her eyes. “You are not angry with me?”
He brought his forehead to hers, and his heart thudded in his chest. “How could I be angry at you for trying to protect yourself?”
“But I said so many cruel things...”
“Yes, and they did hurt me. But I think over time I will forget them. Especially if you cancel them out by saying lots of pleasant things to me.”
