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This is not happening. Instead of saying nay and reaching out and embracing her, begging her to come with me, I remain steadfast. As I’ve been trained to do.

“Farewell, Hilla.”

We stand there for a moment longer, Hilla’s resolve as evident now as it was when we began conversing. She is leaving.

Before Kipp boards, I would speak to him. To ensure her safe passage for myself.

I lift the cowl of my robes, wanting to hide behind it. Wanting it to shield me from the pain of a loss so great I know my love is true, for nothing could possibly make a man’s heart ache this way otherwise.

When I walk away, she lets me go.

36

Hilla

“Oh,” I say, having been looking at Aiken and not ahead of me. “I do apologize.”

The young woman I so rudely crashed into smiles warmly.

“Tis quite alright, my lady.”

I move to walk past her, toward the ship where the captain Kipp introduced me to yesterday afternoon is waiting, when she stops me.

“If I may, Lady Hilla,” she says, startling me by using my name.

Like most everyone here in Murwood End, I can tell little about her. Wrapped in a fur-lined mantle, she could be a servant or a lady herself. Unlike in Edingham, most everyone here wears much the same type of clothing. An idea I find rather appealing.

“Word has spread quickly,” she explains. “We are rarely host to a princess here in Murwood End.”

Shouts from the docks and the bustle of presailing activity surround us. Living on the coast most of my life, I’ve spent surprisingly little time dockside and find I quite like it here. The smell of sea air, coupled with evidence of life, the vibrancy of activity . . . tis something I vow to do when I return home.

With an escort, of course.

Unlike here in Murwood End, I’ll not have the freedom to walk about unescorted as I’ve done these past months with Aiken. All will know me at Breywood, and ’twould not be safe to wander anywhere alone but the castle grounds, much less the docks.

In some ways, I’ll be trapped again, as I’ve been as Whitley’s wife.

We are rarely host to a princess here in Murwood End.

It was inevitable I would be recognized by someone. But this woman’s home is not just host to a princess. What will she think to learn Murwood has been, for many years, home to a king? I’ve no doubt, with men like Lord d’Abella and Aiken, as well as the other Legion members who Aiken said would fight for him, that Hinton’s uprising will fail. And that Kipp will be named the successor to King Galfrid.

“I do wish I could have remained here in Murwood End for longer. It is a most delightful place.” Delightful, and a tad bit scary as well. I’m certain tis my imagination, but the men seem... bigger. Their weapons certainly are so. The customs, very different than in the south.

“I bid you a safe journey,” she says. “There is naught like the feeling of going home, aye?”

I cock my head, thinking on that.

“My father was a Voyager,” she explains. “I’ve been everywhere on the Isle, and on trade routes north and east, with him.”

“That must have been exciting,” I say, thinking of Aiken’s words. He is so convinced I am too delicate for his life that he did not once consider I might enjoy such a thing.

“Aye, very much. But my days of traveling the Isle are over. I am married, with a babe. And as the only midwife here in Murwood since Lady Aedre left, I’m needed here.”

“You knew Lady Aedre?”

“She and her grandmother trained me.”

What a woman Aedre’s grandmother must have been. “I met her at Castle d’Almerita, before coming here. She is truly a wonder.”