Chapter Seventy-Four - Eithne

Things were becoming clearer all the time. She was surrounded by friends and the brotherly love was unexpected but welcome. Xander. What must he think of her? Showing weakness was foreign to her nature. He must despise her now. She had to know yet didn’t want to seek him out just yet.

Ava was seated beside her, though her head seemed to be in the clouds. Having seen Prince Finn Mac Neill, albeit briefly, and as if in a dream, Eithne could understand why.

“I have a mind to venture to the solar,” she said.

Her fellow princess cringed visibly.

“Wouldn’t you rather take the air?” she asked. “I often go up to the battlements. You can see for miles.”

Eithne sighed. “You can’t avoid him forever,” she said.

“I know.”

“Where is Jocasta?” The look on Ava’s face changed to one of horror and then she remembered. “Sorry, it must have slipped my mind,” she said.

How lame that sounded, how unfeeling.

Intending to comfort Ava, it turned out the opposite was true.

“You’ve been so ill, Eithne.