Chapter 13

Wren's POV

"Is this how a house of scholars keeps a binding day?"

The voice came from the mouth of the lane. It wasn't loud, but it carried over all the others, cool and faintly amused.

A black carriage had drawn up there without my hearing it, tall and plain, with nothing painted on the door. A young man was leaning out of it. He wore a dark coat buttoned high, and at his throat a silver crescent caught the sun.

"Anyone passing would think it was a fishwives' brawl," he said. "Six of you to hold down one woman with a belly. You must be very proud."

The red-faced woman wasn't frightened of him. She looked at the carriage with nothing on its door and the single groom holding the horses, and I watched her decide he was some young clerk of her master's, cutting through the back lane to save his shoes.

"Mind your own business, sir. We've a thief here, and it's a gift from the palace she's stolen. It's nothing to do with you."

They had me down on the cobbles by then, two of them kneeling on my skirts, a third going through my sleeves and the front of my dress. The pain hadn't let go. It sat low and hard in me like a fist, and every time they pulled at me it closed tighter, and I heard myself making a sound I couldn't stop.

"Let go of her! You'll kill her!" Nat was shouting somewhere behind them, but nobody listened to Nat.

Tansy came out of nowhere, wild-eyed, and caught Briar by the hair and wrenched her head back. "Give it up! I knew what you were the moment I saw you!"

"We didn't take it!" Briar was crying and still trying to reach me. "Please, we didn't touch it!"

The red-faced woman stood over me and looked at my belly a long moment, and something sly came into her face. "And that's a mighty big belly for six months, isn't it? I'd wager there's no pup in it at all. I'd wager the stone's strapped under there. Search her properly."

The hands on me changed. They stopped being careful at all.

The young man at the carriage stopped smiling. He put his foot on the step to come down.

Before he reached the ground, another voice cracked down the lane.

"Stop! All of you, stop!"

A man came through the crowd so fast I only saw the dark blur of his coat. He put out an arm, and the women holding me went sprawling off the cobbles as if they weighed nothing, one after another, squawking.

Briar threw herself down over me and wrapped both arms around my shoulders. "Thank you, sir, thank you." She was bobbing her head at him, sobbing. "We're from Rowe's, from the Gilded Thimble, sir. We came to mend the young lady's gown. My sister sat on the step the whole time with everyone watching. How could she steal anything? Please, sir, we've done nothing."

She looked up at him then and dropped her head again at once, and her arms went tight around me, so tight it hurt.

I pulled my bodice closed where they'd torn it and lifted my head.

The blood went cold in me, all of it at once.

He was browner than he had been at the moonstone, and broader, and there was a scar through his left eyebrow that hadn't been there three years ago. But it was his face. I had spent two months in Hester's back room making sure I would never see it again.

Adrian.

The young man from the black carriage came strolling up behind him. He had a riding crop in his hand, and he turned it once between his fingers.

"Lord Marshal," he said pleasantly. "Your uncle's servants are a bold lot. I was standing right there, and they still went on shouting for blood. Think what they'd do to two seamstresses with no one watching. Accusing women of theft in broad daylight, putting their hands all over them." He looked down at me and at Briar, and then at the women picking themselves up off the cobbles. "I'd like to hear how the house of Hale means to answer for this."

Adrian turned and bowed to him, very low.

"Your Highness, forgive us. My aunt has been too soft with her household, and these women have forgotten themselves. They've insulted you and laid hands on innocent people." He glanced back over his shoulder at me, and I dropped my eyes to the cobbles. "Help her up," he said to someone. "Bring water, and food. And send for a healer."

Uncle. The house of Hale.

Luna Helena had been born a Hale. This was her brother's house, and her niece's binding, and the Luna would be inside it somewhere, and Sera with her. And the man with the riding crop was a prince.

Tansy had gone the color of tallow.

Briar got me up somehow. I curtsied as far as I could with my belly in the way, and my voice came out hoarse.

"Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you, my lord. They've searched me and found nothing, and the work's finished. If you'll let us, we'll go."

Adrian didn't say anything. I could feel him looking at my bent head.

"And it's a binding house," I said. "A woman in my condition oughtn't to stay at the gate. It's bad luck for them."

"Come, sister," Briar whispered. "Let me help you up."

"Oh, no." The carter had crawled under the front of the cart. "The horse shied in all that shoving and backed a wheel into the gutter. It's cracked the axle. She won't go a mile on that."

The pain twisted in me again and I held on to Briar's arm.

A steward came hurrying out of the side gate then, smoothing his coat, all smiles. He pressed a heavy purse into Nat's hands and wouldn't let him give it back. "A misunderstanding, a very unfortunate misunderstanding. The house will make it good twice over. For the women's trouble, and for the fright."

"Yes, sir," Nat stammered. "Thank you, sir. We'll go now."

"Wait."

The prince hadn't raised his voice. He was looking at the way I stood, bent over, with both arms around my belly.

"This woman's been knocked about, and she's in pain. She may lose the pup. And now the cart's broken. She can't walk home." He turned his head. "Theo. Take my token. Put them in my carriage and take them to the Green Lamp, and have the best healer there see to her. Don't come back until she's settled."

"There's a healer on his way here," Adrian said. "Surely it's better than dragging her across the city."

"They want to go," the prince said mildly. "Let them go. The Green Lamp isn't far."

I didn't understand why a prince should trouble himself over me, and I didn't stop to wonder. I curtsied to him again, as low as I could.

"Thank you, Your Highness," I said. "I won't forget it."

I didn't look toward Adrian once.

They helped me up into the black carriage, and Briar climbed in after me, and a young man with a round face, who must be Theo, swung himself up beside the driver. The wheels began to turn. We went out of the lane and into the street, and only when the noise of that gate was behind us did my heart start to come back down to where it belonged.

Somewhere behind those walls Adrian's mother was dressing for her niece's binding. I didn't look back.