Chapter 30

Evander's POV

He wasn't wrong to doubt it. "Go on."

"I saw those two women myself, Highness. Old clothes, and frightened out of their wits. They didn't look like anybody's kept woman. They looked like people running for their lives. And if Duskmere only wanted rid of a mistress's brat, they could find some excuse and do it in the open. Why all the creeping about?" He paused. "I think there's more in it. Shall I keep at it?"

"Leave it for now. We've more pressing things."

"Highness."

"And where the pup came from doesn't leave this room. Not one word."

He bowed. At the door he gave me a look that asked, plainly, why a man as careful as I was didn't seem to care whose pup it was. He didn't ask it aloud.

Outside, I heard Dunne meet him on the walk, half laughing and trying to keep her voice down.

"We've found one, Captain! You'll never guess. The widow, the one who wouldn't go. The young master took one look at her and fed like a lamb, and he's sleeping now. His Highness can stop sitting up all night, thank the Goddess."

A short silence. I heard Hollis's collar shift as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"The one who was on her knees in the walk?"

* * *

Wren's POV

Toward evening, when Sol was asleep again, I asked Grayle if I might go out as far as the west gate. I had my reason ready. Before I came, I'd been lodging at an inn with a friend. She ought to know I'd found a place, and I had a few things there I wanted back.

Grayle was going over a list of stores and didn't look up. "Go on, then. Don't be long."

I had only turned when Wick spoke up from across the room.

"Well. The young master's smiled on her for one afternoon and she's off out to tell the town. Anyone would think she was mistress here."

Fletcher looked up from her mending, bright-eyed, settling in to watch.

I didn't turn round. I curtsied to Grayle again. "I'll be back before he wakes, mistress."

Grayle gave Wick a look that wasn't friendly. "Be quick, then."

* * *

There was hardly anyone at the west gate, only the trees along the wall and their moving shadows. Briar had been standing in the shade so long that when she saw me her face crumpled.

"Miss! Are you all right?"

"I'm all right." I took Linnet out of her arms and held her, and for the first time in three days something in my back let go. Linnet knew me. She didn't fuss. She lay there and looked up at me with her solemn dark eyes.

"Sol's in there," I said, very low. "I've held him. He's well."

I couldn't tell her the rest, about the Prince and the story he had told the whole city. Not at a gate with grooms going by.

Briar put both hands over her mouth. Then she leaned close. "Miss, there were women at the inn again yesterday. Pell's, I'd swear it. They went all through the place with the innkeeper, and I saw two of them after at the Gilded Thimble, and at the apothecary on the corner. Asking after a young woman with a Lakelands voice and a baby."

Cold went down my back. Only that afternoon I had told Dunne my mother's people were from the Lakelands. I would not say it to anyone else in that house.

"Stay where you are," I said. "Moving now would only make them look at you. Don't let anyone see you're anything to me. When I've found my feet in there, I'll think of something."

I went further in under the trees, turned my back to the path, and opened my dress. Linnet had been hungry a long time. She latched on at once.

I watched her face the whole time, as if I could store it up. Both of them, I thought. I would keep both of them alive.

Then I gave her back, and made sure no one was watching, and we went our separate ways.

Wick was coming along the walk when I got back. Her eyes stopped on my chest, just for a moment, and then went to my face.

"And where have we been, Darrow? You look a good deal pinker than when you left. Seen an old friend?"

"I took a message and fetched my things," I said. "You're having fun with me, Wick."

I went past her into my room, shut the door, and leaned on it, and found my palms were wet. In this house even someone like Wick could hang me if I was careless.

I changed my dress and went to Sol's room. Dunne met me in the passage.

"His Highness has just taken the young master to his own rooms. Come. You'll wait there."

* * *

All the way across the dark courts I kept thinking how none of it was for show. He had chosen the nurses himself. He walked the floor with Sol at night. And every bit of it made my task heavier, because the more he cared, the harder it would be to take Sol away. There was only one road open to me. I had to make him trust me completely, so that he was glad to leave Sol in my hands.

Dunne went in, and came out, and nodded me through.

The room was warm and candlelit and smelled faintly of apples. I kept my eyes on the floor.

"Look up."

His voice had less ice in it than in the day, and more tiredness.

I looked up, and forgot to breathe. He had taken off his coat. He was in his shirt, open at the throat, with his dark hair loose on his shoulders, and in the candlelight his face had lost its hard edges. Sol lay quiet against him with one fist wound in his shirt, as if he belonged there.

People said Prince Evander did as he pleased and cared for nothing. I hadn't thought he could look like any father in any house at the end of the day. It loosened something in me I would rather have kept tight.

"Highness, it's late. Let me take him. I'll feed him and get him to sleep, and you can rest."

I went to take him. His arm tightened instead.

"No need. Feed him here. Away from me he wakes in the night."

My face went hot. "Highness, I'm only his nurse. If I'm seen to be in your rooms at night, people will talk. It will touch your name."

His face cooled. "You think I mean you to sleep in here? Or that I'd lay a hand on a nurse?"

I went down on my knees. "No, Highness. Never. Only the rules of the house..."

"In this house, I am the rules. You're his nurse. He comes first. You'll feed him here, and then you'll sleep on the bed in the outer room, and if he wakes you'll come in. What anyone thinks is no concern of yours." His voice dropped. "I kept you because you can quiet him. Do that, and leave the rest to me."

"Yes, Highness."

I took Sol. At once he began rooting against me, grunting and cross, because he could smell the milk. I patted his bottom to tell him to wait, went to the cushioned chair by the window, and sat sideways to the room. My fingers were stiff on the laces. I didn't once look toward the white of the Prince's shirt. I got Sol to me as fast as I could and pulled the cloth across us both.

It was very quiet. There was only Sol drinking, and two people breathing carefully.

Then something went through me, a tingling rush like warm water and pins, and the milk came down all at once, far too fast.

Sol gulped, and gulped faster, and then it was too much. He pulled off coughing and choked. Milk ran from the corner of his mouth, his face went red, and his arms and legs flew out.

The Prince was across the room in three strides. "What is it?"

He bent over us, and his hand came out toward Sol's back.

My mind went blank. I twisted to shield the baby and grabbed at the front of my dress with my free hand, but I was clumsy with fright, and instead of covering myself I only dragged the wet cloth further aside.

His hand stopped in the air, a finger's width from Sol, and I saw where his eyes had gone.