Chapter 31

Evander's POV

I saw a single drop of milk the pup had missed run slowly down that white skin.

For a moment nothing in the room moved.

Then her face flooded scarlet. She dropped her chin and hunched to hide herself behind her arm, patting the pup's back with her other hand, and her voice shook so badly I could hardly make out the words.

"It's nothing, Highness. It came too fast, that's all. He's choked a little. He'll be all right in a moment."

I took my eyes away and straightened and turned my face to the wall. My throat moved once. The sight was still in front of me, and the smell of her was still in my nose, warm milk and plain soap and her skin under them.

"Be careful," I said. My voice came out level, colder than usual, and only a little tight at the end. I didn't go any nearer. "Settle him."

She nodded over and over, and lifted the pup to her shoulder and rubbed his back, humming to him under her breath. The coughing stopped and turned to hurt little sobs, and then he found her again and began to suck, cautiously, a little at a time.

The room went quiet again. It wasn't the same quiet as before.

When he was full he lay on her like a sack of warm flour and gazed up at her without blinking, and smiled. She touched her chin to his forehead. He smiled harder and waved his fists, and got hold of a lock of her hair, and fell asleep holding it while she sang.

Only then did she get up, very carefully, and bring him to me with her eyes lowered. I took him. He stirred and wrinkled his nose, as if he were making sure of me, and then he was still.

"By your leave, Highness." She was out of the room before I could answer.

Through the door I heard Dunne, low. "Your bedding's on the bed out here. Keep one ear open tonight. If he so much as stirs, you go in."

* * *

The candles were out. Moonlight came through the window and lay on the floor.

I couldn't sleep. I lay on my back with the pup breathing slow and even beside me, and every time I closed my eyes I saw that white skin again, and the smell of warm milk came back to me, faint and sweet, as if it had soaked into the room.

I turned toward the pup and touched his cheek with one finger, and the softness of it quieted something in me that had been restless all evening. I don't know how long it was before I slept.

I dreamed what I had dreamed a hundred times since the winter. I was following that scent, rain on wild orchids, down into a valley, deeper and deeper. But this time it was not the same. Somewhere ahead, where the scent was strongest, a pup was crying. And mixed with the orchids there was something else, warm and sweet. Milk.

My eyes opened.

In the dark, beside the bed, a shape was leaning over me.

Night, my bed, a stranger. Years at court had taught me not to stop and think. My right hand was out before I knew it, and my knuckles drove into the soft place under the shape's ribs.

"Ah!"

A woman's cry, cut short, startled and soft. A warm, yielding weight overbalanced and fell across my chest, and with it that smell, milk and warmth.

And at the same moment the pup at her breast was jolted off it, and screamed.

Then I was properly awake.

In the dim glow of the night lamp I could just make her out. It was the nurse. She lay half across me, stunned and hurt, one hand clutching at the front of her dress, which hung open from feeding. I could see pale skin and the shadow below it. In her other arm the pup was flailing and roaring with his mouth wide, furious at being taken from his supper.

I let go of her as if she had burned me.

"How dare you! What are you doing in here?"

I didn't know if I was shouting at her for coming near me, or covering for what I had just done.

She was white to the lips. "Forgive me, Highness. He was crying, I came in to feed him. I didn't know you were awake. I didn't mean to wake you. Forgive me."

She was already twisting away, trying to quiet the pup at the breast and cover herself at the same time, and managing neither.

I shut my eyes and drew a long breath and made myself be calm.

"Enough," I said. "See to him first."

* * *

Wren's POV

At first light Dunne came in to wait on the Prince as she always did.

I was in the corner folding the night's cloths and napkins. My side hurt whenever I moved, and my hand kept going to it without my meaning it to.

The Prince was up already, sitting by the window while a boy held the basin for him. The shadows under his eyes were darker than yesterday, and there was a heavy, shut look on his face.

Dunne looked at him. Then she looked at me, at the grey under my eyes, at my hand pressed against my waist. Her face changed. The tray she was carrying tipped and rattled, and she caught it. Her eyelids fluttered.

I knew exactly what she was thinking. The blood went up into my face so fast my ears rang.

"Your breakfast is ready, Highness," she said, more carefully than I had ever heard her say anything. "Darrow. Was the young master quiet? Did he feed well?"

The Prince had a hot cloth over his eyes. He made a sound that might have been yes.

I curtsied. "He woke twice, mistress, and fed well both times. He's still asleep." I took my hand off my side, but I could feel how stiffly I was standing.

"Good. You've had a long night. Go and eat something and rest. I'll stay with him."

I was going when the Prince spoke from behind his cloth.

"The men who wait on me here are too clumsy. They don't take enough care. Dunne, go out yourself and find me some maids. Quick ones, and clever. To wait on me in my rooms."

Dunne blinked. Then her whole face lit up, as if she'd been waiting years to hear it. "Yes, Highness! Of course. Boys never were any good for it. I'll see to it myself. Clever girls, and good-looking too."

"And from today," he said, "the young master stays in his own court, with his nurses."

I could have wept with relief. No more nights in that outer room.

Dunne turned and saw me still standing there. "What are you doing in the corner? Go and fetch the young master! You girls, pack Darrow's things and take them back."

Sol was awake when I reached the bed. When I picked him up he tucked himself in against me without a sound, and I carried him out of the Prince's court with a line of maids behind me, back to his own rooms.

Fletcher and Wick had been told already. They were waiting at the gate of the court.

Fletcher hurried up smiling. "Darrow! What a night you must have had. Give him to me and rest." Her eyes went over my tired face as she said it.

Wick stood back with her arms folded and looked me up and down, and the corner of her mouth went down.

I paid Wick no attention. "Thank you, Fletcher. He was very good in the night." I didn't hand him over. I carried him straight in and laid him in his cradle, and only then let myself breathe out. The place under my ribs where the Prince had struck me throbbed. It would be black by tonight. I hoped nothing was cracked.

In the cradle, Sol began to smack his lips, telling me he was hungry. I had been so tired and so muddled that I'd forgotten I hadn't fed him yet.

I reached for him. Wick was quicker. She swept him up out of the cradle.

"Wick..."

"What? We're all his nurses. Why should you have him to yourself every minute?"

"She's right, Darrow," Fletcher said gently. "You were up all night. Let the two of us take turns with him in the day."

At that Wick held him tighter. "There's my good boy. Nurse will feed you." And she pulled her bodice open to put him to the breast.