Chapter 20

Niamh refused to speak with me for the next two days. On the third day, I used the same trick I’d used on our wedding night to enter her bedroom.

Only to find my wife nowhere in sight.

Celia startled when she saw me. She immediately mumbled something and tried to hurry away, but I stopped her.

“Where is my wife?” 

Celia’s gaze was everywhere except on my face. “I don’t know, Your Highness,” she nearly whispered.

“You don’t know or you won’t tell me?”

Celia looked like she going to burst into tears. “Sir, she forbade me from telling you. She made me swear on my mother’s grave.”

“Didn’t you just visit your mother two weeks ago?”

Celia’s chin wobbled. “It’s still very upsetting to think about!” She added quickly, “Sir.”

I approached her slowly, rather like you would a deer that was close to bolting. “You need to tell me where she is. What if something happens to her and I couldn’t get her help?”

“Oh, when you put it like that…”

“She can be angry with me, not you. I’ll take