Chapter 7

Niamh was quiet the majority of our trip back to the palace. By the time we arrived, she’d only said maybe a dozen words to me. She also kept avoiding my gaze.

Either she was upset or she was keeping something from me. 

It took all of an hour before I discovered, exactly, what she was hiding from me.

“Kittens,” I said, staring at the three balls of fur playing on the floor. “You brought the kittens.”

Niamh tried to look guilty. “I couldn’t leave them there, could I?”

The black kitten was now chewing on the tie of my left shoe. “How did my saying ‘leave them be’ translate to ‘bring them to the palace and let them roam the kitchens’?”

“You know I don’t speak French.”

I growled deep in my throat, but apparently it was such a terrifying sound that the kittens immediately puffed up and one even hissed. The mother cat, who was sitting in a window a few meters away, merely gave me a look that seemed to say, Please don’t rile the children. 

“Your argument falls apart when you