The Beauty of Darkness - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,113

small tavern down an alley that let rooms above the shop. I remembered it. There was no sign. You had to know it was there. No doubt Gwyneth had found that one.

I finally stepped back and wiped my cheeks, surveying her girth. “And you’re well?”

She nodded, rubbing her hand over her belly. “I spotted Mikael weeks ago, but I only had the courage to confront him recently.” A bittersweet smile creased her eyes, and we sat down at the table. She talked about him, recalling her dreams for their future that she thought had been his dreams too, all the times they held hands and talked, and planned, and kissed. She went over memories and details as if they were flower petals she was plucking one at a time and then letting them go in the wind. I listened, feeling a part of me break.

“He’ll never be this child’s father,” she finally said. She told me with calm resignation about the girls on his arm, his denial, and all the doubts she’d carefully tucked away that came to life before her eyes when they spoke. “I knew what he was like when I met him. I thought I was that one girl special enough to change him. I was a happy fool living in a fantasy. I’m not that girl anymore.”

I saw the change in her. She was different. Sober. The dreams she’d had were swept from her eyes. I saw all the reasons I had lied to her, thinking if her fantasy stayed alive, maybe mine could too.

“You were never a fool, Pauline. Your dreams gave flight to my own.”

She pressed her hand to her back as if trying to counter the weight of the baby pulling against her spine. “I have different aspirations now.”

“We all do,” I answered, feeling the tug of lost dreams.

She frowned. “You mean Rafe.”

I nodded.

“He showed up at Berdi’s inn looking for you. When I told him about Kaden, he started giving orders, saying more men would come to help, and they did, but none of them ever returned. At first I feared something had happened to them, but then I wondered if he had deceived us just like Kaden. Berdi guessed that Rafe wasn’t really a farmer, which only fueled my worries that he couldn’t be trusted—”

“Berdi was right. Rafe wasn’t a farmer,” I said. “He was a soldier—and also Prince Jaxon of Dalbreck—the betrothed I left at the altar.”

She looked at me like I had lost my mind back in Venda.

“But he’s no longer a prince,” I added. “Now he’s the king of Dalbreck.”

“Prince? King? None of this makes sense.”

“I know,” I said. “It doesn’t. Let me start at the beginning.”

I tried to tell her everything in the order that it had happened, but very quickly she interrupted. “Kaden put a hood over your head? Then dragged you across the entire Cam Lanteux?” I saw the hatred in her eyes that Kaden had feared she would harbor.

“Yes, he did, but—”

“I don’t understand how he could share a holy feast with us at Berdi’s table in one moment and threaten to kill us both in the next? How could he—”

We both froze. We heard the whicker of a horse. I put my finger to my lips. “Did you ride here?” I whispered.

She shook her head. Neither did I. It was a short walk, and it was easier to slip through the woods unseen on foot.

“Could someone have followed you?”

Her eyes widened, and I was shocked to see her draw a knife. She had never carried one before. I drew mine as well.

Heavy footsteps scraped on the stone steps outside the door. Pauline and I both stood and then the door opened.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

KADEN

I saw the blade before I saw her. It flashed past me, slicing my shoulder just as I slammed her up against the wall.

And then I saw that it was Pauline.

Lia was yelling at both of us. “Drop the knife, Pauline! Drop it! Kaden! Let her go!”

The knife was still firm in her grip, her hand straining against mine. “Stop!” I yelled.

She seethed. “Not this time, barbarian!”

I felt the sting where the blade had cut me and the warmth of blood spreading across my shoulder. “What’s the matter with you? You could have killed me!”

Her eyes held no apology, only hatred that I didn’t think it was possible for Pauline to possess.

“Stop!” Lia said firmly, and she pulled the knife from Pauline’s hand. She nodded for me to let Pauline go. I