He smiled down at her.
“It’s all useless junk,” Willow replied, her voice weak and straining.
“It’s a room fit for a princess, Willow,” he whispered.
She looked off to the side, a tear spilling onto her pillow.
The healers scurried around the room, preparing mixtures of herbs and poultices for her wounds. They sent a servant to inform the king that his daughter suffered four broken ribs and a broken pelvis, a head wound, and serious malnutrition. They sent another servant to Seth.
“We must undress the princess, Sir,” a girl told him.
Seth nodded and smiled at Willow again. “I’ll see you later.”
“Seth,” Willow breathed, wincing. “Thank you for saving me.”
He winked down at her, then backed out of the room.
“Just relax, Your Highness,” her handmaiden said gently. “We’re just going to clean you up.”
Every nerve in Willow’s body was alive with pain. She felt herself drifting in and out of consciousness, but her glazed eyes filled with a spring of tears, and when the warm sponge touched her skin, she sobbed and began to scream, and she didn’t stop until her father was summoned.
“What is it, my dear?” Her father rushed to her side and leaned over the bed, smoothing her hair back over her forehead. “Why do you weep like this?”
“I don’t want her to bathe me,” Willow bellowed, then turned to the stricken servant. “Please don’t touch me. You are not my slave, you’re free.”
The girl looked at Baltrasard and he held his hand up to her. “Stay where you are.” He turned to his daughter again. “Willomenia—”
“I don’t want them to tend to me. I won’t let them. Set them free,” she sobbed, pleading with him.
“I cannot,” he told her gently. “Who will tend to you? You’re ill.”
“Please, please let them go.”
Her father sat beside her and gave her a stern smile. “They are no longer servants. They are your nursemaids.”
“And you will release them from their service as soon as I’m well?”
“If that is what you wish,” he conceded.
Willow set her glassy eyes on the girl standing over her on the other side of her bed. “I’m sorry if I upset you.”
The king shook his head in disbelief, and then sighed. “Very well. Now let your nursemaids tend to your wounds.”
Willow closed her eyes and her father rose to leave. He almost made it to the door when he heard her call to him in a low, weakened voice. He stopped and turned his deep-set eyes on her.
“Why did you take all the water away, Father? And…do you have any dealings with the Catchers?”
She was already asleep by the time he opened his mouth to answer her, but he used the opportunity to curse Caleb to hell.
That evening, Seth returned to her room with a tray of steaming soup and bread, along with some fresh fruit. She looked at it then turned away in disgust.
“Willow, you have to eat,” Seth urged.
“I’m not hungry.” She couldn’t eat on her own anyway. She was bandaged from head to foot.
He gave her a doubtful look then spooned some soup up and held it to her mouth.
She studied him with narrowed eyes. “I’m surprised my father let you stay. You told him about Caleb didn’t you?”
“I’m not a Catcher anymore, Willow,” he told her, ignoring her question. “Your father has made me one of his guards. Please eat.”
“My father said you killed Drakar. Is it true, Seth? Is he dead?”
“Yes. He’s dead.”
Willow sighed then opened her mouth for the soup. It burned her lips and Seth waited a little longer. “I don’t blame you for leaving me with Drakar, Seth. I should have believed you that you were searching for my father.”
“And I’m sorry it took so long to find him.” He lowered his eyes and scooped more soup onto her spoon.
“You came back for me though. That’s what matters. You gave me my life back.” She heard Caleb’s words. When you give something life, your love for it will never fade. She was carried back to a day in Shondravar when her beloved gave her a garden.
Seth tried to give her more soup, but she turned away with tears flooding her eyes. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll get my appetite back.”
The mandrake the healers had fed to her worked well to numb the ache of her broken bones but did nothing to ease the pain in her heart.
Seth took a deep breath and laid the tray on a nearby table. “Willow.” He lifted her bandaged hand gently off the bed. “You have to try