The Queen's Secret (The Queen's Secret #2) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,65

young woman like Rhema Cartner turning up, reminding him of what he loved about me when I was Shadow, and what he lost when I became the queen.

“Dear one, you should come away from the window,” my mother calls from her fireside chair. “It’s so cold there, and you are on display.”

“Really, no one can see me,” I tell her, but I obey. Cal hasn’t raised his eyes to my window once. He has other things on his mind.

I sit down near her, and she pulls a hand from under the blanket to pat mine. She still feels cold, I think. This place doesn’t agree with her at all.

“I forgot to mention,” she says, “that His Majesty the King made a brief appearance at this morning’s audience. He did not intend to join us, but he had mislaid a particular dog collar and was seeking it in Lord Burley’s chamber.”

With anyone else I would think that was a flimsy excuse, but knowing Hansen, it’s quite possible.

“He suggested that you dine with him tonight. Just the two of you. What a lovely suggestion, don’t you think?”

“Not particularly,” I reply, aware I sound sulky. I doubt that this plan was Hansen’s idea. From what I’ve heard, Lady Cecilia is there, day and night, recovering from the trauma of her slaughtered horse. She’s one of the few ladies in his entourage who hasn’t returned to her country manor.

“I insist,” my mother says, in a voice that permits no disagreement. “You will dine together, husband and wife, and I will not expect you to return afterward.”

“Mother!” I exclaim. This is too much. “You’re welcome to stay with me here in my chambers, but you absolutely cannot exile me from my own bed! I am queen here too, in case you’d forgotten.”

My mother gives me that I’m-disappointed-in-you look that I used to see on my visits as a girl to Violla Ruza. “Sometimes I wonder,” she says, “if you have forgotten that.”

I grit my teeth, so furious I could shout. “I will dine with the king,” I manage to say. “Though it will give neither Hansen nor me any pleasure, I can assure you. But afterward I will return to my own chambers. I have no intention of spending the night with my husband while he flaunts his mistress around the court.”

“I thought she had been sent away,” my mother says, frowning.

“She is still here. Apparently she says that His Majesty has promised to buy her another horse, and she is awaiting its arrival.”

“He said nothing about this.” My mother is still frowning.

“Strange. I wonder why?”

Queen Lilianna looks at me, stern rather than motherly.

“Sarcasm does not become you, Lilac. Dine with your husband tonight, and remind him of his dynastic duties.”

I sigh—long and heavy, the way I did when I was an impatient girl. Dynastic duties—haven’t we got more important things to think about? But there’s no reasoning with my mother. Tonight I’ll dine with Hansen, but I won’t sleep with him. Lady Cecilia is an excuse, and I plan to use that excuse for as long as I can.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Caledon

The days feel short in the castle, and claustrophobic. After riding through the wilds of Renovia, Cal is reminded that he doesn’t really belong in a place like this, with its high stone walls and narrow windows, its gray circle of sky.

Rhema is making an outstanding recovery, but all that means is she’s bored and restless, following him around and chattering about her various theories. Jander is his quiet self, happiest with the horses. He spends much of his time with the Chief Physician, exploring his own theories—about the obsidian residue and its poison—and assisting in the investigation of Father Juniper’s death.

The day’s activities feel pointless—an audience with Lord Burley and the Dowager Queen Lilianna to explain why he left Renovia, and then another fruitless search of the castle’s cellars, dungeons, kitchens, and barracks. For all the danger and discomfort of the Renovian swamps, at least there Cal was master of his own life, making his own decisions. There is nothing like being back in Mont to make him feel like a flunky.

The elderly scribe remains a bundle of nerves who interrupts his bird feeding in the yard to corner Cal and lament the attitudes of Lord Burley and the Duke of Auvigne. Cal abandons him with Rhema, so the two can talk at each other and leave him in peace.

Seeing Lilac is impossible. When Queen Lilianna summoned him, it was to Lord Burley’s chambers,