dying here. He abandoned them. He abandoned everyone. No wonder the people love Caleb and call him king.”
Shauna rested her hand on her hip and gave Willow a whole new looking over. “Do you think what my brother is doing is worthwhile even though you live in beautiful Beldar?”
“Of course,” Willow hastened to tell her. “I am not my father. I know the king killed your father. Caleb told me.” Shauna stopped brushing and stared at Willow’s reflection. “I never knew before he told me,” Willow admitted quietly. “I never questioned my father about any of his battles. I should have. I’m very sorry.”
Shauna stayed quiet for a little while, then, “You’re nothing like I expected.”
Willow gave Shauna a questioning look through the mirror, and then smiled. “You’re nothing like your brother.”
“Thank heavens, no!”
Willow shook her head thinking of him. “He has quite an intolerance for riches that you don’t seem to share.”
“My brother is an idealist,” Shauna went back to brushing out Willow’s tangles with long, smooth strokes. “He believes coin and valuables should be used for the good of the entire village, even the country. He believes we can turn Predaria back into what it once was.” She stared at Willow in the mirror. “Do you think he’s foolish?”
“No,” Willow anguished. “Being with him and seeing the desert people, seeing him in the fires, with the villagers. I think he’s a remarkable man.”
Shauna brushed a little longer. “Do you care for him then?”
Willow almost gasped. She readied herself to deny it, and deny it fiercely, but she couldn’t, and she truly didn’t want to. She wanted to speak with someone about it and there wasn’t anyone she knew, so she told Shauna. “I...I don’t know. We’re so different, and there’s so much standing between us.” She didn’t see Shauna nod her head behind her.
“My hand has been promised to another.”
Willow was angry at the tears that stung her eyes, sure that Shauna would laugh at her. What did Caleb’s sister know about being forced to marry someone she didn’t even like? She was a peasant who enjoyed the finer things in life, the freedom of loving whomever she chose.
“Does my brother know about this?” Shauna tuned Willow’s chair around and bent to look at her.
“No.” Willow sniffed.
“Mercy,” Shauna sighed. Even though she had warned him against caring for this girl, even if this should be the best news she heard in a fortnight, Caleb was her brother and she loved him dearly. This would surely hurt him. “Do you love this man? The one you’re promised to?”
“He repulses me. He’s big and hairy and he comes from a country as cold as his heart. He’s nothing like Caleb,” she said the last sentence breathlessly and Shauna smiled in spite of herself.
“Yes, Predaria’s knight in shining armor.” Shauna went to the window and looked out, forgetting, for a moment, the princess who wore her crown behind her. Her brother was out there, sitting on what used to be a green lawn, with one knee drawn up to his chest and his arms resting lightly upon it. She turned to Willow and beckoned her to the window. “If you look closely, you can almost hear him.”
Willow’s heart ached watching him. The anguish in his expression made him look vulnerable and beautiful. She turned to his sister. “What is he doing?”
“Praying to God.”
Willow watched him for a little while. “Do you believe in his god too?”
“Of course,” Shauna said. “Don’t you?”
“I don’t know of him. All I know is what Caleb has told me.”
“Well, you know of Him now,” Shauna smiled. “Maybe it was all His plan to begin with,” she murmured and then pulled Willow away from the window. “Come on. Let’s get you changed into something a bit…cleaner.”
Sometime later, while Shauna was trying to teach Willow how to make potato stew, Caleb came back inside. He stepped into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks, dropping the tunic he clutched in his hand to the floor. He wasn’t sure what stunned him more, Willow and his sister laughing together over the oven, or Willow’s delicate beauty. It was Willow, he decided, and cast her an appreciative smile when she looked up.
“Willow, you…” His voice actually failed him, and he had to start over. “You look beautiful.”
She smiled and touched her new olive gown. It was a bit looser around the waist and bosom than she was used to, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, her cheeks began