it was difficult to watch. But it has been years now since any have made Katharine cry, and she has learned how to keep her eyes wide open.
Deep beneath the Volroy, Walter Mills sits against the wall of his cell with his hands on his knees.
“You’re back so soon,” he says. “Are you going to take me out of here? Into the courtyard, so the people can watch?”
“The queen has granted you mercy,” Natalia says. “You will die here. In private.”
He looks at the pitcher in Katharine’s arms and silently begins to weep.
“Guard,” Katharine says, and motions to her. “Bring a table and three chairs. Two cups.”
“What are you doing, Queen Katharine?” Natalia asks quietly. But she does not stop her.
“Open the cell,” Katharine says after the guard brings the table. “Set it for three.”
For a moment, Walter eyes the open door, but even panicked as he is, he knows that is futile. Katharine and Natalia sit, and Katharine pours the wine into two cups. Walter stares at it as she does, as if he expects it to sizzle or smoke. It does neither, of course. Rather, it is the sweetest smelling thing in the room.
“He murdered my sister,” he says.
“Then you should have brought him before us,” says Natalia. “We would have dealt with him, believe me.”
Katharine tries to smile at him kindly.
“You think I’m just going to drink that?” he asks.
“I think it is a great honor,” Katharine says, “to take your last cups with the head of the Arrons. And I think it is a far finer thing to talk and drink until you fall asleep than to be held down and choke on it.”
She holds out the cup. Walter wavers for a few moments and sheds a few more tears. But in the end, he sits.
Natalia takes the first swallow. It takes a long time, but eventually Walter finds his courage. He drinks. He even manages not to weep again, afterward.
“It’s . . . ,” he says, and pauses. “It’s very good. Will you not have any, Queen Katharine?”
“I never partake of my own poisons.”
A shadow flickers across his face. He thinks he knows now, that the rumors are true and she has no gift. But it does not matter. The poison is already in his belly.
Walter Mills drinks and drinks, and Natalia matches him cup for cup until he is rosy-cheeked and drunk. They talk of pleasant things. His family. His childhood. He breathes harder, until finally his eyes close and he slumps across the table. It will not be an hour before his heart stops beating.
Natalia looks at Katharine and smiles. Her poison gift may be weak, or may be no gift at all. But she is so very skilled at poisoning.
WOLF SPRING
Jules knew that when Joseph returned home, certain things would have changed. She did not expect that he would fit seamlessly back into her life. She did not even know if he would find that he had a place there, after so long away. Five years may not seem like much to some, but in that time, Joseph had turned into a young man. Perhaps with a wider understanding of the world than Jules could ever hope to have from her place at the southwest corner of Fennbirn Island.
But now he is home. His family has released their held breath. And he and Jules have more than exhausted their stores of pleasantries.
“Are you cold?” he asks as they walk down the street from the Lion’s Head Pub.
“No,” Jules says.
“Yes, you are. Your neck has pulled down so far it’s disappeared.” He looks around and up the street. There is nowhere they want to go inside. Both are tired of old lovers winking at them slyly, and suspicious squints from folk who hate the mainland.
Light snow begins to fall, and Camden groans and shakes her coat. There is nothing left to do. They ought to admit it and say good night, but neither ever wants to part.
“I know a place,” Joseph says, and smiles.
He takes her hand and leads her quickly down the street and toward the cove, where the mainland boat is docked.
“Only a skeleton crew will be there tonight. Mr. Chatworth and Billy are staying at the Wolverton until he departs.”
“He?” Jules asks. “Don’t you mean ‘they’?”
“Billy’s not leaving. He’s staying on, straight through Beltane. To get to know Arsinoe. I thought we might introduce them soon. Take a picnic up to the pond. Have a fire.”
He reaches back for her