Their Hidden Princess novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: The Study at Night

Varrick folded the hair into a twist of paper and put it in his breast pocket.

Then he walked out of the moon yard with my life in his coat.

I didn't sleep.

At breakfast Clarice sat at the end of our table and watched me eat.

She didn't say a word.

She didn't need to. She'd stood two feet from the sand and seen me sway.

"She knows something," Maudie muttered.

"She knows she wants it to be me," I said. "That's not the same thing."

But a white hair was.

A white hair was the only proof he needed.

He'd find the six women who stood nearest that spot, and he'd call each of us again, one at a time, without an audience.

Without a brawl to save me.

I could keep my head down and wait for it.

I'd already tried that, for eleven days in the palace, behind a veil.

"I'm going into his study tonight," I said.

Lysander put down his spoon. The cut over his eye had closed overnight, but his jaw was still yellow.

"No," he said.

"He dines with the masters in the great hall tonight. Two hours, at least."

"Beth."

"He has a white hair in his pocket and a list in his head. I'm not waiting for him to read it out."

Roan was eating his porridge.

His nose was still a little crooked. Lysander had kept his promise.

"I'll take the bottom of his stair," Roan said.

Lysander stared at him.

"She's going whether we help or not," Roan said. "I'd rather she had a guard."

Lysander groaned and put his face in his hands.

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