Taming the Thorny Rose novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Midwinter Eve

The captains made their camp inside the gate.

The shaved-head guard posted the loyal houses on every stair.

By midnight the keep was quiet, and nothing in it felt safe.

I found Aldric in the east tower room, standing at the window with his back to the fire.

The red had gone from his eyes, but his hands were shaking where he held them behind him.

I felt it through the new thread between us.

I felt every flicker of fear, cold and bright.

"Stop doing that," I said.

"I cannot help it."

"Neither can I.

"Come here."

He turned.

His burns had healed in the night and left pale new skin along his palms.

I crossed the room and stopped an arm's length away.

"Tomorrow at the stones," I said.

"I'm going to tell you what I'll say."

"Kestrel, you do not have to..."

"I do.

"I'm not going to let you walk out there thinking I might strike."

His face closed.

"The word may not be true when you speak it.

"The book says you must mean it.

"A verdict made of pity, or of this..." he gestured at the bed, "will not hold."

"Then listen.

"I'm not done."

I took the ring off the cord around my neck.

My mother's ring, thorn leaves worn smooth, with my name inside.

I held it in my open palm between us.

"I have cause to hate you.

"You were there the night she died.

"You carried her home, and you left her under an arch, and you never told me for fifteen years."

"Yes."

"I did hate you.

"I'm saying it plainly, so you hear it.

"I hated you for a long time before I knew you, and I hated you all through the wedding."

"Yes."

"And then you drank poison to prove a point.

"You let me hit you in a corridor, and you didn't hit back.

"You opened your shirt and said go on.

"You sat in a chair all night and watched a door for me."

His throat moved.

"You are not the king I was told about," I said.

"You're not the monster.

"You're someone my mother sat with on a cold floor and did not leave.

"She judged you before I did, and she was right."

"Kestrel."

"I'm not striking you.

"Not tomorrow, not ever.

"Fit is the word, and I'll mean it so hard the stones will ring."

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