The Mate He Gave Away novel · Chapter 12 of 40

Chapter 12: The Fever

Agnes came out of the kitchen with a blanket before I'd even shifted.

She threw it over me without a word.

I came up out of the wolf on the cold stones of the gate.

The blanket was wrapped around me and my hair was full of heather.

The old physician was staring at me.

Up close he looked worse. His cheeks had fallen in. His fine court boots had split at the toes.

"Get him inside," I said. "By the fire. Agnes, is there soup?"

"There's always soup."

We put him in the chair by the kitchen hearth and wrapped him in every blanket in the keep.

He drank two bowls with his hands shaking so hard Davy had to hold the bowl for him.

Corvin came in dressed, with my dress over his arm.

He handed it to me without looking at the blanket, and turned his back while I pulled it on.

The physician watched the two of us.

"So it's true," he said. "What they're saying at Highcrown. That you two..."

"Nothing is true that they're saying at Highcrown," I said. "Why are you here?"

"Because he threw me out."

"Osric?"

"The week after Midsummer. The week after you left."

He wrapped his fingers around the empty bowl.

"He called me in at midnight and asked whether I had ever told you. I said no. He said a man who keeps secrets for a king can keep them for anyone. My house was taken by morning."

"Told me what?"

He looked at the fire for a long time.

"Two winters ago he took a white fever after the boar hunt. You remember."

"I remember."

"It's a fever of the blood, in men. It burns hot and low. When it passes, it often leaves them..."

He stopped and started again.

"It leaves them unable to father children. I tested him three times. There was no doubt."

The kitchen was very quiet.

"He'll never sire a pup," the physician said. "Not on you. Not on anyone. I told him so in that dark room. He made me swear on my life I'd never tell a soul."

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