Their Hidden Princess novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: Roan's Brother

I read it three times by the dying fire.

The boy bled out in the barley.

Roan's brother. Written down like a bill for hay.

I wanted to take every letter in that drawer.

But a bundle that thin would be noticed the next time he opened it.

So I took six.

The order to ride for the ford. The crow's answer under it. Four more that named the barns, the farms and the silver.

I tied the cord again around the rest and laid them back exactly as they'd been.

The false floor clicked down.

My hands were steady until I was outside the door.

Then they weren't.

Roan stood at the foot of the stair with his arms folded. Maudie sat on the bottom step, holding a stub of candle.

"You were long," Roan said.

"I found something."

I meant to tell him gently.

There's no gentle way to hand a man the night his brother died.

I gave him the two letters that were pinned together and held the candle.

He read the first one.

His face didn't change.

He read the second one, and something in him went very quiet.

"The boy," he said.

Just that.

"Roan."

"He was twenty-six. He'd just been made heir. He had a girl in the village and a dog that followed him to the privy." He folded the letters in half. "The boy."

Then he turned toward the great hall.

I got in front of him.

He walked me back two steps without even noticing I was there.

"Move, Beth."

"No."

"He's eating supper. In a room full of masters with butter knives. I'll be done before the soup's cold."

"And then what?"

"Then he's dead."

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