Chapter 24: He Has Three

On the last morning of the month, I went down to the east cells with a cup of tea.

I carried it in my own two hands.

Bastian walked beside me with our son on his shoulder, and Merrick came behind with the girls in their double sling.

The cell block was cold and clean.

At the far end, behind a barred door, Honoria sat on a narrow bed in a plain gray dress.

Her hair had gone white.

She looked up when she heard the babies.

"I didn't think you would come," she said.

"I didn't either."

I stopped in front of the bars.

I held out the cup.

"It's only tea," I said. "Black, with sugar. I made it myself."

She looked at it for a long moment.

Then she took it in both hands, which were still scarred from the fire, and drank all of it.

"Thank you," she said, and her voice broke.

"Don't thank me."

"May I see them?"

I looked at Bastian.

He nodded, once.

Merrick stepped forward and lifted the girls so she could see them through the bars.

Honoria put a hand over her mouth.

"They have his chin," she whispered. "Both of them."

"They have mine too," I said.

"Yes. I see that."

She was crying.

I had come down there to feel something large and bitter.

What I felt was tired, and a little sad, and very sure I was never coming back.

"I'm not forgiving you," I said. "I told you that."

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