Dad Hears My Thoughts novel · Chapter 29 of 32

Chapter 29: Ward of the Crown

The Queen didn't say it to be cruel.

That was the worst of it.

She took us into her own sitting room off the gallery, away from the masks, and had her women build up the fire.

The King stayed outside with the Duke and the broken curtains.

"Sit," she said. "Please."

I didn't sit. I stood with Tuppence on my hip, and Tristram stood at my shoulder.

"Her mother brought me my jewels every morning for twelve years," the Queen said.

"She knew which pearls I liked on which days. She knew when I'd been crying, and she'd bring the plain ones."

She looked at Tuppence.

"I never once asked her about her baby. I didn't know she had one until tonight."

"She had one," I said.

"Then I owe her something, and her child is what's left."

She folded her hands.

"The girl will be raised here, in the palace, in her mother's honor."

"Nurses, tutors, a household of her own. She'll want for nothing as long as I live."

Tristram's hand closed on my arm.

I could feel him not breathing.

"With respect, Majesty," I said. "She wants for porridge."

The Queen's eyebrows rose.

"Without lumps," I said. "She's very particular. She'll spit it down your front to make the point."

"I'm sure the palace kitchen..."

"She chews the collar of his cloak to get to sleep. Only his. She knows the difference."

"She throws herself backward when you put her down before she's ready, so you have to be quick with a hand behind her head."

"She sleeps in a drawer by my stove, or a half-gilded cradle. She hasn't decided which she likes."

I was talking too fast.

"I'm not her mother by blood, and until tonight not by any law," I said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Dad Hears My Thoughts from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.