Lucia novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: I Dreamed It Too

I pushed the granary door open with my foot.

Corradin heard the hinge and turned, a sack of grain on his shoulder.

He did not drop it.

He set it down on the stack very carefully, wiped his hands on a rag, and looked at me.

It was the first time he had looked straight at me since the day he came.

"Princess," he said.

"What is this?"

"Grain."

"I can see that."

"Then you do not need to ask."

"Kaldmark crates," I said. "Kaldmark silver."

I walked in and picked up the ledger.

"You are paying for their food."

"It is a loan."

"You are paying for it with your own money."

"My father's money," he said. "He will not notice."

"You bought my necklace for forty crowns."

"Yes."

"The wagon driver told the sergeant you paid three hundred."

His mouth closed.

"He said you gave him the whole purse and told him to say nothing." I stepped closer. "Why?"

"Because I did not wish you to sell the others."

"Why would you care?"

"Princess."

"Why?" I said. "You insult my husband."

"You humiliate me in front of eighty men."

"Then you creep out at midnight to feed the same men."

He said nothing.

"I don't understand you," I said. "I have been trying for a week."

"Do not try."

"Montalban told me to ask what you're afraid of."

His whole face changed.

The cold went out of it all at once.

What was left under it was a tired young man with grey, haunted eyes, who looked as if he had not slept properly in years.

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