The Werewolf King's Regret: Punishing the Wrong Daughter novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Man in the Cot

He sat up slowly.

The torn shirt hung off him, and the gray morning picked out the scar across his left eyebrow.

For a long time Lucan did not speak.

"You were in the room," he said at last.

"For three nights."

"I could not see."

"I know. You asked me not to leave, and I didn't."

"I swore to the girl who sat by me that I'd make her my queen." His voice scraped. "I said it aloud, and then I fell asleep, and when I woke in the morning, your sister was holding my hand."

"I was in the kitchen, boiling the cloths," I said. "She came in while I was out."

"She said she'd sung to me."

"Did you ask her to sing?"

His face changed.

"Once," he said. "At the engagement dinner. She laughed and said she'd lost her voice nursing me. I thought it was a kindness, that she was ashamed to be asked. I never asked again."

"She has no ear," I said. "I've never heard her hold a tune."

He put both hands over his face.

The right one had finally stopped bleeding.

When he took them away, his eyes were wet and furious.

"Why did you not tell me?"

"I tried."

"When?"

"The next morning. I came to the hall with my hands still red from the basin." I made myself say it plainly. "You were on one knee to my sister, in front of the Marwood household. Half the Hold was cheering."

"You could have shouted."

"My father had my arm. He told me in the passage the Hold needed a queen more than it needed the truth. He told me if I made a scene he'd put me in the cellar until the wedding was done."

"And after?"

"After that, you were the king, and I was the kitchen girl, and who'd believe me?" I said. "I thought I'd bear it. I thought, she'll be kind to him. People can be wrong about the first thing and right about the rest."

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