They Hanged My Parents as Traitors, Now the Prince Needs My Heart novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Glass for Glass

I couldn't keep it back any longer.

"The twenty-first of December is my birthday," I said.

He went very still.

"I was born that night," I said. "Midwinter, in the Row, my mother's own bed. She told me every year that I came in the dark and the snow."

Dafydd put down his mug.

"Either that is a coincidence," Cadoc said, "or it's the whole of it."

"Which do you think?"

"I think that somebody took a knife to this book," he said, "and it wasn't for a coincidence."

Nobody said anything for a while.

Then he took a breath and straightened his cuffs.

"I hold court at four," he said. "My first in ten years. I'd like you in the hall, Bronwen, if you'll come."

It was the first time he had used my first name.

I pretended I hadn't noticed.

At four the great hall was full to the doors.

The Guard Row had come up the hill to see the prince.

Every kitchen girl and stable hand in the keep was standing three deep at the back.

Cadoc sat in the carved chair with his veined hand on the arm where everyone could see it.

Olwen had taken a place at the foot of the dais, upright, composed, watching him.

Lord Aneurin Rees stood at his shoulder with his hands folded.

I stood at the end of the front row with my arms crossed over my apron.

"I am told," said Cadoc, "that at the feast two nights ago a goblet was thrown at a woman who was working, and that she was made to pick up the pieces with her hands. I would like to know who did it."

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