Chapter 19: Morwen: On His Knees

Morwen's POV

"No," I said.

The Duke looked at me, standing beside his car in the black mountain night, with his glove half off.

"My dear, it isn't yours to refuse."

"He won't renounce anything," I said. "Not for Margery, and not for me."

Lucan turned his head.

"Morwen."

"You'd do it," I said, without looking at him. "I know you would."

"And the Duke would keep her anyway, and the crown."

"I gave my word," the Duke said.

"Your seal is on the pass that took her through the Kestrel Gap," I said.

"That is what your word is worth."

I had not known the seal was his until the captain said it.

The Duke's smile did not move, but the glove in his hand was crushed to a ball.

"The Solstice," he said, "is in nine days."

He got back into his car.

I watched his lights go down the service road until the dark closed over them.

Lucan did not touch me.

We rode back to the palace in the same truck, with two feet of cold leather between us.

Neither of us spoke until the palace gates.

In the morning the great hall was full.

I had slept two hours, and my shoulder was bandaged under my sleeve.

The councilors were there, and the packs of the capital.

The Duke sat on his bench with his son beside him.

Lucan had sent word at dawn that the Crown Prince would speak before the court.

I stood by the dais and did not know what he meant to say.

He walked out into the middle of the floor alone, in his black coat, and the benches fell quiet.

"For a year," he said, "I kept a man on the border of Graymoor."

A murmur ran around the room.

"He told me that my wife was being kept, and I did nothing."

"The law said to wait until she asked."

He turned and looked at me.

"She asked, and I came, and then I failed her again."

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