He Kept Me as a Spare, But I Married a Prince novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: What Was in the Tin

The palace healer was a small woman with white hair and a leather apron, and she did not say good morning.

She took the tin out of Lucan's hand, lifted the lid and sniffed once.

Then she sat down at her workbench, tipped a pinch of the dried leaves onto a glass dish and said nothing for a long time.

Aunt Margery had come in with me, and so had Lucan.

We stood in a row by the door and waited.

The healer wet the leaves with a drop from a brown bottle.

They turned dark red.

"Moonroot," she said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"A root from the high bogs. It's used on wolves in the first week after a bad injury, to keep the beast quiet while the body mends. A day, two days, no more."

She turned on her stool and looked at me.

"Taken longer, it puts the wolf to sleep. Taken for years, it keeps her asleep. It also takes the scent off the skin."

I did not say anything.

I was aware of my hands, which were quite steady, and of the tin, which was sitting between us on the bench.

"How long would it take," I said, "to do that to a girl of eighteen?"

"With a daily dose?" The healer shrugged. "A month. Then it's just a matter of not stopping."

"Seven years," Aunt Margery said, from somewhere behind me. "Fourteen jars a month."

Lucan had not made a sound.

I looked at him, and the skin around his eyes had gone white.

"Who brought it to you?" the healer asked. "Every night, who put the cup in your hand?"

I thought back over seven years of evenings.

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