Chapter 12: The Night Before

Edmar took me to his study and shut the door and did not sit down.

He stood at the cold hearth with his back to me.

"The old queen in the tower sent you a message," he said.

"Catrin told the kitchen, and the kitchen told the stables, and a stable boy told me while I was shaving."

"I haven't asked you anything yet."

"I know. I'm answering before you have to."

He drew a breath that shook.

"My mother took me into the vestry the night before the wedding."

I said nothing.

"I was twenty-one, and I had been king for a month, and I was so afraid of all of it that I couldn't eat."

"She sat me on the chest where the vestments are kept, and she told me about the vow."

"The answer," I said.

"The answer." His mouth twisted.

"She told me there are words a king can say back to his queen. She said I could say them if I wished."

"And then she told me what they cost."

I waited.

I was very calm.

It was the calm I had worn at the banquet, and I knew it was about to break.

"The king who answers gives his own name," Edmar said.

"He gives it away entirely. His mother can't say it. His friends can't say it. His own children would never know what to call him."

"He would be the King, and only the King, for the rest of his life."

I already knew the rest.

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Was the Perfect Queen, But He Forgot My Name from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.