Chapter 4: The Nurse

Aldous moved the princess's cradle into his own wing before the week was out.

He announced the new nurse at supper, in front of the whole high table.

"Mirelle Fenn," he said.

"A dairy girl from the river towns."

"Her own baby died at birth this week, so she has milk for the princess."

Mirelle stood at the end of the hall in a gray wool dress with her hands folded.

She did not look at the queen.

Every lady at the table watched Ysmera's face for the crack.

"How kind of you," Ysmera said. "A woman with a child of her own will understand what a mother needs."

Aldous's smile flickered.

He had expected tears, or a fight.

Ysmera lifted her cup and drank to the new nurse's health.

That night she walked the east wing alone, in a plain dark robe, with a candle.

The nursery door was shut but not locked.

She pushed it open.

A single lamp burned low beside the cradle.

Mirelle sat in a rocking chair with the baby against her shoulder, humming under her breath.

It was a river song, the kind the dairy girls sang at milking.

She stopped when she saw the queen.

"Majesty."

"Keep humming," Ysmera said. "She'll wake."

Mirelle went on, very softly.

Ysmera shut the door behind her and crossed to the cradle.

The baby had her father's chin, and her mouth was soft and slack in sleep.

Ysmera looked at her for a long moment and felt nothing but a cold, patient hatred.

Aldous had put this child on her pillow.

She was the child of the woman now rocking her.

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