The Princess of Ash novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Servant's Stair

My father forgave me at noon, in front of the court, and I let him.

I knelt on the cold floor of the throne hall and kissed his ring.

Two hundred lords and ladies watched the Ash Princess come home.

I did not lift my eyes, because I was counting the guards.

By the time the lamps were lit I knew when the watch changed on the north tower.

I also knew when Lord Hask carried his tray.

He went up at dusk, as my brother had said, with a covered dish and a jug.

He came down ten minutes later, wiping his hands on a white cloth.

Then he went in to dine at the king's right hand, and he did not look at the tower again.

I had a hundred heartbeats, perhaps two hundred.

In my prayer book, pressed flat between the pages of the psalm, I found the ring.

It was my mother's old signet, a thin gold band stamped with a flame, too small for anyone else's finger.

She had given it to me the winter I turned ten, to keep for her.

I put it on my thumb and went down to the kitchen yard.

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