Chapter 22: The Sentence

The eldest looked at Rosalind for a long moment.

"It is the law," she said. "The wronged mate names the sentence. It has not been used in two hundred years."

"Then I'll use it."

Rosalind did not look at Tristan.

She looked at the ring of faces around the courtyard, one by one.

"My father-in-law took my blood a hundred and fifty-six times," she said.

"Tristan signed for every draw. He came to my door every Sunday and listened, and he walked away."

Nobody spoke.

"I will not ask for his death."

"I have thought about it for three years, and I find I don't want him to have it."

Tristan lifted his head.

"I want him to have the room," she said.

His face went slack.

"The room with no window, and the cot, and the bolt on the outside."

"One night for each draw I gave. A hundred and fifty-six nights."

"Rosa," he whispered.

"Nobody will draw him. Nobody will hurt him. He will be fed, and he will have a pencil."

"Please."

"And nobody will read what he writes," she said.

The eldest struck the flagstones with her cane.

"So named," she said.

"On the hundred and fifty-seventh night he walks out with no name, no house and no sponsor."

She turned to the captain.

"Take him."

Two guards lifted Tristan from his knees.

He did not fight.

He looked back at Rosalind once, over his shoulder, as they carried him through the door.

She watched him go.

I stood close enough to feel her breath catch, only once.

"You'll feel him," I said, very quietly. "The bond."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Fiancé Swapped Room Cards So I Mated His Rival from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.