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Jakob
Jo and I are discussing when is a good time to return to Mirror Lake, and the discussion is not going well.
“Love, we should wait until we hear news about the king’s condition.”
“But why?” Jo wants to know.
I’m baffled by her question. “Why? Because he’s the king. Because we still don’t have the results of the paternity test. Because I’ve been accepted as part of the family now—at least by most of them—and I owe it to them.”
Jo, who’s spent more time in the last few days curled up by the fire in our room at the palace than out in the city talking to people, doesn’t get it. She sets down the third novel she’s finished reading since we’ve arrived. “You owe what to them? It seems to me that the king took your childhood from you. He paid your mother to keep the story quiet, but what did he ever do for you once you came into this world? Nothing. His absence, his lack of support made you suffer.”
Kneeling down in front of her chair, I try to reach her. “That’s true. But I can’t change the past.”
She leans forward, presses her palms over my hands, and smiles. That smile still warms me to my soul. “But what about our future?”
“Look around you, Jo. Our future is taken care of.”
She sits back and assesses me with different eyes. “Jakob, this is not the future either of us envisioned. This was never part of the marriage pact. And I can’t believe you would bring up the money. Especially when nothing is promised to us just because of your presumed bloodline.”
Offense and regret line her beautiful face. Her freckled cheeks look slightly sunken, and her eyes have dark circles I never noticed before.
I touch her face. “Wife, have you eaten or drunk anything today?”
“I’m fine” is all she says, which is not an answer.
A firm knock sounds at the door.
“Jakob? It’s Torben. Please open up, it’s an urgent matter.”
I’m already becoming familiar with the eldest prince’s tone of voice. This is the one he uses when everybody had better listen.
I open the door, and the look on Hailey’s face tells me it’s bad news. The worst, in fact. “Your Highness.”
“Just Torben. We’re brothers now. May I come in, please?”
I stand aside and gesture for them to enter. For all her cynicism about the royal family, Jo still stands and curtseys.
“No need for all that,” Torben says and sits down on the bench at the foot of our bed, Hailey joining him, looking pale and sad.
“I’m afraid it’s bad news. Our father, the king, has passed.”
The air is gone from the room. Thinking, even breathing, becomes difficult in this moment.
“I’m so sorry, Torben. I know you had a difficult relationship with him, but this must be terrible for you.”
He acknowledges this with a deep nod. “We didn’t see eye to eye. But I never thought he’d be dead before we patched things up.”
“We should focus on your mother now. She’ll need all of us around her,” Hailey adds.
Torben nods in agreement and looks up at me, a question in his eyes. “All of us. Especially you, Jakob.”
“I hardly think the queen wants me around.”
Torben grimaces. “Now hardly seems like the time to discuss it, but the test came back. You are, in fact, a son of the king.”
All is quiet while we absorb this news.
Although we all assumed it was true, I still feel as though the wind has been knocked out of me.
