Page 48 of Waking Roslyn

“You’ve only been practicing for a few weeks, and you’re picking it up quickly.” I couldn’t understand her frustration.

She straightened, shaking her head. “Not quickly enough.”

“Why is this so important?” I asked, wondering why she was torturing herself with something she didn’t enjoy.

“Because I want to go home,” she said with a sort of aching desperation.

“What home? The palace in Winhaven?” I knew that was where she’d resided before coming here.

“No.” She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “That was never my home.”

Now I was curious. “Where is your home?”

“Saldine.”

I frowned in confusion. “You’re from the kingdom of Saldine?”

She nodded.

“How did you end up here?”

She lifted one shoulder. “I came to live with Lisette.”

That explained why she was here, but not why she had left her home. She was being evasive, and I suddenly needed to know more about her. “You are Lady Rockwell’s cousin,” I said, following a hunch. “You don’t object when I call you ‘my lady.’ Am I correct in assuming you are of the noble class?”

She looked at the ground as she chewed her lip. “Her stepmother was my father’s sister.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.” If only she knew that her evasion made me more curious, not less.

She sighed in resignation and closed her eyes. “I’m the daughter of a duke.” She opened her eyes to look at me.

I fell back a step. “Ah.” That knowledge left an uncomfortable tightness in my chest, and I didn’t fully understand why. The past month had allowed Rose and I to become comfortable with one another, to become friends. But this… It took me a moment to find any more words. “So you are not just nobility. You are one step away from royalty.”

She narrowed her eyes at me as if I’d insulted her, though I couldn’t imagine why.

“So then,” I wondered aloud, “why can you not return home?”

She stabbed the forest floor with the end of her staff. “There is some conflict between my father and some of the other high houses of Saldine. My parents were worried about the effect it would have on me and thought it best that I leave for a time.” Her explanation sounded stilted and not quite genuine, but I could think of no reason for her to be less than honest with me.

“How long have you been away from home?”

She swallowed and blinked several times. “Almost four years.” She shrugged, but I saw the way her chin trembled for only a moment.

What would it be like for a young lady of consequence to be thrust out into the world at such a young age? “You haven’t seen your parents in all that time?”

She shook her head, suddenly looking worried. “John, you can’t tell anyone.”

“Tell them what?” She was starting to worry me.

“That I’m the daughter of the duke, that I’m Saldian. People don’t know that. It’s important that they don’t. There’s a reason I go by Miss Rose.”

“But—”

“Please, John. Not even Edmund knows. Just promise.”

My chin pulled back. Edmund didn’t know? “All right,” I acquiesced. The last thing I wanted was to cause her any more distress, but how could Edmund not know? Did she not trust him? “But why?”

She gave a sharp shake of her head. “Please. Just…” A flash of hurt or sadness crossed her face. “Just teach me. I want to go home,” she said with a helpless shrug. “But I can’t until my parents call for me, and in the meantime I’d like to learn something useful.”