Page 5 of Waking Roslyn

She shook her head. “As soon as the queen has another child, it should be safe for you to return. But right now, the possibility of you inheriting is too real, and the earls don’t like it. If King Terius’s child does not inherit, they want to be sure one of them does.”

My mind raced with questions, and they came spilling out of my mouth in a panic. “What if Prince Marcos does die? And what if Queen Talia doesn’t have a child, and what if King Terius dies?”

She took a shuddering breath. “Then we will bring you back for your coronation, and you’ll have the protection of the royal guard.”

My eyes burned. “I don’t want to be queen.”

“And I don’t think you will be.” She squeezed my hand hard. “I don’t believe it will come to that. But until there is more than just an ill child standing between you and the throne, the temptation to get rid of you will be too great.”

Get rid of me. Such a funny way to phrase it.

Kill me. That’s what she meant.

There were people who wanted me to die…simply because I existed. And I knew them. They weren’t strangers. I had grown up with these men, played with their children. “Can’t I just tell them no?”

“What do you mean, love?”

“Can’t I tell the king I don’t want it? Couldn’t he just say that I wasn’t allowed to inherit?” That would work, wouldn’t it? If I couldn’t be queen, they wouldn’t need to kill me.

But my mother was already shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but—” She started crying again.

My father placed his hand on my arm. “I tried that. I went to King Terius and told him he could strip our entire family of all of our titles. But he refused.”

My heart sank. “But why?”

“He said it was unlawful.” His eyes looked so sad. “Only you can make that request for yourself, once you come of age.”

My mother’s face went white as she looked to my father. “That’s not for seven years,” she lamented.

I looked back at my mother, missing her already but feeling resigned. “So I have to go live with Lisette?”

My mother managed to pull herself together and offer me a little smile. “You like Lisette.”

Of course I did, but leaving Saldine and going to live with Uncle Richard and Lisette in Winberg was terrifying.

More terrifying than staying here and fearing for my life? Perhaps not. This was a different kind of terrifying. I just wanted to stay here in my home, where I didn’t feel like an intruder and a burden.

“Can you come with me?” I asked my mother.

She looked to my father, but he was shaking his head, so she pulled me into her arms, cradling me. “I could be recognized. We can’t risk that, and we can’t take the chance that someone will follow me to you.” She sobbed, making my body shake along with hers.

“This isn’t fair.”

“You’re right. Nothing about this is fair.”

That was the moment the ache really started. Knowing I was hated and hunted left a throbbing pain in my shoulder. It hurt my head and launched through my chest. So many pains caused by so many wounds. To be hated was bad enough, but to be torn from my parents because of it broke my heart. And that was a pain I might never be able to heal.

Now

The pain came rearing back as I faced the possibility of one of the earls walking the halls of the Winberg palace and discovering that I was here.

After my aunt died and the threat against me became known, I had resigned myself to living my life with Lisette for a time. Now, four years had gone by. Four years and two months since I’d left my childhood home, my parents.

If only Edmund hadn’t chosen Lisette. Of course, I’d known when I’d come to live at the palace a year ago that running across the occasional foreign delegate was a possibility, but I’d done my best to make myself unobtrusive and forgettable. I was Miss Rose here instead of Lady Roslyn. And as such, no one need take note of me.

Now I had to contemplate the real possibility that I’d be discovered and recognized by the very people I had fled from. If only Lisette hadn’t had to go away.

I was so close to being able to go home. When the fever had claimed the life of the queen four years ago, I’d feared I’d never be able to return, but then King Terius had remarried six months ago, and everyone was anxious for news of an impending birth. Most especially me. But if I was discovered here before a healthy child was born…