Tomas

I waited desperately for Bennett’s answer. His face went blank with shock, then transformed into an outraged scowl. Icy anger rolled off of him in waves.

“You have a lot of nerve asking me for favors when you refuse to stay within the simple guidelines I have set up for you,” he hissed.

I ducked my head, confused at this sudden turn of events. “Apologies, but I’m not quite following you. When have I stepped out of line?”

“Let’s see… There was that unsavory situation with the princess from the Winterlands. Remember her?”

I paled. So he was still angry about that? It happened months ago! But I shouldn’t be surprised. Bennett had never been one to let go of grudges easily. And what the princess of the Winterlands had wanted had struck at the heart of his deepest fears.

Bennett had been forced to intervene after hearing reports that the princess wanted me for a marriage partner. After that, he’d been convinced I’d been going behind his back and telling others the truth of my parentage. Although he’d never been kind to me, he had become almost insufferably cruel in the months since.

“That wasn’t my fault!” I insisted. “Like I told you before, I had nothing to do with that—”

“As if I would believe your lies for even a second!” he yelled. Lucy looked up in alarm, but I shook my head and shooed her farther away. I didn’t want her to hear this. She dawdled, looking uncertain, but obeyed, drifting away to a patch of purple wildflowers a good distance away from the track.

“If you were living properly, she would have had no knowledge of your connection to the king, as tenuous as it may be,” Bennett sneered. “What’s your big plan, little brother? Are you trying to get him to accept you? Angling for legitimacy? Did you really think Cyrus would claim you if the Winterlands princess chose you as her prince?” Bennett stepped into my personal space. He had to look up at me, which I knew made him even angrier than before. “I warned you, didn’t I? I warned you to never, ever make me think that you might want to rise above your current station.” He raised his hand and started swinging it forward, but he stopped just an inch away from my cheek. “I should beat you black and blue for your insolence. But for the sake of the brat, who would probably whine and cry like a kicked puppy if I did anything to you, I will hold my temper. But don’t think that I will ever be so merciful again.”

Maybe I really was as dumb as Bennett was always implying, because instead of thanking him, I asked, “But what about Lucy? Will you give her the treatment she needs?”

His eyes flashed angrily. Bennett opened his mouth, but before he could respond, the groundskeeper appeared from his rickety old shack and flagged Bennett down.

“Your Highness, I’m sorry to interrupt…”

Bennett waved his apology away. “You’re not interrupting anything important. What is it? Are the hounds behaving?”

“Actually…it’s about our, ah, urgent piece of business…”

Bennett straightened, a small smile curling at the edges of his cruel mouth, and I knew our conversation was over. “Tomas, go wait off to the side with your mongrel while I take care of this.”

I did as he bid, knowing it wouldn’t do me—or Lucy—any good to argue with him. I played with Lucy for as long as she could handle, but the late afternoon chill got to her rather quickly, and she started shivering soon after. I could tell from the slight hitch in her breath that her body would soon give out on her. I quickly tucked her into her pushchair, wrapped the blanket I’d brought for this very reason around her shoulders, and flagged down another servant to take her back to her rooms. I would much rather have done it myself, but I couldn’t leave before I got Bennett’s answer.

Lucy turned in her seat, whining a little. “Please don’t make me go! I’m fine! I can stay a little longer! Please, I want to be here with you!”

My heart broke. I wanted nothing more than to say yes, or better yet, spend the whole rest of the day and night lounging around with her, reading books and making silly faces at each other, but I couldn’t leave yet. Lucy needed more help than I could give, and the only person who could help her just so happened to be Bennett. I knew him like the back of my hand, almost better than I knew myself. If I left now, he would never let me forget it.

Why should I help you? he would say. When you didn’t even care enough about it to wait for me to finish a simple conversation?

So even though it sliced me deep to my core, I sent a wailing Lucy off with a final kiss on the head and settled in for a long wait. Bennett might not care about a lot of things, but he had a soft spot for his hounds. He could talk about them for hours, if need be.

How odd, that Bennett had the capacity to care about dogs, but not for his own biological daughter. A few years ago, Bennett had gotten a servant pregnant—which was not wholly unusual in and of itself. But this woman, a headstrong maid with a heart of gold, had kept the child, insisting that she would raise and love the baby on her own, with or without Bennett’s help.

Unfortunately, her body was much weaker than her soul, and she had ended up dying in childbirth, leaving the infant Lucy behind. Bennett, true to form, had had no interest in taking care of his not-love child, which left two options: I could volunteer to take care of Lucy, or I could leave her to die on the street.

I chose the former, of course, and it was the best decision I had ever made. In all my years of life, I had never known love. The other servants looked at me with pity at best, while Bennett hated me for daring to share the same blood as him. King Cyrus—Father, although it felt wrong to call a stranger that—barely acknowledged my existence.

Lucy, though…Lucy loved me. And I loved her back. Fiercely. Tenderly. In the way I should have been loved. After all, what sin had we ever committed, other than being born? We were two illegitimate, unwanted children, and I would be damned if I would let her share my fate. So I fought. I fought to get her her own quarters. I fought for the clothes on her back, the food she ate, the toys that filled her room. And when I realized she had inherited the royal family’s genetic disease, I’d fought to keep her safe from that too.

Finally, Bennett emerged from the groundskeeper’s shack and beckoned me back to his side. He looked less angry now, although his voice was still as cold as the north wind when he finally gave me his answer.

“I understand that you may be a little confused. After all, you and I spend so much time in close proximity, it makes sense that you might think we enjoy a far closer relationship than we actually do. But to call me brother when you are nothing more than the bastard byproduct of my father and some scullery maid who mistakenly believed bearing the king’s spawn would win her his favors—well, that takes some nerve.” Bennett fixed me with an icy glare. “But my father only cares about his legitimate children—and the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. As far as I’m concerned, Lucy belongs to you, and you alone. I may have had a hand in her creation, but she is not my responsibility. Since she is not a member of the royal family, she will not be receiving the royal family cure.”

“But—” I started, my face heating with anger.

Bennett raised his hand. “You had better get her affairs in order. Once she dies, I expect her rooms to be vacated within the fortnight. I have a few plans for that space already.”

With those inhuman words, Bennett turned on his heel and left, his long coat swishing imperiously behind him. I stood there for a moment, my head nearly blank with shock. I’d known Bennett was cruel, but this was a new level. How could a person be so…so…heartless?

Furious, heartbroken, and drowning in despair, I turned around and headed in the other direction. Maybe if I’d been paying better attention, maybe if I wasn’t so blinded by rage, I would have noticed the slight rustle in the bushes and the shining brown ponytail sticking out of one of the hedges.

Maybe I would have noticed Veronica, who had secretly eavesdropped on the last part of our conversation.