Page 7 of Stolen Princess's Secret

‘The one who left the stables first is not your friend,’ Ildris had told her just before bed, right before he’d withdrawn to his guestroom, and maybe that assessment was keeping her awake too.

Because Claudia absolutely disagreed with Ildris on that point. She stood at the bedroom window, staring out at the faint light in the building on the edge of the fortress that had once housed fledgling falcons and probably still did.

In all her reckonings of how this day would unfold, Tomas welcoming her home had always been part of it. A constant amidst ever changing variables. He would know who she was at a glance and would be overjoyed to see her alive and well and...

Well...

Apart from knowing who she was at a glance, reality really hadn’t delivered.

And that light in his window was beckoning and it wasn’t as if she was sleepy.

Donning her travelling cloak and nodding to the pair of guards stationed just outside the bedroom door, Claudia made her way through the corridors of the fortress to the kitchen and from there to the herb garden and the deep shadows of battlement walls. She was being watched, no doubt, but she couldn’t be caring about that. There was only so much space in her mind to begin with and at the moment it was full of Tomas the boy overlaid with an image of Tomas the man, and her overwhelming desire to make things right between them. Their friendship had existed in the shadows all those years ago, and in the shadows she hoped to find it again.

She knocked on the wooden door to the falconer’s workspace with every good intention and a dozen explanations on her lips, but when the door opened to allow her entry and Tomas turned without a word and stalked away from her down the narrow entry hall, speech deserted her. He was a presence. An unknown force, battering away at her senses. Too big to make sense of, his shoulders too broad. Too stern. Ever so silent.

She followed him anyway.

He led her to what had once been the falcon nursery. These days it seemed to be an office with a couple of perches but no falcons currently present.

He took a seat behind the desk and motioned to the chair on the other side, all without saying a word. She had a feeling he could sit here all night, eyes stony and lips tight.

‘Hi,’ she murmured.

Icebreaker it was not.

She tried again. ‘I’m guessing you have questions.’

‘No.’

Oh. ‘Because anything you want to know, I’ll answer you. I mean, if you really want the deep dive into what happened we’ll be here for days, but I could cover the basics quickly enough.’

Curiosity flared briefly in those assessing dark eyes. Curiosity and an internal conversation he seemed to be having with himself before he finally allowed himself a single slight nod. ‘Then cover the basics.’

‘Right.’ It wasn’t much of an invitation but it was enough. ‘I got kidnapped from the palace by northerners hoping to force water concessions from my father. That didn’t work. They wanted to return me. That didn’t work either.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘Why not? Why couldn’t they have just given you back?’

‘Because I was in the room when my father told them he didn’t want me back. As far as he was concerned, I was damaged goods and better martyred than returned. He said that if they let me go, he’d kill me himself and blame it on them anyway. Is that a good enough reason to stay away until now, do you think?’

He had the most magnificent scowl.

‘This presented a problem for my captors who, apart from the whole kidnapping thing, had treated me well enough up until that point. What were they going to do with me?’

‘Tell me.’

She did like this Tomas’s voice commands. He’d grown into his authority quite magnificently.

‘A wealthy clan who’d voted against the abduction petitioned the council to think of me as an abandoned child and put me up for adoption. The council agreed, so the family took me in and gave me every opportunity to grow up strong and whole. I wasn’t abused by them or anyone else.’ She’d had to reassure Cas of this several times over and figured Tomas might appreciate similar emphasis. ‘My father died, Cas wants to negotiate water rights with the northerners, finally giving them a seat at the table, and here I am. I know it won’t be easy, fitting back in, but I can honestly say that so far it feels good to be home.’

‘Your brother must be overjoyed.’

‘I hope so. Are you glad to see me too? Because I really can’t tell. Ildris thinks you’re no friend of mine. I say you are.’

‘Is this Ildris an abductor of children? Or is he of the clan of opportunists who took you in? Either way, I have no time at all for what he thinks.’

‘Remind me never to seat you two beside one another at the dinner table.’

Savage little smirk from him at her words. ‘Never going to happen.’

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