Page 67 of Enchanted Heir
“Jorah!” she grinned, tea already on the stove. “What a nice surprise.”
I moved to hug her before I even took the time to take my coat off. “I need your help, Mother.”
She looked to Owen and back to me again. “What is it?”
I gave her a smile. “First of all, I’m fine. Promise. But this is not just a leisure visit, unfortunately. We found out my blood has been healing the dead forest next to the castle. Krew doesn’t trust any of the king’s scientists with my blood, nor wants to bribe any of the Savaryn ones.”
Mother was nodding before I was even done explaining. “You need one here. And I know just the one.”
I sighed. “I don’t know what’s in my blood, Mother. If it’s the Iron Will, or what, but one day I tried to put my blood in the lake to see if anything happened. Nothing happened until weeks later, and on the ground near where I tried this, there is now a bloom.”
My mother’s eyes went huge. “The forest has been dead for close to a decade, Jorah.”
I nodded. “I’m aware. And the king has too many spies to not find out for long. So I need to know what’s in my blood before he does.”
“We need Dr. Keltzer,” Mother began. “I wouldn’t trust the two younger doctors here with something this serious, but that’s who we need.”
I gave her a smile. “How can we fetch him here?”
She smiled at me. “He’s just down the road. I’ll run down there and ask him to come as soon as he can. I’ll make sure he knows it’s an emergency.”
“Thank you.” I was glad to have the real reason for the visit off my chest. “Shall we walk with you?”
“Good heavens, no!” she exclaimed. “If anyone were to see you and I walk into his office, someone would whisper that you were with child or something!” She paused. “And then everyone would whisper and speculate over which prince the child’s father would be.”
“Not a bad cover story though,” Owen joked with a shrug.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, but you don’t think someone will see him come here then?”
She smirked. “Not if I tell him to come in the back.”
She had a point. We only used the back door for supply deliveries.
“Let me fetch him now though; you never know how busy his day can get,” she moved for her coat.
Owen strode over to the teakettle as the door shut behind her. “Tea, then?”
I wasn’t sure he even knew how to make it himself. “Sure.”
* * *
Within the hour,the doctor knocked on the back door.
Mother ushered him in quickly.
“Thank you for coming so fast,” I smiled at the old gray-haired man with a walking cane. He looked fairly mobile for someone with a cane.
“How could I not?” Dr. Keltzer asked. “When your mother was so persuasive.”
I didn’t know what she said or didn’t say, so I had no idea where to start.
But then Owen was there, shaking his hand and handing the man a bag full of coin. Probably months’ worth of work judging by how heavy and large it was. “Your discretion for this entire meeting is appreciated,” Owen said in such a way that it was also laced in a threat. “Jorah has Iron Will and we need for you to test her blood.”
The doctor’s eyes flicked to mine, but he didn’t look surprised or nervous at all. Unfazed entirely.
Owen continued, “And though the oddity that is people with Iron Will is not new, what is new is that her blood has healed a part of the dead forest.”
The doctor’s eyes went wide. “Who hurt you in the forest, my dear?”
