Page 59 of Arise the Queen
“Fae,” he said, shrugging. “Perhaps she feared you?”
How sad for a mother to fear her child, Gwendolyn thought.
“Or perhaps not you, but your fate?”
“Perhaps,” Gwendolyn allowed. “Whatever the case, it will remain a mystery,” she said. “One I may never be fortunate tohave answered. My mother is dead—or if not, her whereabouts may never be known to me.”
Left unsaid was the blame she heaped upon Esme, and she would spare him her anger, knowing how he felt about her.
They rode on in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. But, over the course of the day, Gwendolyn told Bryn everything she could remember to reveal, including Esme’s revelation about Málik’sassignmentfrom his king. She gave him the side-eye. “Knowing this, do you still believe he’d never harm me?”
“He has not yet, has he?”
Gwendolyn lifted a shoulder. “At the moment, I know only that he has lied to me… but, so did you,” she allowed, her tone darkening.
“To my regret. I’ll never do so again.”
Gwendolyn nodded. “Then I have something to ask of you, and I will have you answer me truthfully.”
“Ask me anything, Gwendolyn.”
Gwendolyn had hoped he would bring it up himself—whether Esme had told him the truth about her mother’s fate, although as yet, he’d not implied that he knew anything, and she was reluctant to bring it up only because of his own mother. “Did Esme tell you about my mother?”
He appeared confused.
“That she… lives?”
“She’s alive?!”
Gwendolyn shifted in her saddle, biting her lip. “Well, in truth, I do not know,” she said. “I was only hoping she had spoken of this to you, and… it was simply one more thing you meant to tell me?”
He shook his head. “Nay. I willingly admit I kept much from you, but that is not something I would dare.”
Good, she thought.
But, then again, not so good because it likely meant that Esme had lied to her… and her mother was dead. Gwendolyn tried to remember the way it was presented—Esme’s precise words. But, alas, she could not. The memory of that evening remained a blur, clouded by the chaos and confusion that soon followed. And now Gwendolyn wondered if Esme intentionally misled her, using the claim to gain her compliance.
What a tricksy, tricksy Fae!
Bryn sighed deeply, his eyes distant. “For what it’s worth, I hope it is true,” he said, sadly, and Gwendolyn knew he was thinking of Lady Ruan, who, to this day, was also missing after the butchery of the Feast of Blades.
Gwendolyn was staring at him, he noted, when he lifted his gaze, and he said, “I swear, Gwendolyn, if I knew anything of this, I’d have told you. Esme told me nothing. She is not particularly… free-spoken.”
Yegods. Esme?Gwendolyn would like to disagree. Esme spoke too freely! But she knew what Bryn meant. “And you do not know where she’s gone?”
“Me?” he asked, aghast. “Why would she tell me?”
“Because…” Once more, she lifted a brow, gazing at him meaningfully.
“No,” he blurted, his cheeks blooming. “She said nothing, and I know nothing,” he maintained.
“And this you swear on your mother’s name?”
“I do,” he said soberly, and Gwendolyn peered from one corner of her eyes.
“So then… you love her?”
“I do,” he said, without even asking who she meant, and Gwendolyn saw the truth on his handsome face—and more, his growing concern that Esme might never return.
