Epilogue
Nerves fluttered over Elowen as she viewed herself in the looking glass, her familiar form swathed in layers of finery.
The white silk dress had a high neck and long sleeves that hugged her upper arms before billowing so wide that they flowed out from her elbows like water.
The fabric was smooth and unadorned, but the purple brocade overdress was embroidered with intricate patterns and adorned with jewels.
Her wedding gown was perfection. And the nerves that filled her were the pleasant kind. It was really happening. In one week, she was really going to marry Theo.
“Is Princess Elowen here?”
Elowen started at the well-known voice sounding in the next room as if her thoughts had summoned him.
“Your Highness.” The head seamstress sounded scandalized. “The princess is in the middle of a fitting for her wedding gown. You mustn’t see the garment before the wedding day.”
“She is?” Theo sounded surprised. “My apologies. I asked where she could be found and was directed here. I didn’t know it was the seamstresses’ workplace.”
“They’re just finishing up, Theo,” Elowen called. “Wait in the receiving room, I’ll be free in a minute.”
As soon as the gown was off, she hurried back into her regular dress, aided by a tutting assistant seamstress.
Elowen ignored the girl. She was glad Theo had sought her out.
He’d told her at breakfast that morning that there was a matter he wanted to discuss with her, but it was astonishingly difficult to find a moment alone together.
Elowen had thought the tournament a big deal.
The bustle the castle was in over the impending wedding put it to shame.
She emerged from the dressing room, smiling sunnily at her almost-husband. Theo’s answering smile didn’t hide how his eyes darted to the doorway behind her.
“No peeking!” she scolded him. “You’ll have to wait until the wedding to see the gown. Another of our traditions that’s important to us, however silly it might seem.”
He took her hand, raising it to his lips in a comfortable gesture that Elowen would never have believed him capable of when they first met.
“It’s not silly at all. Even my stiff self is looking forward to all the fuss of the big day.”
Elowen laughed, not sure whether to believe him. “You came looking for me?” she prompted.
“Yes.” He was still holding her hand in his, and he drew it through his arm. “Walk in the gardens with me?”
“I’d love to,” Elowen said delightedly. “My wardens are expecting me to be in this fitting for another half an hour, so your timing couldn’t be better.”
The head seamstress shook her head at the princess’s joking words, but her smile was indulgent. Theo led her out of the room, making to turn left.
“There’s a closer garden if we go this way,” Elowen informed him, pointing right. “It’s smaller, but still nice.”
“Let’s go to the one with the willow pond,” Theo said. He tugged her gently along, and she surrendered readily.
The garden he’d chosen was a little further away, but they were fortunate to encounter no one but servants between the seamstresses’ workspace and the garden’s entrance.
“If you wanted to talk to me about Father’s decision regarding Bertrand, he’s already told me,” Elowen started, before Theo had a chance to speak.
“I know Bertrand probably deserves execution, but I’m glad Father decided on imprisonment instead.
It’s already so awful for Sophia and her family.
” She snuck a look up at him. “Father said you told him that your family won’t push for execution in spite of the attempt on your life? ”
“Yes,” said Theo. “I made a very compelling argument in my letter, and they accepted it, although reluctantly. I confess I was less motivated by any feeling of mercy for Bertrand or his family than I was by the mood of the court here. I’m grateful your family believes our account, but there’s still insufficient evidence to prove to the skeptical that Bertrand really made an attempt on my life.
Your Father doesn’t need the court’s approval to order an execution, of course, but we would never get true support for the alliance if people felt that I’d had a highly influential nobleman executed on a flimsy accusation in order to remove him as a romantic rival. ”
Elowen wrinkled her nose, hating that interpretation of events, but knowing Theo was wise.
“I just wish I could be sure the conditions of his imprisonment won’t become comfortable over time,” Theo added.
“I don’t think they will,” Elowen said earnestly.
“You know how seriously Father and the Council of Lords took our testimony. Whatever they think about the poisoning enchantment, they know he threatened our lives out on the road, even if many of them likely don’t believe he was actually going to go through with it.
It helps his case that miraculously no one actually died in any of the disasters he caused.
But he’s still guilty of crimes against Torrens. ”
“I’m just glad your father accepted that he was behind the disasters,” Theo said. “Last I heard, Bertrand is still denying it.”
“Well, then he shouldn’t have slipped up and failed to burn one of the letters from the ones who were paying him,” Elowen said scornfully.
“Not to mention the gold they found in his rooms that wasn’t Peninsula standard.
Once they accepted Sophia’s testimony that she found the vials in his room, I knew it was over. ”
“It would have been hard for them to find any other way to explain the evidence from Sophia, Simeon, and the witnesses from multiple disaster sites regarding the scarf,” Theo added by way of agreement.
“Especially when combined with the testimony of the servant Bertrand forced a report out of as soon as we got back from the landslide and the servant who was ordered by Bertrand to present the scarf to Simeon as publicly as possible.” He frowned.
“It troubles me that there’s still skepticism about our report regarding the objects with stored magic. ”
“Yes, it was unlucky that both objects were dry of magic by the time they were examined by the Craftsmen’s Guild,” Elowen said with a sigh.
“For what it’s worth, you convinced me, Theo, when you pointed out that the young man witnessed at several disaster sites always seemed to carry an object, and how the balance of magic across the land was affected as if a large volume had been removed from its natural cycle in the environment.
I think you’re right that Bertrand was capturing the magic from the disasters and storing it in the objects.
Although I don’t think the objects he used when he attacked us can be from those incidents, because they weren’t large items, like all the witnesses described. ”
“Which leaves the question of what happened to the large objects that captured the magic from the disasters,” Theo said grimly.
“We can only assume they went back to whoever hired him. The real disappointment to me is how little information Bertrand has so far given about his employers. If his evidence is to be believed, he knows almost nothing about them, and was willing to do their bidding for money without any idea of their true purposes. I’m not sure I can believe that.
” He sighed. “That was another reason I argued against execution. If he’s still alive, there’s always hope that he may be compelled to provide more information at a later time. ”
“True,” said Elowen, ready to change the direction of the conversation.
All the talk of execution made her feel queasy.
“And even if the lords didn’t all agree, Father believes us that it must be someone from the continent, you know.
He was actually quite impressed by Sophia’s and my investigative work with the writing on the vials.
” She could hear the dry note in her voice as she added, “Not so much impressed as unflatteringly surprised. Still,” she brightened again, “he was gracious enough to tell me he regrets not taking my concerns more seriously and coming out of the meeting when I tried to call him.”
“He wasn’t the only one to underestimate you that day,” Theo said, squeezing her hand where it rested comfortably on his arm. “It was their loss, and it could have cost more than my life.”
He stopped walking, turning to face her and taking both of her hands in his.
“I’ll never be tired of thanking you, Elowen. You didn’t stop fighting for me when I couldn’t speak for myself, and I’m alive because of it.”
She lifted one of her hands, bringing his with it and rubbing her cheek against the back of his hand.
“There’s no need to thank me, because I didn’t do it for you,” she said. “I did it selfishly, because I couldn’t bear to lose you.”
Theo gave a low chuckle, casting a swift look around before lowering his forehead to rest against hers.
“Now I’m wishing this was just a moment stolen for the two of us.”
Elowen raised her head, confused. “Isn’t it?”
“Actually, we’re meeting someone,” Theo said, reclaiming her hand and walking forward. “By the willow.”
Intrigued, Elowen followed, content to wait for her answers.
She was feeling content about most things lately, in fact.
The last time she’d felt really anxious was the morning after their return, when the Council of Lords resumed their long-winded debate about her betrothal.
But the anxiety didn’t last long. The news of their late-night return, with Theo recovered and calmly incredulous of all questions as to his level of commitment to the betrothal, helped lower the tension.
It hadn’t taken much probing to reveal that the council had in fact been called by Bertrand, and that he’d received no authorization from his father to use the duke’s name in doing so.
With Bertrand locked up for suspected treasonous activities, no one was eager to keep arguing for his motion.