Chapter 5 Truth #2
Before she could finish, however, revelation struck her, and Norah halted, whipping her head around to stare at her rescuer–the man she had assumed to be a guard. A long moment passed before she could remember how to speak again.
“... betrothed to Crown Prince Phillip of the Angus line of TiFiore,” she whispered.
Freya and Phillip. Those were the names of the crown prince and his elder sister. By law, Phillip was her husband-to-be, the one Nanny had been pleading to speak with for the last decade.
Why Norah hadn’t connected Phil and Phillip or Frey and Freya, she couldn’t say. She could only blame it on the havoc that the pirates and the storm must have wreaked on her head. But if this was the crown prince and his sister…
Then why hadn’t they answered all those times that she and Nanny had stood at the gate before, pleading for someone from the royal family to answer or let them in?
Also, her annoyance aside, this was not the way she had planned on meeting the crown prince. Misconduct or not, being introduced to one’s betrothed for the first time in over a decade while resembling something of a wet rat had not been on the list of things Norah wanted to do before she died.
Involuntarily, Norah gave a violent shiver, and that seemed to snap everyone out of their reverie.
“You must be freezing,” Princess Freya said, hurrying to Norah’s side.
Then she turned to the other man. “Love, please ring for Alistair. Tell him to have the servants prepare a hot bath. And… and tell them I want her in the Green Room.” As she said this, Princess Freya gave the man a significant look, but what it could mean, Norah had no idea.
Whatever it meant, the man only nodded and hurried out through a second door.
“Please, Your Highness,” Norah said as the princess took her by the shoulders and turned her back toward the door before leading her into the hall. “I don’t wish to ask anything else of you after taking me in, but my guardian–my nurse and I were attacked by pirates tonight.”
The princess paused and stared at Norah with wide eyes. “You were… Pirates attacked you?”
Norah nodded, feeling suddenly very foolish.
It was an outlandish-sounding tale, the kind small boys might make up to impress one another or to play pretend.
“The same ones who attacked my family the night they died.” She swallowed.
“They… they somehow found us where we were hiding. Nanny delayed them so I could escape.” In her mind, Norah still saw her dark cottage with the strangers inside.
“I got away, but I don’t know whether she got away as well. ”
For a long moment, Norah wondered if the princess might decide she was simply a lunatic and have her dumped back out again. But after a moment of thought, they began walking once more.
“I see,” the lady said. “We will most definitely send out a contingent of guards to search if you can tell us where you were.” She paused. “Is she… did she serve as your nurse when you were small?”
Norah nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! She watched over all of my sisters as well! She’s the reason I survived the pirates’ attack on my home.”
“I think I remember her,” the princess said thoughtfully. Then, seeming to return to the present, she smiled at Norah. “But if she were here, I think she’d want you to have a warm bath and a good night’s sleep.”
Norah would have preferred to go searching with the guards herself. Nanny was, of course, more than human, and if anyone was likely to escape pirates, it would have been her. But Norah wouldn’t be able to rest completely until she knew Nanny was safe.
Still, the princess had a point. Nanny would be irate if the guards came to search for her and Norah showed up with them.
No, if she were here, Nanny would argue that this was where Norah was supposed to be, with her betrothed in the safety of his palace.
So when she was led to a large white door, all Norah could do was pray to the Maker and submit to the princess’s attentions.
She would have to answer to Nanny later if she did otherwise.
Faster than Norah had imagined possible–especially in a storm–water was somehow brought up and heated in a wooden tub that had been set down on the tiled floor of a large guest suite.
As the princess’s reference to the Green Room promised, the room was all shades of green, trimmed with white.
Even better than the tub of water, however, was the large bed in the center of the room.
Norah gazed longingly at it the moment she saw it.
“We need to get her in before she catches cold,” Princess Freya said to a female servant who was pouring oils and flower petals into the water.
Norah stood beside her, shivering in her nightdress and hoping they would leave soon so she could climb inside.
But instead, she was unceremoniously stripped of her now ruined nightdress and placed in the tub not only by the servant but by the princess herself.
“I… I can do… it myself,” Norah said through chattering teeth. “Really!”
“I’m sure you could,” the princess answered, “but far be it from me to have it said that the last remaining princess died under my watch because of a ridiculous cold.” But then she paused and whispered something to the servant.
The servant nodded, curtsied, and disappeared through the door.
As soon as she was gone, Princess Freya locked the door behind her.
Norah blinked. She hadn’t been around royalty since her family had died, but surely, this couldn’t be the usual etiquette when one hosted guests.
The princess went to the wardrobe in the far corner of the room and opened it.
“Before you say anything,” she said, perusing its contents, “I want to acknowledge that your reception is more than a little unconventional, and I do sincerely apologize for that.” She kept her eyes on the contents of the wardrobe, and Norah realized that she must be trying to give her some measure of privacy.
Which was… thoughtful, after she’d basically stripped Norah down to her unmentionables and shoved her into the tub, unmentionables and all. Although, now that she was actually in the tub, Norah really didn’t mind too much. The water was deliciously warm, and she had been dreadfully cold.
“But as your family’s… situation was altered irrevocably ten years ago,” the lady went on in a soft voice, “ours was as well.”
Norah’s first instinct was to retort that the other princess’s parents and siblings hadn’t been murdered in front of her eyes as her home was burned to the ground, but there was something haunted in the princess’s expression that kept Norah’s mouth shut.
“I don’t know if you remember,” the woman went on, “but there was a strange illness that swept through the countryside just before your family died. It attacked children in particular.”
Norah closed her eyes. She remembered.
She remembered well.
That sickness had been the reason the pirates had come.
“My brother took ill soon after the outbreak,” the princess continued. “And at first, we believed he was recovering well. There seemed to be no effects.” She paused, and her jaw tightened, and it was a moment before she seemed able to speak again. “But then he began losing his words…”
Suddenly, the princess drew in a sharp breath and shook her head.
“No, we won’t go into that tonight. I’m sure you have a thousand questions of your own, and if we try to sort it all out now, we’ll be up until dawn.
” She went over to the bed and began to pat it down.
Norah watched curiously as she even reached under the mattress as though making sure nothing was there.
But nothing seemed to be there after all, as after a moment, the princess let the mattress drop before fetching a robe for Norah and placing it beside the tub.
“Ring the bell on your bedside table in the morning, and Lottie will escort you to breakfast.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Norah said stintingly. It was so strange to speak in the proper tongue she had been raised with but had gone ten years without using.
“Lady Freya now,” the woman said with a softer smile. “I was married years ago. But you may simply call me Freya.” Her smile became sad. “After all, if all had gone as planned, we should have been sisters by now. Goodnight.” And with that, she was gone.