Chapter 6 Morning’s Light #3
“I… um, thank you.” She did her best to smile but succeeded only in feeling incredibly awkward. “And thank you again for rescuing me last night.” She chuckled nervously. “I’m not sure what I would have done if you hadn’t.”
He put out his arm and gestured back toward the palace.
Unsure of what else to do, Norah nodded.
His arm was sweaty, and he smelled more strongly than Norah ever remembered her father smelling.
Certainly, neither her mother nor her sisters had ever smelled like that.
But then again, Norah decided that she didn’t dislike it either.
She hadn’t been around enough sweaty men in her life to have much of an opinion of it at all, except that being this close to him was… intriguing.
Good grief, what did a woman do with a man she was supposed to fall in love with? Much less one who couldn’t talk? He was quite nice to look at, but that wasn’t going to bring either of them to love.
Much to her relief, she didn’t have long to decide. He motioned for her to wait on a bench while he ran toward the door.
He emerged ten minutes later, changed and smelling much less strongly than he had before. Once he had rejoined her, he held out his arm again, and she took it, sensing that they were going to walk the gardens yet again.
Were the gardens this poor man’s entire life?
They rounded the corner and passed a little gazebo covered in climbing roses. As they walked, he gave a pointed glance at her head. It took her a second, though, to realize that he was asking about her hair.
“Oh, that.” She felt her cheeks color. “My, um, Nanny got the headband when I was young. Nothing impressive, just a bauble made by someone with hiding powers. But it kept my identity more of a secret in public because… Well, I’m sure you can see.
” She lifted a handful of her red curls. “These aren’t exactly easy to hide.”
He watched her carefully as she spoke, but when she finished, he only continued to stare. Did he expect her to talk about her hair some more?
“I suppose I got used to it,” she continued, certain she was babbling now, but not sure what else to do. “But it never… It never really felt like me.” She gave a self-conscious laugh. “It’s odd to see yourself one way in your head but another in the mirror.”
He didn’t nod or shake his head, but only continued to study her in that disarming way.
“Do you like swordplay?” she blurted. She knew as soon as the words left her mouth that it was a stupid question. It was stupid because it was one he couldn’t answer. But when she dared a glance up at him, he was smiling again. So she took that as a yes.
“I can only guess that you’ve practiced a very long time,” she said, racking her mind for something she could say that didn’t sound stupid or require an answer. “You seemed… skilled.”
He smiled politely again.
Norah forced a smile in return, but inside, she was sighing. This was going to be the world’s longest and least productive walk.
The morning wasn’t as bad as Norah had feared it might be.
It was worse.
She wanted to kick herself repeatedly for all the foolish questions that popped out of her that he couldn’t answer.
And she wanted to strangle herself with equal gusto for the inane things she said to fill the silence as she walked.
By the time they reached the end of the garden path, his smile had faded, and though he continued to study her to the point of it nearly being uncomfortable, Norah realized miserably that she just wanted to go to bed.
Unfortunately, that was not to be done. Phillip was to dine with her, resulting in the quietest lunch Norah had ever eaten.
Then he was to give her a tour of the palace, it seemed, including the portrait hall full of people Norah couldn’t ask any questions about.
Then they were to move on to the ballroom, which seemed even more silent than the garden had, and the library. Blessedly, that one required no speech.
Supper was slightly better, as Lady Freya and her husband, Sir Oliver, were better able to fill the silence.
They kept up a comfortable stream of conversation, somehow managing to draw Phillip into the conversation without the awkward pauses Norah had accidentally created so many times that day.
They were both adept at making comments that both acknowledged Phillip and released him from responding at the same time, and they drew Norah in just as seamlessly.
Norah wished she were capable of doing the same. But her tired mind refused to even try.
Much to her relief, however, she got a welcome reprieve after they finished eating.
“You need to sleep,” Lady Freya announced as soon as supper was done. “After being up most of last night, it’s only fitting that you go to bed early tonight.”
Norah very nearly threw her arms around the woman in a desperate hug.
Once they made it back to her room, however, Lady Freya went over to Norah’s bed and began poking around the bottom of the mattress, just as she had done the night before.
This time, however, after a moment of searching, she produced a small slip of paper, nothing more than a scrap torn from a much larger piece of paper.
“This is Phillip’s,” she said, holding it up for Norah to see.
At first glance, it looked like part of a list. But when Norah drew closer, she realized that what she had thought to be words were nothing more than nonsensical scribbles.
They looked as if someone had taken the words apart and put their pieces together again without caring about their order or direction.
“The illness stole his ability to write two years ago,” Lady Freya said, staring sadly at the scrap. “But every time we thought we might have found the missing princess of Bianne, I placed this under her mattress.” She smiled wryly. “Of course, to no avail.”
Norah stared at her. “Um… Why?”
Freya tucked the scrap beneath the mattress again. “My hope is that when the healing is closer, we’ll know because the words will make sense.” She clasped her hands and frowned. “It may be a silly thing. But… it’s the only hope I have left.”
Norah studied her for a long moment. She looked so much like her brother, but in a lovely, graceful way. She too was tall, and she shared his warm brown eyes and his straight nose. Her skin was the same shade of olive, even if her hair was significantly darker.
“My greatest fear,” she said softly, “is that one day we’ll wake up and find him trapped inside himself, with no way to understand or be understood.”
Norah recalled their day together with some trepidation. It had been so terribly vexatious. Not because of Phillip. He had been all consideration and charm… as far as he could be. But because of her.
For years now, Norah had dreamed of journeying to her ancestors’ native land–the land up north where her father’s forefathers had come from–before he was gifted healing by the merpeople in return for a good deed given.
Her mother’s family was from the same country, though they had come to the island when her mother was young, and Norah knew she still had family there somewhere.
A few had even come to visit when she was very small.
If she agreed to try saving the prince, she might be giving up all those hopes and dreams forever.
As Nanny liked to point out, if Norah left the ocean’s vicinity, she would lose her healing power.
It was probably why her parents had felt comfortable betrothing her to a prince on the mainland.
He was close enough to the water that her healing powers would remain.
If she left, though…
If she left the ocean, every part of her family legacy would be erased.
But in place of her lost abilities, she would have her mother’s family, Norah reminded herself.
People who looked like her. Even better, the pirates would have a much harder time tracking her down.
And if they did, she would have nothing to give them.
Maybe they would leave her alone forever.
Traveling north hadn’t always been her desire.
When she was still quite young, Norah had dreamed of returning to her old island to find those who had been dear to her as a child.
But, aside from Nanny never allowing her to even speak of such until after she was wed, Norah also knew that most of the survivors had fled.
The last news she’d gotten was that there was only a very small contingent of the island’s former inhabitants left.
And they had finally begun to rebuild their city from the ground up.
They had even found a governor to replace the leader her father had been.
The last thing they wanted, she was sure, was for their unmarried princess to return and upset all they had succeeded in building on their own.
Then again, all that aside, Nanny was still missing, and there was no way Norah could leave her.
There was also now the silent, suffering prince.
And as much as Norah wished she could ignore the natural healer within her, it galled her to think of leaving him alone and without hope. So she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I… I’ll try,” she said before she could think about it anymore. If she did, she might break her own heart.
She also might lose what little hope she had left.