Chapter 9 This Man Alone
This Man Alone
For the next two weeks, Norah and Phillip spent as much time steeped in music as was possible when he wasn’t sitting in on meetings or trying to work with his sister.
Every time Norah saw him, she would ask him how he felt or how his day had been, and he would play a few lines of a song to indicate his emotions.
At first, he always played happy songs. But after a few days of this, Norah grew annoyed.
“What’s the good of being able to communicate this way if you don’t tell me the truth?” she demanded one evening as he joined her in the garden just before sunset.
He stared at her, looking confused.
“No one is happy all the time.” She crossed her arms. “Not even you.”
He regarded her for a long moment, his eyes suddenly wary.
“See?” She pointed at him. “You’re unsure. I can see it in your eyes!” This, of course, made her feel somewhat triumphant and a little bit bold. “You know you don’t feel happy all the time! It’s all right to show it!” She took a deep breath and a step closer. “I want to know. It’s why I ask.”
His brows drew together slightly, which only convinced Norah that she was most definitely right.
“Please,” she said, drawing close and taking his wrists in hers… which felt far more intimate than she had anticipated once she was actually holding them. “I’m trying to help you. But I can’t just… fall in love if you don’t let me in.”
Phillip swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.
He looked slowly down at her hands, still clasping his wrists.
And when he looked up at her again, his brown eyes were wide.
Norah wondered if she ought to let his wrists go, but a wry voice in the back of her head told her it was too late to go back now. So she simply took a deep breath.
“Please,” she whispered, nodding at his violin. “Let me in.”
For another eternal moment, he studied her. Then, slowly, he raised the bow to the strings and drew out a few long, sad notes.
“See?” Norah said, glad to have her hands free again… but also wishing she could touch him again. “Everyone has a bad day now and then. And now we can work on making it better.”
The days after that were easier. Norah began to see patterns in his behavior–what made him happy and what made him sad. And most interesting to her, what annoyed him.
For example, Phillip hated it when his sister asked where he had been.
“She’s only looking out for you,” Norah said one evening as they walked through the palace toward her room.
Since their conversation in the garden, Phillip had begun escorting her there every night.
“I was the youngest in my family by far, but I can only imagine how terrified I would be if one of my sisters were never able to call for help if she needed it.”
Phillip played a few more short, minor notes in protest, and Norah couldn’t help but laugh.
Still, she knew that despite their advances, their time was running short.
She could see it in the way Lady Freya watched her brother whenever she thought no one was looking.
The lady’s beautiful eyes would darken as she furrowed her brows in concern.
Whenever she did this, Norah was reminded of how Lady Freya had described him losing more and more of his ability to communicate as time passed.
My greatest fear is that one day we’ll wake up and find him trapped inside himself, with no way to understand or be understood.
Norah chewed on these thoughts anxiously one day as she waited for Phillip to emerge from a meeting with his sister and brother-in-law and their advisers. At first, Norah had attended all of his meetings, but after a few weeks, she had decided that her time would be better spent thinking alone.
Today, she did what neither Nanny nor her mother had ever wanted her to do, and that was to climb a tree.
“The girl’s spirit matches her hair,” Nanny had once muttered to her mother when Norah had climbed so high that they’d needed several of the family’s personal guards to get her down. “And if she doesn’t survive childhood, we’ll know what to blame!”
Norah took care now not to snag her borrowed dress on the bark as she carefully seated herself on the largest, lowest branch in the tree. She had discovered the day before that if she sat on this particular branch on this particular tree, she could see over the palace wall into the city beyond.
Where was Nanny now? Norah sighed. She needed Nanny’s advice more than she ever had, but her beloved Nanny was nowhere to be found.
What had happened after she’d fought the pirate?
Had he found a way to subdue her? Norah doubted it.
But if he hadn’t managed to overpower her, where was she?
Surely she wouldn’t simply abandon Norah after all they’d been through.
A squirrel chattered angrily on a branch beneath her, and Norah looked down to find Phillip looking up at her.
“Oh, I can come down–” she began, but he only grabbed hold of the branch above him and began to pull himself up. A minute later, he was seated beside her on the large branch, looking out over the town as well.
No matter how often she walked beside him, her hand resting on his arm, Norah couldn’t quite suppress the butterflies that erupted in her stomach every time she was near him. With his broad shoulders straight and upright, and his towering height, he was just so big.
Doing her best to be discreet, Norah glanced at him through the corner of her eye and surveyed him as he stared down at the activity below.
She had never been physically close to a man who wasn’t her father.
And her father, while quite solid, hadn’t been tall, nor had he worked as Phillip did to maintain strength.
When she had first arrived at the palace, Norah had nearly been driven to distraction every time the prince drew close to her.
Still… the longer she was there, the more she began to relax and feel comfortable around him.
Not to the point that she was no longer very aware of his presence; she wasn’t sure she would ever be unaware of Phillip.
But the more she had slowly become familiar with his likes and his dislikes and the little nuances in his expressions and movements, the more she began to let down her guard… just a little at a time.
“How did the fitting go?” she asked him once he was seated beside her.
He didn’t have to play his violin to let her know what he thought of the hours-long task he’d just finished. The pursing of his lips and the quirk of his brows sent her laughing.
“That bad?” She shook her head. “Well, I shall have to distract you then.” She pointed to a man with a cart of oranges and lemons.
“That man used to park his cart down the street from our cottage. He has the best lemons in town, and he’s also bitter rivals with the woman who has the best limes.
Half of the neighborhood is convinced they’ll one day get married.
” She pointed to a set of buildings closer to the dock.
“That set of shops is owned by a family with five grown children, each of whom runs his or her own shop selling what he or she makes. But the very best shop belongs to the mother, who sells pastries. Nanny used to take me there every time we were near, and she would buy me an orange and raspberry tart.” As she spoke, Norah’s mouth watered at the memory of the crystallized honey that coated the sweet and sour treats.
“The dockmaster who oversees that part of the water loves children. He has seven of his own, and now that they’re all grown, too many grandchildren to even count.
But they all get together on the docks at night sometimes and play music and dance.
And when others see them, they often bring their own instruments, and someone lights lanterns so everyone can join in past dark. ”
Her breath caught in her throat as a wave of unexpected emotion hit her.
For so long, she’d dreamed of leaving this city and traveling the world.
Never had she even thought of making plans to return.
The city and the island that lay not far off held memories of pain and loss, and Norah had dreamed of a new start for as long as she could remember.
Surely, she’d convinced herself, everyone would be just fine without her.
Now, though, as she described the city and its people to Phillip, she realized that there had been good memories as well, both with her family and with Nanny. It was something she hadn’t expected to feel.
“I wish I could show you,” she finished lamely, casting a regretful glance at Phillip. “I’m sure you would love it.”
Phillip looked back out at the city before looking at her once more. Then, to her surprise, determination suddenly hardened in his eyes, and he pushed himself out of the tree before turning and holding his arms out to her.
“I’m not jumping, if that’s what you want me to do,” Norah laughed.
But she did climb out of the tree and into his open arms, her heart rushing slightly as his large hands tightened around her waist to help her down the final limb, which was more difficult than she had expected it to be in the dress.
Then, after a long look around them, he went to one of the nearby stone walls and pushed some ivy aside to reveal a small gate in the wall. Removing a key from his pocket, he unlocked the gate, opened it, and pulled her through to the other side.
Norah’s heart soared. Were they going to leave the palace?
Was that even allowed? If Nanny were here, she would most definitely not approve of–
“Wait!” Norah stopped. Phillip looked back at her, his eyes wide.