Chapter 9
While the Winter Court didn’t have a single piece of technology like I knew it, that didn’t stop the people living here from spreading gossip with internet-like speed.
Before we came down for dinner that night, news of me going through the barrier and bedding the prince had zipped through not just the palace but the village surrounding it.
Lady Lennon—call me Giselle, dear boy—was convinced that the barriers would shatter any day now because Flurry was absolutely falling completely in love with me.
I understood her desire to restore their world and all, but I really didn’t like how it felt like manipulation and sounded insincere.
If Flurry and I were going to fall in love and live happily ever after, great!
But not only to break the curse. I wanted and deserved real love the same as he did.
For a couple days, I let myself be absorbed into court life.
I might’ve become one of Flurry’s advisors without meaning to but no one kicked up a fuss so I assumed they didn’t mind.
That was how I got to be present when Flurry held a sort of Ask Me Anything for the citizenry to come into the throne room and tell him about a problem to get a solution.
They had a legal system that seemed fine, but he was the final say in disputes that had gone through that system and still not been resolved.
The people presented their case, he listened and asked questions, and then the matter ended how Flurry decided.
I’d been a little worried this would be where he’d become some wicked tyrant. That the gloves would come off and there would be a dictator.
I shouldn’t have worried.
“And how are you doing now?” Flurry asked a woman who was trying to gain custody of her daughter from the couple who’d adopted the toddler as a newborn. “Do you have the means to provide for the girl?”
Miss Fraser looked thin and fragile in her patched clothing and ragged shoes.
From her statements, she’d lived a hard life on her uncle’s farm prior to the curse.
She’d lost both parents to accidents early in life and hadn’t been taken in out of kindness but duty.
After the curse, her uncle threw her out as one too many mouths to feed on a farm that couldn’t grow anything, and she’d turned to prostitution.
She’d given the baby up thinking she had no choice but had since joined with a group helping women learn skills and build better lives. Now she wanted her daughter back.
As much as I applauded her successes and rooted for her to build that better life, I could also see the absolute fear and desperation on the faces of the two men who’d adopted her daughter.
They’d been her parents for three years, and though they too supported her mother in the changes she’d made, they refused to part with their child.
I had no idea what Flurry might decide but it had my stomach in knots as I watched and waited.
“I won’t pretend I’m doing better than I am, Your Highness,” Miss Fraser said. “I’m living in a shelter and working as a cleaner, but my health is good now. I know I will be a good mother, if I can just get the chance.”
By the looks of the adoptive parents, they were managing to live more than decently.
I didn’t like that it mattered to me that they were more well-off, or that it was a point on their side that they were in a better place to take care of themselves and a child.
It was reality, though, that they weren’t struggling and their daughter wouldn’t as she grew up.
“Mister Collier,” Flurry said to one of the adoptive parents, “you mentioned in an earlier proceeding that you were looking for a nanny for the child. Have you found one?”
His face flushed and he swallowed hard. “Not yet, Your Highness. But I’d like to make sure it’s understood that we aren’t unable to care for her ourselves. We simply—”
Flurry held up his hand to stop Collier, who looked to me like he was full of regret for ever mentioning the search for a nanny. His husband put his arm around Collier as the man hid his face and might’ve started crying.
“Miss Fraser,” Flurry said, “your daughter does not know you and it would be cruel to separate her from those who have raised her for the past three years.” He paused as she let out a sob.
“Listen to me. I also recognize the right of a mother to know her child and acknowledge how you are working to improve yourself and your situation. My question is, can you be in Adelaide’s life without being the sole authority in it?
Can you support the parenting already established? Put yourself last and the child first?”
He meant to make her the nanny. I looked between the three parents, seeing hope, still seeing fear. Could they get along in such a dynamic?
There were two women with Miss Fraser who seemed to be acting as advisors and they spoke to her quietly now.
I felt like there could only be one answer if she wanted to be in her daughter’s life because, otherwise, Flurry was going to side with the adoptive parents.
She had to see that, too. But could she live with it?
After a few moments, Miss Fraser was nodding and waving off the two women before she wiped her tears away and stepped forward.
“Your Highness,” she said in a determined voice, “if Misters Collier and Durand would take me on in the role of nanny, I could swear not to abuse their trust, promise to remember my place, and do everything in my power to love and support Adelaide to the best of my ability.” She was a little breathless when she finished, but she held her head high.
“Mister Collier? Mister Durand?” Flurry said, looking to them. “Can you accept Miss Fraser as nanny to Adelaide? With provisions and safeguards in place, of course.”
Collier was still teary-eyed, but he smiled and nodded with Durand before they both said, “Yes, Your Highness.”
“It’s settled then.” Flurry leaned back in his throne, looking satisfied. “Negotiate a contract that clearly states your wishes, arrange for initial supervision if necessary, and always remember that Adelaide is the priority.”
I was pretty sure I exhaled with relief right along with everyone else witnessing that.
If Collier hadn’t mentioned needing a nanny, would Flurry have thought of that as a solution?
I watched Miss Fraser crouch down in front of Adelaide as she hid behind Durand’s leg and was glad to see the little girl smile at the stranger who’d fought so hard to win a place in her life.
Everything in me hoped they’d all live happily ever after together.
Beside me, Giselle tsked. “You were worried.”
“You weren’t?”
She shook her head. “He started doing this last year and once took three weeks to consider how best to end a land dispute over a very large oak tree. When he did not send us all away, I knew he had a solution already.”
That sounded like Flurry had been improving as a leader for a while already. Was the curse taking notice?
Curiosity had me asking, “What did he do about the oak tree?”
“He declared it sentient and gave it twenty acres from each party.”
I wasn’t sure if she was serious.
“I’m serious,” she said with a laugh. “I’m also fairly certain he did it because they angered him with their petty squabbling over who owned a tree.” She held up a finger as I started laughing. “But, he did give it his full attention and came up with a solution.”
I already knew he was a little shit sometimes, but Flurry was also willing to piss off his people to protect a tree? I liked him a hell of a lot more knowing that. Add to it that he’d just united a family for the sake of their child and, well, it was becoming more than like.
Five people came into the throne room then, and something about them had me staring in suspicion.
Sure, they were all frowning and looked ready for a fight—the previous party had, too—but there was something more menacing about these folks.
Two women, three men, they looked better off than Miss Fraser had but not to fancy as Adelaide’s parents.
They never looked anywhere except right at Flurry.
I wasn’t the only one feeling off about them, though, because members of his guard stopped standing against the walls and started standing in front of the observers around the room. One even came up to stand right beside the throne. They didn’t seem to blink either.
“Who are they?” I whispered to Giselle.
She had a hand at her throat and seemed to be noticing the tension as much as I was. “I don’t know them.”
“Your name?” Flurry asked with his head cocked.
“Lorne Featherwick,” the man in the middle said in a biting tone.
Flurry leaned forward, knees on his elbows. “Your application said you wished to discuss the current situation, but you refused to elaborate.”
“Wanted to say it to your face, and have you say it to mine.” Well, ol’ Lorne was definitely pissed. About what though?
Flurry sat back, arms on the rests and legs spread, taking up every inch of his throne. He had on a fur-edged gown in dark gray that made him seem even paler. And I knew he had on leggings underneath the skirt because I’d helped him step into them this morning.
“Say it then.”
The man’s arm shot out, his finger pointing at…me?
“He’s come through the barrier three times now and yet here you sit doing nothing. Your lords and ladies say they’re doing all they can,” Lon said with a sneer at the row of advisors, “so what exactly are you doing, your princliness?”
I was starting to feel less like these people were a threat to Flurry and more like he was going to become one to them. He might respect his people, but that could vanish in a heartbeat if they disrespected him.
And while I didn’t feel like I had any right to get involved in court matters, this one was about me.
“Lorne? Excuse me,” I said with a smile as I stepped forward. “I’m not sure what information you have, but maybe I can tell you what’s happened from my own perspective.”
The older man beside him said something quietly, and Lorne gave me a curt nod.
“Okay, so first, I fell through a ring in the human realm without knowing those were real or that this place even existed.” For some reason I did jazz hands before mentally rolling my eyes at myself and clasping my hands behind my back.
“Um, so, once I understood how unusual that was, I thought maybe I could be of use by trying to pass through the barriers into the other courts. Find out what they know about the curse, what they’ve tried to do to break it, that sort of thing. ”
“And?”
Okay, I got it that people might be upset that nothing had come of my attempts to leave, but his attitude needed work.
“And when I went through the barrier into Spring, a force tried to drown me. Literally grabbed my ankle and pulled me down underwater.”
Lorne crossed his arms over his chest and looked me up and down. “Yet here you are.”
“Yes, because the prince saved me. He threw a weighted rope out to me and pulled me back. Folks on the Spring side were prevented from getting to me by a wave. So, I have gone through a barrier three times—once through the ring and twice through the barrier to Spring—but the only thing we’ve learned is that I can’t leave Winter any more than the rest of you can. ”
Lorne’s anger seemed to vanish then as he turned around with a groan to face the people he’d come in with and covered his eyes.
Had he come here thinking he’d have to fight to get answers?
Fight to get the way to break the curse out of us?
I could sympathize with his—and everyone else’s—despair and desper—
Suddenly, Lorne whipped around, hurling a dagger toward Flurry.