Chapter Nine #2
Father tried to grab the letters, but I darted under his arm, backing into the light to see better.
The second letter was from me too, for Johanna this time, from over a week ago.
As was the third and fourth, which really were for Father, several days apart.
The fifth was penned in Raleigh’s hand, but by then Father had reached me.
He grabbed my wrist so hard it hurt and tore the bundle away with the other.
I tried to snatch them back, but all but one slipped from my grasp.
I shoved the final one into my pocket before he could take that too.
‘That’s enough.’
‘Have these been reaching you this whole time?’ There weren’t more than a fortnight’s worth of letters in the bundle, so this couldn’t have been the only delivery.
‘Of course not,’ Father said. ‘These are the first that made it through. You said it yourself – Prince Raleigh is away. He must not have been able to censor these ones.’
‘Then why did you try to hide them?’
Father started to rattle off an excuse.
‘Stop lying,’ I interrupted. ‘I’ve known you my entire life. I can tell when you’re lying.’
‘This is the truth.’
‘It isn’t!’
He closed his eyes, then sighed. He knew better than anyone that I wasn’t gullible enough for any excuse he could come up with on the spot. My heart pounded in my ears while I waited for him to speak. He had to have a good reason. Didn’t he?
‘I was trying to protect you.’ His face softened. ‘I told everyone you’d been abducted, but as you saw, not everyone believed the story. I feared if people knew you were writing from the castle, they would think you married the prince of your own accord.’
‘So you isolated me? Yann didn’t know if I was alive. I didn’t know if he was alive.’ I made myself breathe. ‘Could you not have sent me one damn letter to tell me what was happening?’
‘I acted rashly, and by the time I realised it was a mistake it was too late. But Clara, the more I thought about it, the more right it felt. I know how charming Prince Raleigh can be when he wants to be. The last thing I wanted was for you to be disarmed by the freedoms he allowed you.’ He cupped my cheek.
‘I didn’t want you to stop fighting like your mother did. ’
I shoved his hand away, disgusted that he would try to blame Mother for her own death. ‘And which one’s worse? That I might dare to find happiness in my own marriage, or that people would think I did?’
‘Everything I do is to protect you,’ Father said. ‘That includes preserving our family’s reputation.’
Our reputation? ‘So that’s what this is about.’ It was suddenly so obvious. ‘I imagine everyone’s so much more sympathetic to a mayor whose daughter was abducted by a vampire than a mayor who sold her to one.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘Then what were you censoring?’ I asked. ‘The fact that you gave your blessing? Is this all part of you trying to hide your damn secret?’
His silence was all the confirmation I needed.
‘I don’t need protecting.’ I brushed past him, meaning to wait outside until Yann brought Sovereign around, but Father grasped my wrist again before I could reach the door.
This time I felt his grip bruise. My breath caught, teeth snapping together.
I twisted to face him, but the man I saw felt like a stranger. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Last time I let you walk out that door I nearly lost you forever.’
I met his stare. ‘If you don’t let me go now, you will.’
Father weighed the choices before him. ‘You’ll understand, in time.’ Then, he tightened his grip and began to drag me from the door.
What? I tried to yank my hand back, but his strength was far greater than mine.
I dug my feet in, not willing to relinquish ground.
He gave up on pulling, fended off my flailing arms and managed to wrap one arm around my waist, lifting me off the ground.
Shouting profanities, I elbowed him in the face and kicked until he was forced to drop me.
I landed heavily but forced myself back to my feet and was almost in the doorway when I crashed into Yann.
He steadied me with one hand, then looked from me, red-faced, out of breath, to Father, his cravat askew, cheek already swollen. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Father’s—’
‘The prince has hypnotised her,’ Father said. ‘Help me bring her upstairs.’
‘He hasn’t—’
No trace of sympathy or shock crossed Yann’s features.
It was as if he had expected this. I met his eye, silently pleading with him to step aside, but he looped his arm through mine and let Father do the same with the other.
They dragged me from the doorway as I kicked at them, screaming for them to stop.
I knew I had no hope of overpowering them together, even with Yann’s injury, but I was loath to make this easy for them.
To hell with the family reputation; all of Orlfen would have heard the commotion.
They dragged me to my old room and threw me to the floor, then slammed the door before I had the chance to find my feet. I hurled myself against the door as the lock clicked, pounding at the wood hard enough to bruise my own knuckles.
‘Let me go,’ I screamed. ‘I have to go back. Open the door!’ I clawed at the handle in the vain hope I might have misheard, but it was thoroughly locked.
My mind struggled to catch up to reality.
After twenty-five years of nothing more malicious than gentle teasing, you don’t expect sudden aggression from the man who raised you or the man you thought you loved.
But this was really happening. They’d locked me in.
The thought sent my panic spiralling to new heights.
‘I’m sorry.’ Father’s muffled voice sounded genuine through the door. ‘I can’t let you go back to the castle.’
‘You can’t keep me here. Raleigh will kill you!’ I slammed my fists against the door, pain jolting up my arms. ‘I have this under control. Please let me go back.’
‘He’s put you under his spell.’
‘He hasn’t,’ I insisted, though I had as much chance at convincing him as he did of convincing me. ‘You’re going to ruin everything. Open the damn door.’
‘I’m trying to protect you.’
‘Raleigh’s harmless!’ This was quite obviously a lie, and we both knew it.
Raleigh was as harmless as he was human.
But until the end of the year, he was harmless to me in every way that mattered.
As long as I could be back up the mountain before he came home, we could all forget this ever happened, but I feared Father may have sealed all our fates.
I stopped hammering, letting my hands fall to my sides.
‘Please don’t leave me here,’ I said weakly.
‘I’m sorry,’ Father said, and as his footsteps rang out in retreat, Yann’s voice replaced his.
‘This is for the best,’ he said, ‘you’ll understand in time.’
‘Open the door, Yann,’ I begged. ‘I know this wasn’t your idea. Let me go and we can forget this ever happened. Please just open the door.’
‘I love you,’ was all he said.
His words conjured a memory I’d fought to suppress. My mother’s bedside. Lost in the echo of another life Raleigh had extinguished, I couldn’t make myself say it back. I thought I heard a sigh from the other side of the door, then his footsteps followed Father’s and he was gone.
I swore through my tears and slammed my fist into the wall, which I instantly regretted.
Shaking the pain away, I tried to come up with a plan.
There wasn’t time to mope around like a weeping damsel over Father’s betrayal; Raleigh really might kill them if I stayed here.
So I had to escape. This wasn’t Castle Rostenburg.
There was no thousand-foot drop waiting below my window.
At worst I’d earn myself a broken ankle and, considering the alternative, I was quite happy to take that risk.
I crossed the room, threw open the glass pane and shoved at the shutters.
Pain jolted through my wrists. It was like trying to open a brick wall. I tried again, throwing my full weight against them, but they barely shook. I cursed again. They were never going to open. Someone had nailed them shut.
I thought back to the banging from earlier with a groan.
Father wasn’t having repairs done, the sound had been Yann barricading the shutters.
They’d planned this. Worse yet, they’d planned this together.
Of all the things they could have collaborated on in the last twenty-five years, this was what they chose?
I was furious. First Raleigh, now Father and Yann. Was I some sort of communal prisoner for the men in my life to pass around?
I threw myself down on my old bed. I should never have come. How long would it take for Raleigh to come looking for me? A few hours? A day? And how many would die when he did? The thought should have horrified me, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel anything more than numb.
I suddenly remembered the single letter I’d managed to salvage from Father and dragged it from my pocket, thinking to tear it up. As I lifted it into the light, I found it was the one from Raleigh. It had no date, but he must have sent it before he went away.
Curiosity overcame me. I knew I shouldn’t read it, but after all the letters Father had stolen from me, he could hardly complain if I stole one back. I slid a thumb under the seal and unfurled the parchment.
Juri.
If postal tampering isn’t a crime, I’ll petition the Emperor to bloody well make it one.
I don’t know what you have to gain by intercepting your daughter’s letters, but it’s only her you’re hurting.
Or is corrupting the postal system your newest financial scheme now that your last one has washed away?
Never yours,
R
So Raleigh knew. I clutched the letter close to my chest, fighting a losing battle against the urge to cry. He knew and he let me think it was him. Why? What did he gain from me turning against him and not Father? What benefit could there possibly be, except to not upset me?
I didn’t understand it. All I could hope was that Raleigh spared my father, because in that moment I wanted to strangle him myself.