Free The Tears of the Rose by Jeffe Kennedy

answered in a quiet tone, not sure where I found the courage. Except that Marin had been kind to me and the way she’d knitted her fingers together bothered me. “I believe she seeks to answer the questions put forth.”
    â€œHmph.” He rapped his knuckles impatiently on the arm of his throne. “This is hardly public business.”
    I would have laughed, if such a sound could make it past the knot of tears that clogged my throat. It felt as if all those tender moments between Hugh and me, those shadowed, firelight kisses and touches, had been trotted out for display before all these people. They watched me with avid, hungry faces. No longer a person to them, but a means to an end.
    They’d warned Andi about that—that the Tala wanted her only for her womb. Now it was me. By my own people.
    â€œHigh King Uorsin,” Erich said, “these matters concern us all. Avonlidgh awaits these same answers.”
    I hadn’t thought Old Erich could be so stubborn. Despite his stooped profile and white hair, he seemed like a hunting dog on the scent. He would not give up.
    â€œSpeak!” Uorsin demanded, and the midwife braced her shoulders and caught my eye. An apology. How odd that she understood. “Princess Amelia, despite the great emotional blows she has suffered, is healthy and strong. There’s every reason to expect a vital babe, born about a month after Danu’s midsummer feast—as long as Her Highness is careful to remain rested and at peace.”
    â€œAnd is the child a boy or girl?” One of Erich’s retainers this time.
    â€œOnly Glorianna knows,” Marin answered. “It’s not for us to guess such things, especially so early on.”
    â€œThe princess was ill on the journey—that’s a sign of a boy,” someone said.
    â€œThe witch Salena cursed Uorsin’s get to throw only girls!” another shouted, from the dubious anonymity of the crowd.
    â€œGlorianna may know, but so do I.” Lady Zevondeth tottered forward from where she’d been sitting in a chair to the side. She leaned heavily on her cane and took Marin’s measure. From the corner of my eye, I caught Ursula stepping forward, then checking herself.
    Lady Zevondeth hitched her way toward me, the gold-wrapped oak cane thumping on the marble tiles, and my skin crawled. Suddenly I didn’t want her to touch me, which made no sense. She’d always been kindly to me. But the acute way her nearly blind, milky eyes shone, the greedy reach of her hand—and the way Ursula deftly inserted herself between us—upset my mind much as my gut had been.
    â€œLady Zevondeth,” Ursula greeted her, formally, as if our father hadn’t disgraced her.
    â€œYour Highness.” Lady Zevondeth dropped a deep curtsy, showing more respect than the situation currently warranted. “How fares Queen Andromeda? I hope she discovered some answers to her questions.”
    That hit me like a spark from the fireplace. Andi was a queen now. That is, if we acknowledged the sovereignty of the Tala and Rayfe’s claim as king. How odd that Andi and I might both be queens and Ursula forever a princess.
    â€œWhat questions?” Uorsin growled, and Zevondeth beamed at him, unafraid.
    â€œI cannot answer that, Your Highness.”
    â€œYou can if I command it.” His tone held menace, but it seemed to roll off her.
    â€œNot if you’ve previously commanded us all never to speak of it in this court.” She grinned, showing a few missing teeth. Horrible. Especially when she turned it on me. “I need only to touch your hand, Princess Amelia. Remember—I was there when you came into this world. I meant you no harm then or now.”
    â€œDo it,” Uorsin ordered, likely to both of us.
    Ursula gave way but rested her hand on her sword hilt. Bizarrely, it comforted me, the way she stuck by my side even still. As if she would cut down Lady