She shook her head. “Not here. Not in Maghre if Jaenelle is going to live here.” Her breath came out in a pained sound. “You think I’m cruel or cold or uncaring. The truth? I’m just not strong enough or brave enough to live in the same village as Jaenelle, where I’ll keep hearing how wonderful she is without anyone admitting that she can be terrible and terrifying as well. I can’t pretend she’s the sister I remembered, not after she broke our grandmother. Not after . . .” She choked on a sob.
Silence. Morghann and Khardeen knew why Witch had broken Alexandra Angelline—and they clearly approved.
Finally, Khardeen said, “Tuathal is the capital of Scelt. We stay there on occasion because Morghann is the Territory Queen and her family has a house there. But Jaenelle didn’t spend time there except on an annual official visit. Maghre was her place in Scelt. If you resided in Tuathal, I doubt there would be anyone there who would connect Wilhelmina Benedict with Jaenelle Angelline. If that’s what you want.”
“Yes. That’s what I want.”
“I think you moving to Tuathal is for the best,” Morghann said. “I don’t think the men in Jaenelle’s family will react well to anyone who causes her distress, so it would be safer for you if you were . . . away . . . from Maghre.”
“Once you figure out how much you can afford, I’ll send our man of business up to Tuathal to make inquiries,” Khardeen said.
She told them her quarterly income and saw their eyes widen. So. The High Lord had been more generous than she’d realized.
“It will take him a few days, but he’ll bring back a list of possibilities,” Khardeen said.
Wilhelmina thanked them, then waited for them to leave before she sank back into her chair.
Restless days. Sleepless nights while she wrestled with a single question: go back to Chaillot, where the Angelline family might still be alive but with the family name and honor in ruins, or stay here in Scelt and move to a city where no one would know Wilhelmina Benedict—where she wouldn’t have to carry the burden of being related to Jaenelle Angelline?
A fresh start, then. She’d be nothing more than one of the Blood who had fled from Terreille in order to build a new life in Kaeleer. Her name would mean nothing to anyone, and that’s the way she wanted it to be. Needed it to be.
After reviewing the possible residences she could lease and discussing the neighborhoods with Khardeen and Morghann—and what her potential neighbors might know about aristo families beyond Scelt—Wilhelmina chose a house in a section of Tuathal that catered to minor aristos who worked at some kind of trade or had professions. Not the kind of individuals who would serve in the top circles of courts. She didn’t have a trade or profession, but she could afford to take the time to decide what she’d like to do.
What she hadn’t expected was Andrew’s decision not to come with her. A former stable lad at the Angelline estate, he’d helped her when she’d run away from Robert Benedict’s attentions. He’d helped her hide from her family, taking care of all the practical things she didn’t know how to do. And he’d accompanied her to Kaeleer. But now . . .
“I want to work with horses, and these horses are beyond anything I could have imagined when we were in Chaillot,” Andrew said. Then he added, “Dark Dancer had come close to the kindred horses. Jaenelle recognized that in him.”
“We could buy a couple of horses when we get to Tuathal.”
“They wouldn’t be kindred,” he replied gently, as if he already knew none of the kindred would want to be around her. “I . . . We helped each other for a lot of years, but I think this is where we take different paths. I’m staying here, working for Lord Khardeen. You’ll go to Tuathal and make a new life for yourself.”
“Jaenelle survived. Did Khardeen tell you that? She survived, and she’ll be coming back here to live.”
“And I will be glad to see her.” Andrew picked up a bucket that held grooming brushes.
“She broke Alexandra. Doesn’t that matter to you?”
“It was time someone did.” The black patch that covered the lost eye seemed to make the anger in Andrew’s remaining eye sharper and colder. “Maybe Alexandra was a good Queen when she first began ruling Chaillot. But she wasn’t a good Queen or a good grandmother the last time she sent Jaenelle to Briarwood. Have you forgotten why Jaenelle ended up in Briarwood that night? She was trying to protect you. And some of us did everything we could to help Daemon Sadi protect her. But we couldn’t do enough. So don’t ask me to feel sorry for Alexandra. Since the High Lord and the Dark Court let her live, I have to figure breaking her was what she deserved.”
She’d thought of Andrew as a friend all these years. “Would you go back to Chaillot if you could?”
“Never. I’m making a home here, and I plan to stay.” He made the effort to put aside his anger. “Probably best if we part now while we can still be friends. I think you’ll always resent Jaenelle for breaking Alexandra—and you’ll come to resent me because I will never feel that way.”
She wasn’t sure he was wrong, so she said nothing. Just walked out of the stables. Walked back to Jaenelle’s house.
Walked away from the last connection to her old life.
FORTY-NINE
“I’m asking for a favor on behalf of our Queen,” the High Lord said.
Butler felt short of breath as hope filled his chest. “You’ve seen her?”
“Not yet, but this can’t wait for the Lady to heal enough for the kindred to allow visitors.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“No. But I can think of one or two places in Kaeleer where I would hide someone if I wanted to make sure that no one could survive reaching her.”
Given that the kindred were the ones who had managed to save the Lady, he figured she was in a place inhospitable to humans. An assignment would keep him occupied until news came that she was someplace where she could receive visitors. “What would you like me to do?”
“Wilhelmina Benedict is moving to Tuathal and setting up her own household. She’s going to need help settling in.”
“Wilhelmina Benedict.” Butler almost spat the name. “You want me to help Wilhelmina Benedict?”
“I know, Butler. I know.”
Did the High Lord know why this assignment would be so difficult? Better for everyone if he refused.
Saetan slowly let out a breath. “If Wilhelmina is settled in a new life and doesn’t need protection or help, then Jaenelle can let her sister go and she can focus on rebuilding her own life.”
Assuming she can heal well enough to have a life. Butler didn’t say it, but he figured everyone in the Dark Court was thinking it.
“How long?” he asked. He wouldn’t take an open-ended assignment. He wouldn’t do that. Not if it meant staying around Wilhelmina Benedict.
“Six months,” Saetan replied. “A year at the most.”
“I’ll do what I can.” For Jaenelle’s sake.
“Thank you.”
As soon as the High Lord left, Butler began packing, sorting through what he would need and what he would store at the Hall. He traveled so much on assignments for the Queens in the Dark Court that he didn’t have a permanent residence beyond this suite of rooms at the Hall. Someday he would have a home. When he was ready.
He’d look at this assignment as a chance to spend time in Scelt. Jaenelle had a fondness for the village of Maghre, and he hadn’t been back in years. Easy enough to ride the Winds and go to the village on his days off.