The Wonder (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)(41)
“Was it cruel? Yes, but I had to get myself into the best position to control the King—to make sure that he acted as a steadfast ruler, as it was not his natural inclination—and most importantly, to keep an eye on you, my daughter.”
Cheshire smiled and looked down at the table. “You were ten then, and I had already interceded where I dared to make sure that you had a good childhood, even before Davianna’s death. I arranged for the Ghanes to move into the palace so that you might have a friend in Wardley, since before his arrival you were a lonely, moody child. I convinced the King to hire gentle Harris as your guardian, instead of the cruel Governess Forsythe, who was the customary teacher for the royal children. I made sure that you were kept safe, as safe as you could be, from the King’s rage. I encouraged him to go to war with the Yurkei when you were very young, so that you and your mother could have some peace.
“But, as you know, the man you have called father for so long is a rapacious and obsessive man. He was sure that you were not his child, and was convinced that you could never follow him to the throne because you would soon marry and either banish or execute him. He told me of an idea that he had been thinking of for a long time, the idea that he would create his own heir, the heir he had always wanted. He needed to find a child, a child about the same age as his daughter. A girl, for a boy would be prone to rebellion, and what he needed was someone who could be his puppet, someone who he could control without problems arising. As his advisor, I warned him against the idea, but I had long suspected that he would never put you on the throne. I did all I could to keep him away from you, but his rage and paranoid delusions were growing, though he kept them concealed behind a charming mask of contempt. I could never risk my position as advisor—who would watch over you then? So I agreed to help him find his little princess.
“The King told his council that he was going off on a hunt, but instead we rode hard for the outer villages on the lower Western Slope—isolated sea towns where we would go unnoticed. On our way there, we chanced upon a small hut with a fire burning outside, far outside of any town or village. A woman and a small girl were making necklaces out of seashells. The girl was breathtakingly beautiful, ethereal almost, and most importantly, she had yellow hair, the exact same color as the King’s. That night the King burned a small heart onto her back to remind her who he was, and rode homeward with her strapped to Morte’s back. A few Cards followed behind with her mother, Faina Baker, and threw her in the Black Towers upon their arrival to Wonderland proper. The girl was christened Vittiore—a noble name—and put in front of the court as his long-lost daughter. You were there that day, and I watched your face as your world fell apart.
“It was that day that I realized that your life was in danger, and that the closer you got to your coronation, the more your father would try to get rid of you—either that or try to persuade you to give up your rightful throne. That would never work—even as a child, you longed to be queen.”
He grinned.
“Your thirst for power matches my own. I showed you the tunnels that afternoon, for it was all I could do at that moment to help you. Someday, I thought to myself, you would have need of them. I started trying to clue you in to your father’s motivations, to the fact that a vast conspiracy to crown Vittiore was growing up around you, one that I was a part of, but I undermined it whenever I could. Your father made his stance during the Royal Croquet Game and I knew it wasn’t long before he would try to have you murdered or exiled. I passed you a note at the dinner that evening, in a small bottle. It might seem coy, but I wanted you to figure it out on your own. After all, I knew my daughter to be intelligent and curious, just like me.”
Dinah’s throat was dry and stinging, her eyes filled with tears. This couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be.
“I shouldn’t have worried. Using the tunnels, you made your way to the Black Towers and discovered the truth about Vittiore, even if you didn’t put it together right away, for by then Faina Baker had gone mad. Your father was hungry for a shift in power, and once he learned of your excursion to the Black Towers, he decided to behead Faina. It was a message for you, but its true purpose was to remind Vittiore of what would happen if she ever rebelled against him. It was unthinkably cruel, but it was a well-instructed lesson that neither of you were to put your noses where they didn’t belong.
“Time passed. The King’s patience for you was running thin as your coronation day drew near. A sort of madness had overtaken him, and he began muttering dark, violent things. I worried for your safety. I pressed the King to reveal his plans to me, but he refused. Even his most trusted advisors remained in the dark.”
Dinah’s hands were gripping the tablecloth, her nails tearing through the thin fabric. Her world was collapsing, inside and outside. Her watery eyes made the stars look like they were falling. She stopped breathing. She stared at Cheshire as he continued, but all she saw was Charles.
“On the night of your brother’s murder, I was out meeting with some colleagues of mine who lived in the court just outside of the palace—Lords Delmont and Sander, I’m sure you know them.”
Dinah nodded impatiently.
“I returned late, much past the midnight hour. Your father burst into my chamber, unannounced and covered with blood. He was hysterical. I calmed him down, but could not hide my horror when he told me that he had just thrown Charles from a window, and murdered Lucy and Quintrell. He said that he was going to frame you, so that you might never ascend to the throne. Instead, it would be off with your head, or you would be thrown into the Black Towers for the remainder of your life. As he rocked himself by the window, muttering of justice and how your mother’s bastard would be tried for her crimes, I knew that every moment of my life had boiled down to this one. How could I help save my daughter, without revealing the truth to the King?