Midnight in Everwood(70)
‘Now there is a sentence I never thought to hear you say.’
‘It would cost us precious time but what is time compared to the lives depending on you? I cannot bring myself to interfere with that, not now, not after what I have witnessed.’ She frowned, thinking of the rumours he had alluded to the previous night. ‘Should you be here at all if other matters are unfolding tonight?’
Captain Legat rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Ah, those matters are but a mere fabrication. I had to ensure the faceless guards were otherwise occupied tonight so I might meet you.’
Marietta looked at him, words failing her.
‘And I was wrong in suggesting that you ought not to draw me away. You and the other women are not safe here as I once considered you might be in the short term.’ Captain Legat reached down and extracted a bundle from beside his feet. ‘Three uniforms. As promised.’ He handed it to her.
‘Thank you.’ She set it down on the fountain. ‘I could not help but notice your lack of attendance at the king’s balls lately.’
‘King Gelum dispatched me from the palace. I was engaged in travelling down the Thieves Road to Mistpoint on some erroneous mission. I suspect it was our dance that prompted it.’ His voice lingered on dance. Marietta felt a flash of heat. His hand rested beside hers on the edge of the fountain. She nudged her little finger closer until it met warmth.
‘He has not interfered in your other plans?’ she asked cautiously, noticing the shadows lurking beneath his eyes, the worries that mottled them.
‘Not as far as I am aware. Though other difficulties have presented themselves. The king is intending to invade Crackatuck within the next moontide. A show of strength.’ He gave a weary rub of his temples. Glanced up at her lack of reaction. ‘And it seems as if you already knew that. How?’ Marietta did not answer. But Legat wasn’t the captain for nothing. ‘Dellara,’ he said. ‘She must have seen the plans in his council room.’
‘Why are you informing me of this?’ Marietta asked.
‘Saving a life, protecting a king is what awarded me the rank of captain. Invading another kingdom, ruling with an iced fist goes against everything I believe in and you know well I wish to hold no part in it.’ He rubbed his temple again. She did know. She had read his soul-pain, poured onto paper. And when she danced, he saw her. ‘I believed the Crackatian princess ought to be aware of this before you departed.’
‘I suppose there is no point in me attempting to persuade you to join us.’
A wry smile, a smile of sadness and what might have been. ‘I cannot. I am not alone in leading the rebellion but I could not desert my post. I have to see it to the end, whatever that might be.’ He glanced down at the point where their hands met. ‘No matter how I may be tempted to leave.’
‘I understand.’ She knew enough of being confined to see it in another.
He met her eyes for a beat. ‘King Gelum possesses more intelligence than you realise, Marietta. I smoothed over some trade agreement for him. Satisfied his ego. But as I mentioned, he is suspicious, with the propensity to make an example of those who would betray him. He is a man with a deep enjoyment of inflicting pain. Your escape would be a cutting betrayal and he would stop at nothing in his attempts to retrieve you. If he were to succeed—’ He swallowed.
The scars remaining on Marietta’s feet twinged. ‘We are well aware of the risks.’
‘Are you?’ The captain’s gaze dropped to her feet for a painful pause. ‘What if you were not the one in his grasp but the fairy? Or the princess? Could you watch them suffer? Bear their inevitable drawn-out execution?’
Marietta’s imagination conjured Amadea’s face, her unknown features foggy and shifting. King Gelum had killed her and a part of Dellara had died with her. Her composure hardened, a brittle veneer over her heart. ‘I am not afraid to do whatever it takes. I have never wished for an easy life and when I return I am determined not to languish in another gilded prison.’
He turned to face her. ‘You make me wonder about this world you left behind. About who you left behind.’
‘In a way, it greatly resembled this one.’ Marietta smoothed her dress over her knees. Dellara’s reaction to her selecting the scarlet velvet had been satisfying. Her lips were painted in the same shade, her hair curled. Red for the heart-blood of the rebellion. ‘My life’s path was ordained for me and I was expected to march along to someone else’s plan. My future was not at my behest and my own dreams and fears were dismissed.’ She thought of the Cartier brooch beneath her pillow, the dreams where a man with a chipped-ice stare followed her, her breath catching as she scanned the dark firs that walled them in, apprehensive of the shadows bunching together, envisioning the hunter forging them as his home.
‘There is a celebrated storyteller in Everwood,’ the captain said, his response unexpected, ensnaring Marietta’s focus. ‘His tales always incorporate a variation of the moral that if you do not cherish your dreams, you have forgotten how to live. Dreaming is an intrinsic part of human nature, on par with love and hate and hope.’
‘Storytellers are often wise beyond their years. Perhaps all their delving into words and thoughts has gifted them additional lives.’
The captain’s hand suddenly covered hers. Marietta turned her palm upwards, a flower seeking the sun. Their fingers interlaced. ‘Are you certain you wish to return to this world of yours?’ the captain murmured. ‘A world where you must fight to be yourself does not seem a suitable place for you. After the rebellion I shall be free. What if I took you somewhere else instead? Somewhere where you might be safe.’