Chapter 425: A Small Wound

Chapter 424: A Small Wound

Lyria’s POV

Duke Valenridge took my hand in his, quite of a sudden.

I blinked, startled by the gesture, and then he turned towards my maids.

"Would you be so kind as to fetch me a cloth, and something with which this wound might be properly disinfected?"

I looked down at my hand only then realising I had quite forgotten it. The wound was a small one, a mere scrape where my own nails had bitten into the flesh, nothing worthy of concern. It did not so much as ache.

"It i-is not w-worth the trouble," I said, attempting to withdraw my hand, though he would not release it.

"You ought to take rather better care of yourself, curious wolf," he said.

Elara spoke up at once, as though she had awaited precisely such an occasion to say it.

"We have been telling Her Highness so this long while," she said. "Were Kathryn present, she should say the very same. I shall fetch what you require, Your Grace."

She turned and left the chamber before I might utter a single word in protest.

I sighed.

"It t-truly does not p-pain me, Your Grace," I said.

"It is often the case," Duke Valenridge replied, "that what renders a wound the graver is not the wound itself, but the failure to heed its warning. One observes some small sign, dismisses it with a shrug, tells oneself there is nothing yet worthy of attention. A cough is merely a cough until the day it is not. A hairline crack in a wall is merely that until the whole edifice comes down about one’s ears."

He held my gaze steadily.

"The governing of a kingdom is no different. One neglects some small matter until it swells into a great one. And before one has properly taken notice, the whole comes crashing down entirely."

I said nothing to this, wondering whether it was but a continuation of our lessons.

"You must not disregard a thing merely because it pains you less than you had supposed it might," he continued, his voice growing softer, though no less earnest. "Should you continue to press yourself so relentlessly, it shall one day turn against you. You are permitted to feel wounded, curious wolf. You are permitted to feel pain, and you need not feign otherwise, least of all in my presence. I would have you know that whatever you carry, you need not carry it with a false face turned towards me."

Bridget made a sound, something between a cough and a scoff. Duke Valenridge turned towards her at once, whereupon she affected a sudden and profound interest in the view beyond the window, while Margery struggled to conceal her laughter behind her hand.

Just then, Elara returned, bearing a basin, several strips of cloth, and a small pot of ointment.

Duke Valenridge took these from her and set himself to cleansing the wound, to the astonishment of my maids. His movements were gentle, as though he tended something a great deal more fragile than my hand.

I watched him in silence. My heart had quickened its pace, and I felt the warmth rising steadily in my cheeks.

Throughout, the chamber remained hushed. Even Zephyr, who ordinarily made known his opinion to all present, kept quiet.

When Duke Valenridge had finished, he bound both my hands properly, and my maids removed the soiled dressings and the basin.

Once this was done, I cleared my throat.

"A-as I was s-saying, for t-this plan to s-succeed, w-we shall have n-need of disguises," I said. "For we are t-to render aid unto the c-common people."

Brayden frowned at this.

"Forgive me, Your Highness, but which common people, precisely? Those already dwelling within the capital?"

I shook my head.

"Though w-we shall aid them also, should t-they have need of it. They a-are not our chief c-concern for the present. Our c-chief concern are the c-commoners t-taken as prisoners, and t-tortured."

"But they remain prisoners, Your Highness. How, precisely, do you propose to aid them?" Bridget asked, a frown upon her face and then, no sooner had she asked than her eyes lit with sudden delight. "Do tell, is this to be a prison escape? For I confess I should relish one exceedingly. I do so love a new experience."

"Compose yourself, Bridget," Pippa said at once, her own smile rather too giddy for the reproach to carry weight. "You must not let your eagerness show so plainly, at the prospect of a prison escape."

I shook my head, for she who counselled Bridget’s composure appeared, if anything, the more excited of the two.

"It i-is not an escape," I told them. "The c-commoners shall be s-set at liberty."

Duke Valenridge frowned.

"How can you be so certain of this?" he asked, his voice as soft as everyone else’s.

"What t-transpired between the Q-Queen and myself was, at its very c-core, m-manipulation. The only r-reason those commoners w-were treated so cruelly was upon m-my account. She w-wished to see me b-beg. She w-wished to see me b-broken. But I d-did not grant her that s-satisfaction," I said, and he nodded.

"Since she d-did not obtain what she d-desired, she shall have no c-cause to keep them longer. She has no g-grounds upon which to hold them, for the t-treason she claims they committed. She held them only upon m-my account. And now that her p-urpose has f-ailed, s-she shall set t-them free."

All present fell silent.

Then Duke Valenridge asked, "How certain are you of this, Your Highness?"

"About e-eighty per cent certain."

"Then there remains a twenty per cent chance she shall not release them," he said.

I nodded.

He considered this for a moment.

"Very well," he said. "I shall place my wager upon the eighty."

I regarded him with gratitude.

"Thank y-you."

Then I turned to my maids.

"S-send word to Duke T-Thorncrest, Earl H-Hawthorne, Duke A-Aurelgrave, and B-Baron Redwick. They m-must be told what has occurred, and s-should they be willing to lend their aid, I m-must be informed of it directly."

They nodded their understanding.

"We shall begin at m-midnight," I said. "I am quite c-certain the commoners shall be r-released without their wounds having been t-tended to. And so w-we must offer aid in w-whatever measure we may."