Page 53 of The Midnight Blizzard
“Nothing.”
The look Queen Isolde gave her could have frozen the sun. “You want me to believe that you didn’t mask the pain she experienced while wearing the slippers, hoping one of your girls would beat out the other competition and marry Stephen?”
Valencia didn’t blush, but her eyes dropped in shame.
“You disgust me,” King Wenceslas growled. “Your own daughter. How could you? Can’t you hear her?”
She lifted her chin defiantly. “She didn’t feel anything until you took me away. But you have no right to scold me. How could you abandon your own son and force him to liveas a servant simply because he was born with magic? You claim you’re helping mages, but do you have any idea how many years I was exploited for my abilities? You even did it yourself. And now you are forcing your son into servitude. Even if you don’t care, I do.”
“I chose my life,” Jack snapped. “And you were the one trying to blackmail me.”
“I’ve done more for mages than you ever have,” Valencia said, glaring at Jack and me. “Both of you. I was the one encouraging Cedric to push for more bills. I was the one who secured those final signatures when no one else could.”
“You shut down my school for mages!” I cried out. “I was helping them!”
“By segregating them?”
“By educating them when no one else would!” I shot back. “What, did you hope that by your daughter being injured, Jack would be blamed? He’s a mage, just like you! You face the same prejudices.”
“No, he’s a mage born to privilege who has been shielded from what the world isreallylike for mages!” she snapped. “What does sitting in a castle do? Nothing! I was the one out there struggling to feed my family. I was the one actually getting signatures to initiate change instead of giving myself a pat on the back for helping the poor, pitiful mage children. You wanted praise for teaching them a few lessons, but I’m giving them a better future.”
For the tiniest moment, I could see things from Valencia’s point of view, and despite all reason, it made some sense. In many ways, she was right. While I’d been so focused on the day to day, she was the one ensuring that changes would last a lifetime.
“His birth,” Valencia went on, “forced me out of my homeland and left me to fend for myself so that his identity could be concealed, but what of my entire life?” She turned to the king and queen. “You want to claim you fight for mages, but you cast me off without a second thought simply because I wanted to tell the truth. If anyone is in the wrong, it’s everyone else here. I’ve done nothing worthy of being punished.”
“What about Vanessa?”
Valencia’s eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t know that would happen. She only told me that they were uncomfortable, and I was trying to help ease her discomfort.”
Stephen burst into the room. “I came as soon as I could,” he panted.
“Even if you punish me,” Valencia said, her voice changing from defensive to pleading, “my daughters kept their slippers on longest. One of them should marry the prince. Don’t punish them for anything I’ve done.”
Queen Isolde met her gaze levelly. “Your daughters won by cheating, and I won’t have my son marry anyone he doesn’t love. Stephen?”
Stephen crossed the room to his mother, avoiding looking at my stepmother.
“Are you in love with either of this woman’s daughters?”
After a look at Valencia, Stephen shifted his weight from side to side and didn’t say anything.
“Get the guards,” Queen Isolde told her husband. “I’ll need to question this woman further.” King Wenceslas stuck his head out into the corridor to obey, and within a minute, Valencia had been escorted away.
“Stephen?” his mother probed. “Do you wish to pursue a relationship with any of the women from the balls?”
“I’m not prepared to propose to anyone right now. It’sstill too early, but I would like to get to know Vallia better. Just not around her sister and mother. She seems too scared around them to be herself, and I do think her feelings are genuine.” He shot me a quizzical look.
I smiled. “I think that would be good for her. She does seem to like you. If you noticed, her feet aren’t frostbitten.”
Stephen smiled shyly.
“Jack dear?” the queen said, her eyes misty and soft. “With this new bill passed, we will finally be able to tell everyone that you’re our son. You’ll be recognized as the prince you are.”
Jack remained quiet for so long that I wondered if he’d heard his mother. Then, he answered very softly, “Before I answer, I’d like to discuss it privately with Noelle.”
With me?
“Take your time,” Queen Isolde told us, shooing her husband and other son into the hall to wait.
