Adelaide’s voice came from up front. “While you two were snoring,Iwas trying to navigate us and keep the spell active.”
“Why would you need to navigate us?” she asked, rubbing her eyes. “He just follows the glowing bug, right?”
Adelaide was silent.
It was then that Lilac realized there was only one silhouette on the driver’s bench.
Garin swiveled and craned his neck out the front window. “Where is he?” Fury colored his tone. “Stop the carriage.”
As Adelaide uttered something intelligible for the firefly to stop andpulled on the reins, Garin was already passing her, leaping out of the slowing carriage. Lilac jumped out and followed as soon as it stopped.
“The lantern, please,” Garin shouted, sounding heavily irked.
Adelaide scowled and unhooked the oil lamp, then shoved it toward Lilac. She brought it back to him just as he was lifting the back door.
Laid across the top of her trunk of belongings with his hands and mouth tied in cloth was a tearful Giles. His downward-turned eyes lit up as soon as he recognized them.
She unsheathed her dagger and, before Garin could say anything, tore through the material binding his wrists.
“Careful,” he said, hastily snatching the hilt from her, and she felt him slide it snugly back on her hip as she undid the knot at the nape of Giles’s neck.
“I wasn’t going to cut him,” she retorted as Garin shooed her to the side.
“No, but I would like to return him in one piece.”
As Garin lifted him out, Giles bowed and began to sputter his broken thanks to the both of them, to which Garin returned the bow and replied, “Of course, Father.”
Halfway into a curtsey, Lilac froze, horrified.Father?
The old man was trembling. His cap had fallen off, revealing a haphazard, choppy haircut. “Father Guillaume is our coachman?”
When she said his name, the old man shivered and nervously met her gaze, though none of the undercutting disgust he’d once regarded her with was present. “You may call me Giles, Y-your Majesty.”
“Does he know?” she mouthed, confused. She didn’t think she’d ever witnessed anyone entranced before, and this wasn’t what she thought it would look like. He seemed… present. She’d assumed Garin had given him a new identity and sent him off somewhere, or even had him tied up at the Sanguine Mine. He’d been at the castle this entire time.
Garin silenced her with a look and patted Giles on the back as he led him around to the front. Speechless, she stomped after him. The priest’s beard had been chopped considerably, and she never knew what his head looked like, as he’d always worn some sort of hat or hood adornment when they’d interacted.
How had she missed it?
AsGiles mounted into the driver’s box, he turned halfway around and said, “Who is this Father Guillaume?”
“Apologies, sir,” Garin said calmly. “I had confused you with a spiteful religious fellow from the castle.”
“Oh. Is that why the witch tied me up?”
“It is likely. Let there be no mistake, Giles is our Master of Travels and now, keeper of secrets” —Garin shot a pointed look at Lilac—“and will not, under any circumstances, tell anyone in town that she is the queen. Thus, he remains leader of the reigns. Upfront.”
Behind Giles, Adelaide rolled her eyes so far back into her head,the whites of her eyes were visible. Giles grinned in response to Garin’s announcement, and suddenly, something clicked. Lilac had never recognized him because Father Guillaumeneversmiled.
The man in front of her seemed proud, albeit embarrassed even, to be driving her. Father Guillaume had always been of the party outwardly regretful that Lilac was Henri and Marguerite’s only child, that they hadn’t tried for a future king. He’d become even more opinionated about her future reign when her Dameon Tongue was discovered, only holding the vile things she knew he wished to voice because of his duty to Henri.
Garin glanced down at Lilac, maybe to see if there was something she’d like to add. There was nothing. She was still shaken to be this close to the man she had spent much of her life avoiding. He’d treated her like most did—a stain upon her father’s bloodline, and even defended Sinclair when he’d attempted to assault her on her birthday.
“Yes,” Garin continued, holding his gaze when Lilac said nothing. “And do you remember how I told you we wouldn’t tell anyone of the plans of our little excursion to The Fenfoss Inn until the queen made them known to her parents and their council?”
The priest nodded, sniffling, emotion seeming on the verge of spilling out of him.
“The secret we must keep this time is the queen. Understand?”
