“Pay with your life.”
“It was the price she demanded.”
“You could have gone elsewhere.”
“Wasn’t sure of the trouble you’d get into in the time it took me to find someone else.”
“Is knighthood really so important to you?”
What else would I be trading for?“Must be.”
“You don’t sound so sure anymore.”
“The older I get, the less sure I am of anything.” She sighed. “Strange, that, don’t you find?”
Hawthorn fixed her with a long, curious look. “No.”
Juliana wasn’t sure what he meant, and wasn’t sure she wanted to ask. “There’s a revel tonight,” she said instead. “What are your plans between now and then?”
“I’m saving myself for debauchery and will be remaining safely within the confines of the castle, you’ll be pleased to hear.”
“Excellent.”
“Do you wish to go anywhere?”
Juliana stilled. Hawthorn never asked her whatshewanted to do. She had no idea how to answer. Why even ask?
“Not that I can think of.”
Hawthorn tilted his head. “What do you do on your days off?”
When she was younger, she and her friends would go to the markets or run through the gardens or bathe in the summer lake, time an irrelevant thing that mattered to no one. But by the time she’d returned from Autumn, most of her friends had sought positions outside of the palace, new lives, new loves—new families, even. She had seen so little of them since her return, her circle shrinking to merely Aoife and Dillon, and even them she barely saw with her time monopolised by Hawthorn. If she had a day off, it was rare they did too.
“Train,” she admitted, still unsure about where these questions were going. “Visit the gardens. Go to the lake. Take a ride in the woods.”
“Hmm, a ride,” said Hawthorn wistfully, staring out of the window, “it’s been a long time since I went for a ride. In fact, that sounds like a delightful way to spend the rest of the day. Saddle my horse, my significant bother!”
Juliana glared at him.
“What? You said you liked riding.”
“Say please.”
Hawthorn sighed. “Please, my darling Jules, sweetest of my guards, song of my soul, won’t youprepare our horses so that we may go for a ride?”
She got up from her seat, sweeping into a false bow. “As His Highness desires.”
Hawthorn grinned as she swept towards the door. “I quite enjoy you bowing towards me. You should do it more often.”
“In your dreams.”
“Only once or twice.”
“What was that?”
“The horses, woman!”
She rolled her eyes, asked one of the guards stationed outside to watch him, and headed off to the stables.
