Free Web NovelChapter 255: The Tears That Seemed Endless
Chapter 254: The Tears That Seemed Endless
Lyria’s POV
I closed my mouth.
It was a reflex, an automatic response to his words, and the moment I did it, his lips tilted upward in a small smile.
"What are y-you doing here, your g-grace?" I asked. "And why d-did you come t-through the w-window?"
Duke Valenridge did not answer me.
He looked around the chamber instead, his eyes scanning the room as if searching for something.
He moved from where he had been standing, picked up a chair, and brought it back to my bedside, and then he sat on it.
He leaned back and then spoke up.
"How are you feeling?"
I stared at him.
The question was so simple, so ordinary, that I did not know how to answer it. How was I feeling? I was weak. I was tired. I was confused. I was still trying to make sense of the fact that he was sitting in my chamber when he should have been at the ball, surrounded by music and laughter and the careful performance of courtly life.
Duke Valenridge did not wait for my answer though.
He leaned forward, reaching out, and placed his hand on my head. I nearly recoiled. The touch was unexpected, and though simple, it was filled with warmth.
He was checking to see if I still had a fever, I realised.
"Your fever has gone down," he muttered, more to himself than to me. "Kathryn did a good job."
He withdrew his hand and relaxed back into the chair.
"To answer your question, Your Highness," he said, "I am here because of you. And I used the window because it was the quickest way to escape that goddess-forsaken ball."
He paused.
"Also, I simply felt like it."
I blinked.
"Besides," he continued, "the Queen has spies watching the entrance to your chamber. I had to make it appear as though I was not coming to your chambers, even though I was."
I stared at him for a long moment.
"W-why?" I asked.
Duke Valenridge tilted his head.
"I am quite certain I have already told you my reason."
"You s-said because of m-me," I said. "But why w-would you come for m-me?"
He was quiet for a moment.
Then he said, "Because I care."
I almost asked why again. The word was on the tip of my tongue, ready to be spoken. But he spoke before I could.
"Your Highness, as much as I would love to play the why game with you," he said, "we do not have much time for that."
I closed my mouth at that.
"I am certain you have met the new maids," he said. "And those who are now attending to you."
I nodded slowly, wondering why he was asking.
"Do not think too much about them," he said softly. "They are yours to use. Their loyalty is to you first, before the Queen. Everyone around you now will ensure that you are well taken care of. They will shield you."
"H-how d-do you kn-know?" I asked him, a frown forming on my face.
He was quiet for a beat, and then he asked softly,
"Do you trust me?"
"No," I said immediately.
He chuckled. "You wound me, Your Highness. And here I was thinking we now had a certain level of trust between us, given what we’ve been through together."
My cheeks reddened.
"T-that... all I-i am trying t-to say is that I s-still do not k-know you very well to f-fully trust you. W-we have only k-known each o-other for a few w-weeks," I told him.
"Fair enough," he said with another chuckle.
There was another beat of silence as he stared outside the window, then he turned back to me.
"But I am asking you to trust me now. I would never do anything to hurt you," he said softly.
I said nothing. I only nodded to acknowledge his words. Trust was not something easily earned after all.
He studied my face for a moment, his eyes moving as if cataloguing everything.
Then his expression shifted. The lightness faded. The humour in his eyes dimmed.
"What happened, Your Highness?" he asked softly. "What made you collapse that day?"
Why was he asking me that?
"I was s-sick," I said.
He shook his head.
"No. It was more than that. Yes, you were sick. Yes, your body was weakened. But the eyes I saw that day were filled with hurt."
He paused.
"I am curious about the injuries, of course. But I have seen empty eyes like yours before. And I know that sometimes the most painful hurt is not physical. It is emotional."
He leaned closer.
"I want to know if what happened to you is the same as what happened the last time at the lake."
The moment he said it, something inside me cracked.
What happened at the lake... when the Queen had brutally punished me... had nothing to do with what happened when I collapsed.
And yet, the memory came anyway. I remembered the last time I had seen Patricia. The stillness with which she laid upon the bed. The blood staining the sheets. The stab wounds on her.
I tried to keep my composure.
I tried to hold myself together.
I tried to be the girl who could smile and bow and pretend that everything was fine, even when it was not.
But no matter how hard I tried, I could not.
The feeling surged like a wave, crashing over me, pulling me under.
Tears came first in silence, then in breaking sobs I could not contain.
"S-stop," I whispered to myself as I sobbed, the sound coming out more broken than I intended. "S-stop c-c-crying."
But the more I tried to stop it, the more it came. The grief, the memory, the weight of everything I had buried.
"I—I c-can’t..." I choked out.
My shoulders shook as I cried for Patricia. For the woman who had been like a mother to me. The only one who had ever truly looked at me without disgust. The only one who had ever taught me kindness without asking anything in return.
I did not know when he moved.
I only felt it when his arms came around me, steady and firm, pulling me close.
"It’s okay," he said softly. "Don’t hide the tears, princess. Let it all out."
And I did.
I sobbed into his chest.
And the tears did not stop.
