As her father’s footsteps receded through the house, Raine turned to her mother. “Mother?”
Lady Aurora pursed her lips and silently shook her head.
Raine ran towards her. “Oh please mother, don’t you send me away too. Please, all I ask is that you delay this marriage for a month, or even a week! Please. If you won’t you might as well make my bridal bed in Garrick’s tomb.”
Her mother scoffed and walked away. “Don’t try to convince me girl. I have no intention of trying to change my husband’s mind. As for you, you can do what you will. I’m done.”
Her hands dropped uselessly to her sides as she watched her second parent walk away from her in the early morning light. Gaping, she turned towards her nurse. The older woman shook her head as she watched Lady Aurora leave. Once the other woman was gone, the nurse walked towards Raine and hugged her tightly.
Raine leaned her head on her nurse’s chest. “What should I do?” Turning, she walked back into her room and sank onto the edge of her bed. When her door clicked closed behind her nurse, Raine’s vacant eyes raised up from her feet and beheld the nurse. “I wish Cidaris was here. He could stop this.” Swallowing, she sluggishly shook her head, “I don’t know what to do.”
As the nurse rang for breakfast, the silence in the room stretched and lingered. The only break was when the servants’ door opened and the cup clinked softly against the saucer. As Raine took the cup from her nurse, she sighed. “Do you not have any words of wisdom or comfort for me? Anything that will cheer me up or help me solve this problem?”
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Her nurse sighed and sat on the bed beside her. Slowly, she rubbed Raine’s back. “Here is what I would say to you. Cidaris is gone. He can’t challenge Derrin for your hand in marriage because he doesn’t know it’s necessary. If somehow he were to receive word of this, he would have to come back in secret or else he would be killed.” The nurse stopped speaking and hugged Raine’s shoulders tightly. “I think it’s best that you pretend the marriage never happened—it wasn’t traditionally done in any case—and marry Derrin. He is a good man. He will care for you and he will take care of you. With him you will never want for anything. I think you will be happy in this second marriage. It will be better than the first, and besides, your first husband is dead or as good as dead. And even if he wasn’t, he’s a merman and you’re not. So, I think you should marry Derrin.”
“Is this truly what you think?”
The nurse kissed her hair. “Yes my child, it is.”
Pulling her shoulders back, Raine straightened her back and nodded. “Okay.”
“What?”
“Okay,” Raine repeated walked over to the breakfast tray. Setting her cup down, she started buttering a scone. “I will accept your advice. After I have eaten, please go to my mother and tell her that I have gone to the church to make a confession and absolve my soul after displeasing my father.”
The nurse clapped her hands together and smiled. “I will, my child. You’re making the right choice.” With renewed liveliness, the nurse bounded out of the room.
Setting down the jam spoon, Raine took a bit of the sweet raspberry jam and cream. But the heavenly dish tasted like the lie in her mouth. Looking around, she grabbed a small bag and stuffed the rest of the plain scones into it and slipped out to the garden gate and the docks beyond. Swallowing back the bile that filled her mouth, she opened the gate and stepped onto the rocks beyond. “I can’t believe that she can say such wonderful and horrible things about him. I can’t believe I ever listened to her advice before.”
Her hand trailed along the wall as she shuffled towards the water. “Nurse found Lewisil by paddling in the row boat. Maybe I can find him too. If not, well,” she shrugged defeatedly, “I’m doomed to die anyway. At least this way, I can learn if there is some way he can help me.”