I freeze with one foot still lifted. That voice. I whip my head to the left, in its direction—

Winfred is sprinting headfirst towards me, his chubby arms and legs flapping hard. Behind him, his dad half-runs after him, half-turns back to make apologies to the priest in front of the chapel.

I kneel down—just in time to catch Winfred as he collides hard into my legs.

“I didn’t know where you’d gone this morning! And no one would tell me!” he says. His bottom lip quivers and his eyes are shiny. “I thought maybe the attackers got you.”

My nose and throat sting.

He’s safe. His dad is safe. They’re all safe.

I put one soothing hand on his back.

“Don’t be silly, of course they didn’t,” I say, injecting as much pep into my tone as I can. I rub at a smudge of dirt on his forehead. “I was just went away for a little bit to chat with some people.”

His dad finally catches up to us—and immediately pulls Winfred from me.

I blink at him through my tears, my hands still hovering in the air .

Winfred’s dad backs up while bowing several times. I can see a shiny burn on his leg, and an ugly gash crusted over with blood on his forearm. So he did fight in the defense last night, like Luke had ordered all able-bodied men to do.

“Lord Alexandrius,” he stumbles out. “My apologies. Please forgive my son, he didn’t mean to interrupt you and your companion. He’s just easily excited—“

The man’s ashen pale as he holds onto his son with two arms on his shoulders. I rise and look uncertainly over at Alex.

He’s looking... rather amused?

“It’s fine? Winfred didn’t interrupt?” I say.

Alex nods. “He didn’t,” he affirms.

“Thank you, ma’am. Thank you, my lord.” Winfred’s dad bows again.

This is so weird.

I have never been called ma’am my entire life, let alone by someone whose kid I was watching just last night. Granted, Aurelia was older, but only by two years. There’s no way she gets called that regularly.

“Don’t you recognize me?” I ask. “We talked? At the river? I exchanged an apple for a potato with Winfred?”

The man somehow goes even paler. “I—my apologies. I didn’t recognize you as Lord Alexandrius’s companion.”

That was really not what I meant.

He averts his eyes from me, turning them towards the ground. “Please excuse us, my son and I must prepare to go home. I’m sure my wife is besides herself with worry.”

“But I wasn’t done talking to Miss Aurelia!” Winfred says immediately, squirming in his dad’s hold. “You don’t mind, right, Miss?”

His dad’s hands only clench down harder on Winfred’s shoulders. He bows his head low while spinning Winfred around.

Stolen story; please report.

“Please forgive my son’s impertinence, Lord Alexandrius, he’s too young to know any better. Come, Winfred, Lord Alexandrius and his companion have been kind enough,” he scolds.

As he marches the boy away, Winfred cranes his head back to look at me with wide confused eyes. I wave an awkward goodbye at him.

“What was that?” I burst out as soon as the pair is out of earshot. I had wanted to… I don’t know, at least give Winfred a full hug.

“So that was who you were asking about? Winfred’s dad?” Alex muses.

“He was just trying to say hi!”I’d only passed that night without going out of my mind because of Winfred. I should at least get to talk to him without his dad being so weird and deferential and stopping me.

Alex just shrugs. “They’re commoners, aren’t they? Of course they’d be scared. They know of my family through our countryside patrols and yearly tax collection. And last night, I suppose, given he clearly helped defend the keep. I’m sure that further clarified the extent of our status to him.”

Probably that’s all true. But the dismissive way Alex says it…

It just totally rubs me the wrong way.

I mean, of course I know I’m in a feudal society. But it’s not right that Winfred’s dad had been so scared, to the extent that he wasn’t willing to indulge a son he’s clearly indulgent of.

And it’s not like Winfred was scared any! It’s not like Alex has some sort of super-special noble aura that everyone would stand in awe of. In fact, Winfred barely recognized him! He was trying to talk to me. And he would have been able to if Alex’s people hadn’t made such a poor impression on his poor dad.

“Then what sort of impression have your people have made on them then?” I demand. “And why didn’t you reassure him that it was fine for Winfred to talk with me? What, do you like people being petrified of you like that?”

Alex rolls his eyes. “You sound like Aurelia. Did you inherit some of her opinions too? 1 Obviously I don’t want them petrified. But a bit of respect towards their liege isn’t a bad thing. Look how useful it was last night.” I open my mouth again, and Alex folds his arms. “How do you know them anyway? They’re not one of the families near the Keep, are they? I don’t recognize them. ”

I close my mouth.

“Uhm.” I fidget in place.

My first instinct is to lie. Or at least not tell the full truth.

But what would be the point? Alex knows nearly everything anyway. It’d be only for my own vanity. And despite how much I've lied recently, that makes a lie here feel distinctly worse than the other ones I've told for my survival.

“I saw Winfed again in the chapel. But we first met... on the road,” I settle on. “They were on their way to the Harvest Festival.”

I don’t say which direction I was headed.

But Alex’s a smart man. He knows the Morrells live in a cabin a hands-throw removed from the town outside the Keep. And my expression is probably filling in the rest of the blanks for him.

There’s a long pause.

Does Alex even have the right to make me feel ashamed! I never claimed to be a heroine or anything. And it’s not like I knew anyone at the Keep? If I were actually Aurelia, I would be ashamed if I’d contemplated leaving people I grew up with to their deaths.

But I’m not Aurelia. I’m just me. Gemma Tran.

I start babbling anyway.

“Winfred wouldn’t stop talking about the Harvest Festival,” I explain. “How excited he was, how far they’ve walked to make it, how his mom thinks it's too far away. It’s not that I hadn't thought about how many people might be harmed by the battle, it’s just —“

“Luke’s inside there, you know,” Alex says.

I look over at him again. He jerks his head back towards the chapel.Its doors are open, providing a view straight into the interior. A fair number of women and children, who probably haven’t left after taking shelter there last night. But also a lot of men, supplicant in front of the altar.The chapel priest is nowhere to be found, but I can make out a tall slim figure inside that might be Luke.

The figure turns, and the outfit catches enough of the light. It’s definitely Luke.

“Luke said this morning he needed to speak with Father Domitian and coordinate departures for all who sought shelter with us,” Alex says.

He smirks—but there’s no real malice there.

“Had I known that family is why mine is still alive, I would’ve been thanking them, not the other way around,” he says.

My stomach unclenches a little bit.

I continue my interrupted walk across the courtyard. “Whatever. Can we go to the guest rooms now? After the two days I’ve had, I’m exhausted.”

“Sure,” Alex says.

Then he points to the northeast archway leading back into the castle, rather than the northwest archway I was heading towards. “It’s that way, by the way.”

----------------------------------------

1. Good on Aurelia! She should push back on these stupid, spoiled opinions the Lord Alexandrius has. The more I learn about her, the more I like her, honestly. Too bad that whether our plan goes well or badly, I won’t ever have a chance to talk to Aurelia about any other opinions she might’ve had.