The more Vadde ate, the deeper Wyrn’s frown. A time or two she tried to slow but couldn’t.

“You were starved. When was the last time you’d had anything?” he asked from the chair by the bed.

Vadde hesitated. She didn’t want to cast blame, mostly because she didn’t understand what happened. And she didn’t want to cause trouble. Anyway, what could the hunchback do about it?

She opened her mouth to lie but he said, “You are my responsibility; I brought you here. And I didn’t look in on you. So, it’s my fault. And I apologize for that.”

He sat leaning forward with his elbow on his knees.

This close, he didn’t look at all menacing. But he was fed up. All thoughts rushed to what he’d just done for her. Though Vadde sat in bed with her left leg up, the right stayed firmly on the floor.

No one seemed to have the full story about the nature of their first encounter with one another. Even now, his scowl was worrisome, but it held something more behind it, pity.

She was stealing from the pigs after all. Perhaps he didn’t want anyone to know that of his bride. She certainly didn’t. Shaza least of all.

“The day before I met you.”

The hunchback leaned away. His mouth fell open and he marveled. “That was ten days ago.”

She needed no reminder, so she went back to the food—the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted in all her life.

Her intent was to finish it before he asked her something unfavorable.

No such luck.

“Why?”

Why? Vadde paused long to take that in. Why? From where would she start? With how Prince Orm ambushed her in the hall the morning of the tournament and blocked her path to the eating room? Visions came and went of the things he did and said. Her father saw them in passing and dragged the man off her.

By the time she’d fixed her clothes and stood with her back to them, she’d expected some further protest or defense.

Nothing. King Hern ordered her to make herself presentable and that was the last time he’d directed a word to her.

She told herself that he might have admonished the prince in her absence but that was hard to believe when the man still roamed with his head affixed to his neck.

Mere hours later, she was caught while trying to escape. But where was she even to go? She didn’t know, but anywhere that didn’t inhabit that prince.

And then the debacle with the wagon came back to her and how she’d been too frightened to steal some of Wyrn’s bird. She hadn’t even eaten the apples while in the carriage because she was no thief. And then she arrived here. So, from that moment to now, why hadn’t she managed to get anything called food beyond the bitters?

One name came to mind, but what would he do about his brother’s wife? A woman who was here first? A woman who, despite the food issue, wasn’t all that bad on the surface.

A light flickered in Wyrn’s eyes. “Shaza?”

Vadde swallowed down her readied cry. “I hadn’t said that.”

“No need to say it.” Wyrn sighed. “It’s about our habits, you see. After learning them, she gets to work and it’s hard to escape her efforts. She has a way of doing things to make you feel like you’re the one crazy.” When she narrowed her brow, he explained, “Speaking from experience.”

Well, that was a relief.

“She ‘welcomes’ strangers.” Wyrn explained. “Shaza’s skill can be used to bring euphoria or hell.”

Stunned, Vadde asked, “Your mother and Shaza did all this on purpose?”

Now Wyrn was the one shocked. “My mother?” He stifled a laugh. “My mother? No. Shaza? Yes. But she’s only supposed to do enough to test a newcomer’s intent. I’m very sure Mother told her to be mild with you. But…I think perhaps because you’re rather pretty, she took your arrival personally.”

Face heated, Vadde waited for him to say what he planned to do.

“Nothing to do about her, though.”

Vadde’s jaw dropped.

“Father wants peace here,” Wyrn insisted. “And Mother’ll have her head if this gets out. It’ll cause all sorts of trouble and my brother’s been through quite a lot till now. Shaza’s not leaving any time soon; she’ll invoke The Living Goddess, something…my mother wishes to avoid.” He hesitated then asked, “Can we keep this between us?”

The Living Goddess. The very thought of her had Vadde’s heart racing. Before Vadde could think up an answer, the man’s chair moved back, and he stood.

“Are you leaving already?” Vadde cried. She bit back her further panic when his expression softened.

It wasn’t always easy to see beyond his nose and mouth, but his expression did soften.

“I was going to return the tray and get some food of my own.”

Vadde resisted the urge to lunge at him, begging him not to leave. There was nothing about their encounters to suggest he’d honor her request, but she felt safest now. He knew the lengths she had to go through to eat and yet…his voice held no malice.

“Your mother’s very kind,” was all she could think to say.

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Wordlessly, he waited for her to ease back into bed before he pulled the sheet up to her.

His hand brushed her cheek and she caught it. What was this panic? But it was panic and no matter how much she tried to let go, she held on.

After focusing on whatever she could see of his eyes, she realized her own labored breathing. What was happening?

He was her lifeline, maybe for a moment, and that lifeline was shifting away. But that was unnecessary. Perhaps he’d be back after he sought his own supper.

“Okay,” he said, easing her to lie down. “I will stay here for a bit longer. You need not grip me so tightly.”

As sincere as his words, and as reasonable as his request, she couldn’t let go. She tried. She more than tried.

Finally, he reached back for the chair and pulled it to him. This time, too, he turned it sideways to accommodate his back. When he sat, he also stopped trying to pull away.

“You’ve gone ten days without food, I can go a night.”

But that wasn’t her intent. “I’m sorry.”

He looked at their hands, his still clutched close to her bosom, then her yet again and tried to smile.

Vadde rested for some time before a pain in her chest had her opening her eyes.

“I was afraid of that,” the hunchback said, and tried to pull away.

She held him tighter, utterly unappreciative of the trick. The pain rose higher, and she grip him for dear life.

“Does it hurt?”

It did but that was none of his business.

And then he slipped from her despite her vice hold. What happened next was confusing.

He turned her onto her stomach and rubbed her back.

“Slowly now,” he soothed.

Vadde opened her mouth to complain about his action, but a loud belch came instead.

She closed her eyes. How much more humiliation could she endure?

“Good,” Wyrn said, “because I feared it from the other end.”

Letting out a groan, Vadde planted her face into the sheets. His strong arms still rubbed her, and she couldn’t help letting out a chuckle.

It wasn’t for humor’s sake, but rather the absurdity of how her life had unfolded. Two weeks ago, she was a princess. Now? Now she was stealing food from pigs.

That laugh turned to a sob and the gentle rubbing of her back stopped.

She was annoyed enough to say, “You’re supposed to keep going when a woman cries.”

Wyrn let out a huff then continued massaging her back, this time with both hands.

“Those are words no good man’s ever uttered,” he joked.

Another laugh came through her sobs. “This is awful.” The massage paused yet again, and she found herself crying harder. “What’d I say about stopping?”

Wyrn scoffed. “You are definitely a princess.”

She couldn’t face him again, so she put her left cheek against the bed and closed her eyes. And that was where she fell asleep.

Even when she awoke, that warm hand remained on her back. It jostled her again and again.

Finally, she opened her eyes and asked, “What?”

“Wake up. It’s nearly dawn,” he whispered. “I’ll help you to the latrine before anyone sees. Or can you go on your own?”

She didn’t care if she could go on her own—she simply didn’t want to.

The fact that he’d stayed true to his promise and remained all night was a comfort but how was he supposed to help her go all the way there?

Besides. “I don’t know where it is,” she admitted.

In the coming light of the morning, his shock resonated. Hers did as well when she’d just confessed to something terrible. She intended to clarify that she was no animal, there was simply no need with no food, but he gave a slight nod and reached down to help her out of bed.

She meant to argue that it was only her foot injured, not her very being but at this rate, she decided it was best to shut up. Each time she opened her mouth, something humiliating came out.

His body was taut, and she hadn’t expected anything of the sort. And he was strong despite his physical attributes because after he switched her shoes, putting the intact one on her left foot, he held her around the waist and picked her up.

“But your back!” she protested.

He paused in his stride but once. It was long enough for her to realize that she should never mention something such as that again.

Once they were out the door, he put her to stand.

“The grass is softer so that should be fine.”

When he walked away, she stared after him, debating a good apology.

Those thoughts fleeted when he marched back and snatched her right hand and used it to drag her through the yard. She half ran, half hobbled behind him. In time he slowed then eventually came to walk at her side. He switched to her left hand, and she used him for support.

Once the business with the latrine was over, the cock started to crow.

He cursed then picked her up again and managed to get her back home before even one door opened. “I can’t be seen in here,” he said, “people will misunderstand.”

But before he could leave, all she could think to do was grab a handful of his hair.

He winced in pain, closed his eyes, then turned to her and asked, “Is there honestly no other way to catch my attention?”

Vadde’s face heated. But it wasn’t like he gave her much of a choice. And what was she expecting? She didn’t know why but she wanted him here.

“We’ll get the midwife to come back if anyone asks,” she said.

They stared at one another for ages. She prayed her desperation wasn’t evident in her eyes.

He looked sad for her, but she summoned enough pride to say, “If anyone else comes, they’ll know of my foot injury.”

With one blink, all traces of sympathy faded from his expression. Vadde opened her mouth time and time again, but she could think of nothing to say that would bring it back.

No, she didn’t want it, but it was certainly better than this look of betrayal. To him, perhaps, she was just using him to save face, but that wasn’t it.

It wasn’t. She was sure.

“I have chores to do. I cannot stay with you all day,” he said, reaching for the door.

She slipped before him, pressing her back against the wood. “Then I’ll come with you.”

“How? You can’t walk.”

“Of course, I can.” She bit back a wince as she demonstrated.

His head turned to follow her. Finally, he said, “You’re never going to heal if you do not rest it.”

She was beside the table, completing her demonstration, by the time she realized her miscalculation. The door opened and closed shortly after, and he escaped.

Vadde stared after it for a lifetime. Tears stung her eyes, but she didn’t know what to make of herself. And what was she crying for this time? For the fact that she had nowhere to go? Knew no one to go to? Or that she was so pathetic that she had to try and trap a man to receive rescue or company?

He said to stay in bed. Fine. At least that way she’d cause no trouble.

Sometime later, the door opened then closed. Something landed on the table. For days now, this routine was far too familiar. She’d awaken to Shaza bringing her a bowl of bitters and nothing more, insisting there was nothing else to eat.

And like a fool, Vadde had let her. She’d seen the crumbs on the woman’s mouth. The bread sticking out of her apron. All remnants of a breakfast so big she couldn’t finish it. A time or two, Vadde’d thought to confront the bitch and demand that she stop eating Vadde’s share. But how could she? With what defense?

Now, today, for the first time, anger boiled in her. No, fury. She’d put a stop to this. Consequences be damned.

She threw the sheets back and turned with the intent to slap Shaza with all her might before even knowing what she’d brought.

What she found stole every ounce of energy in her.

It was not Shaza, but Wyrn who sat miserably eating the bitters. “Mother’s made it,” he muttered. “It’s the only thing that she thinks you like. It takes ages and I won’t let it go to waste.” The next bite had him wiping his eyes. “By The Living Goddess, this is awful.”

For a long while, Vadde could do nothing but stare. Finally, she jumped to the floor, hobbled to retrieve the next chair, and sat beside him at the table.

“Here,” she said, snatching the spoon, “we’ll share in the punishment.”

He started to protest but eventually nodded. “I’d be much obliged for the rescue. Because she was rather angry that I stayed in here all night. So now we both have no breakfast.”

Vadde looked up at him from below her dark mane of hair. “I’m so sorry.”

Wyrn said, “She’s just a bit worried. Lunch will be better, by then she’ll forgive us. So, eat. It’ll give you strength at least when I take you to the fields.”