The Born Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

know. Up close, Mery might be a hundred.
    “I’m sorry,” she said.
    “What were you trying to do there?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    He knelt and stroked her hair.
    “Robert won’t find us again.”
    “He took it with him,” Mery said, her voice just audible. “He tricked you into writing it, and he took it with him.”
    “It’s all right,” Leoff said.
    “It’s not,” Mery replied. “It’s not. When he plays it, I can hear it.”
    The hairs went up on Leoff’s neck. “What?”
    “He doesn’t play it well,” she whispered. “But now he has someone else to do it. I can hear it.”
    Leoff glanced over at Areana. She hadn’t said anything, but tears were running quietly down her face.
    “I thought you would fix it,” Mery said. “Now I see you can’t.”
    “Mery…”
    “It’s okay,” she said. “I understand.”
    She lifted the thaurnharp off her lap, took it by its carry strap, and stood up.
    “I’ll play someplace else,” she said.
    “Mery, please don’t go,” Areana said.
    But the girl already was trudging off.
    Leoff watched her leave and sighed. “She expects me to do something,” he said.
    “She expects too much,” she said.
    He shook his head. “We were there, but she
played
it. I used her—”
    “To save our lives,” his wife gently reminded him.
    “I’m not sure I saved hers,” he said. “I thought she would get better, but she’s slipping away, Rey. It’s worse every day.”
    She nodded. “Yah.”
    “I should go after her.”
    “She wants to be alone right now,” Areana said. “I think you’d better let her. She was a solitary sort of person even before.”
    “Yes.”
    “Stay here. Rest. I need to go to the market to gather a few things for dinner. I’ll see if I can find something Mery might like. A ribbon or some
drop.
”
    Ribbons and candy won’t help,
he thought, but he smiled and gave her a kiss.
    “I
am
a lucky man,” he managed.
    “We all are lucky,” Areana said. “Even Mery. We have each other.”
    “I’m not certain about that,” Leoff said.
    Areana frowned. “What can you mean?”
    “I had a letter yesterday from Lord Edwin Graham. Mery’s mother was his sister.”
    “They mean to take her away? But the duke put her in our charge.”
    “I’m not sure what he wants,” Leoff replied. “He’s sending his wife here to tell us. She’ll arrive on Thonsdagh.”
             
    Lady Teris Graham was tall, taller than Leoff. She had unsettling sea-green eyes and a face spotted by rusty freckles, which made her dark, nearly black hair somehow surprising. Her face was strong-boned and long like her body, and she had come in a dark green and black traveling gown that looked expensive. She had two servants and two bodyguards with her, which also spoke of money. She was younger than he had expected. Areana had seated her in their small parlor, which up until then they really hadn’t used for anything. Then she went for tea while the lady sized up Leoff.
    “You’re the man that wrote that sinfonia?” she said at last. “The one that started the riot in Glastir?”
    “Yes,” Leoff confirmed. “I’m afraid so.”
    “And the other thing, the play that the
people
liked so well?” The way she said “people” made it clear that it wasn’t a term that included everyone—not, for instance, herself.
    “Yes, lady.”
    “Yes,” she repeated drily.
    Areana arrived with the tea, and they sat sipping it in uncomfortable silence for a few moments.
    “How well did you know my sister-in-law?” Lady Graham asked abruptly.
    Leoff practically could feel Areana stiffen and a warmth flush his face.
    To his surprise, the lady laughed. “Oh, dear,” she said. “Yes, Ambria was a generous soul in some ways.”
    Leoff nodded, not knowing what to say, his mind suddenly filled with the sensations of that night, the warmth of Ambria’s skin…
    And, a few days later, her pitiful murdered gaze.
    “Not to the point,” Lady Graham