The Tears of the Rose Read Online Free PDF Page B

tombs had made her sound so much closer. She held her hands folded in front of her, encased in traveling gloves, her expression somber. Nothing about her indicated that she found what I was doing strange. Not a messenger, but yet another babysitter.
    â€œI’ll leave when I’m ready.” Already the stones dried under my cheek. I could no longer see Hugh, just on the other side of the wall.
    â€œOf course, Your Highness. It’s only that Princess Ursula grows . . . impatient.”
    â€œShe can’t grow impatient. She’s always full-fledged impatient.”
    Dafne made a wry twist of her mouth. “True, Princess.”
    With a long breath, I let go of the wall and bent to pluck a rose from the wreath, to take with me. The blossoms seemed far too pretty to leave here. But death doesn’t respect beauty any more than anything else. Plucked from Glorianna’s gardens, they’d begun to die at that moment. Nothing could stop it.
    â€œWhat do you think happens, after death?”
    Dafne paused. I’d surprised her. “I am no priest of Glorianna. Surely you should ask High Priest Kir.”
    â€œI know what his answer would be. I want to hear yours.”
    â€œWhy me?” She asked it bluntly, failing to call me Princess, as if to call me out for the extraordinary nature of my question. I’d called her little better than a servant and felt a flush of shame over it, though she couldn’t know that.
    â€œYou’re Andi’s librarian. If she thought you knew . . . things, then I want to know what they are.”
    â€œThat’s a curious way to ask for my thoughts on death.”
    â€œFine,” I snapped. “Don’t tell me. I know I’m not my sister. You owe me nothing. You probably hate me as much as she does.”
    I pushed past her and she laid a hand on my arm, then snatched it back at my outrage.
    â€œForgive me, Your Highness.” She ducked her head. “But I can tell you, when Andi was here and we . . . discussed how things might go, were she to . . . have to marry King Rayfe—her greatest concern was you. She loves you and never wanted to cause you any pain. That hasn’t changed.”
    I watched her lips move and smelled that burnt scent in the air that lately seemed to mean lies. Why was she lying to me? Not in the words necessarily, but running beneath, like an underground river.
    â€œThat’s a lie. She murdered my husband in cold blood. That’s hardly failing to cause me pain.”
    â€œI wasn’t there, but she wouldn’t have done such a thing in cold blood. She agonized over whether you’d be hurt.”
    â€œWhat aren’t you telling me?” I asked, watching the flinch of response. To her credit, she held my gaze, steady, unapologetic.
    â€œSecrets that aren’t mine to tell.”
    Andi. My sister had secrets. It made me burn with rage to think it. Never had I kept a secret from her.
    â€œKeep them, then. I want nothing of hers, ever again.”
    I stepped out onto the path, looking out over the endless ocean. I’d miss it, the constant roar of the surf, the way the light changed on it. The tips of the waves sparkled, catching the rising sun. I’d felt safe here, high up on the cliffs, protected and cherished.
    â€œI suppose I don’t believe that anything really dies.” Dafne said, standing beside me, gazing at the vista. “I think life cycles into life again. It just . . . changes form.”
    Putting my hand on my still-flat belly, I mulled her words. Where did this new life come from? Not from nothing.
    â€œThank you,” I finally replied. “I realize I’m an empty-headed twit and not always as kind as I should be. Your words help.”
    â€œYou must understand you have my deepest sympathy, Princess. We all feel a bit of your loss. Prince Hugh was . . . larger than life.”
    I nodded, the salt sting in my eyes only from the breeze off the