Chapter 38 CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
ROSALINDA
The palace was eerily quiet, the kind of silence that rings in your ears after a thunderclap. The chaos of the Royal square had been replaced by the rhythmic beating of my heart. I had made sure diana was tucked away in a guest chamber with a tray of tea she likely wouldn't touch.
I pushed open the heavy oak doors to my father's study. The scent of old parchment, beeswax, and my father's bitter tobacco hit me like a physical wall. He sat behind his desk, his crow discarded on the blotter like a piece of useless tin. He looked older than he had this morning.
Much older and stressed.
"Sit, Rosalinda," he said, not looking up.
I sank into the velvet backed chair, my spine slightly stiff. My dress was still stained with the dust of the square. "Cyrus is innocent, yet he was still captured, why?" I said, my voice sounding hollow in the cavernous room.
When he kept silent, I continued to press on. "Why father? Why? He's innocent,"
"I know,"
"I-"
Before I could speak, he let out a long shuddering breath and finally looked at me. His eyes were bloodshot. "I'm sorry, Rosalinda,"
The words hit me harder than a physical blow. I blinked, certain I had misheard. King Theron did not apologize. He issued decrees, he commanded armies, and he made hard choices, but he never said sorry
"It's fine," I lied, the words tasting like ash. "But why wouldn't you release him? If he's innocent, then let him go. End this nightmare and madness."
He didn't answer right away, he stood up, his joints popping in the silence, and walked to the tall window. He stood with his back to me, looking out over the kingdom he had spent his life defending. "I know. But before I do that, I need to check something first, I have to be certain of something before I make another decision,"
"And that is?"
"It's time I told you the truth," he whispered, slowly turning to face me. "It's about time you learn the truth."
A cold shiver raced down my spine. I gripped the armrests of the chair, my knuckles turning white. I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the wind to push me over.
"Years ago," he began, my voive gravelly. "My uncle had a child with a maid. My father, his senior brother and the late King, King James, had the child and the mother banished in order to save the family's name and legacy. My Uncle died years later, however the birth of his daughter remained a secret we all swore to never speak of," he moved closer, just stopping a few feet away. "Five years before you were born, a lady was found in our territories. From her maid attire, we could tell she was from the Elrondi kingdom. At first, I wanted her dead. Refugees from Elrondi were nothing but trouble in those days. But upon seeing her with a child- a tiny, shivering thing. I decided to let her be when she begged to stay."
He paused, his shoulders tensing. "My mother was alive then, the Queen Mother, and she permitted it despite my dissaproval to let her live in the palace, I had wanted her to live among the people, but my mother wanted otherwise. She had a soft heart for the woman and that child...that child was Grayson...and the woman was my cousin. My uncle's daughter."
I felt the air leave the room. I hadn't even settled down with the weight of secrets that Diana had unleashed and now my father was revealing a truth that was eerily the same to Diana's words.
"The boy grew up fine," my father continued, his back now to me. "I didn't care much at first. He was just the child of a serving girl, another mouth to feed. I also didn't acknowledge the woman as my cousin even though my mother secretly showed her love. However, that wasn't all- apart from that, something else wasn't right. The woman carried around a pendant, a heavy gold thing hidden beneath her bodice. One day, I got a close look at it, it was a family heirloom, one that I instantly recognized, one that only the royal family from the Elrondi kingdom possessed. That was when I learnt the shocking truth. The boy wasn't a bastard of some nameless Knight or villager. He was the son of King Varkar. I had the son of a tyrant under my own roof."
A single tear slipped from my eye and traced a hot path down my cheek. I bit my lip to keep from sobbing.
"Shortly after my mother died, I married your mother," My father continued, his face softening for a moment. "She took a liking to the boy and his mother. She had the woman stick around more often. I couldn't bring myself to tell your mother the truth- that my bastard cousin was her personal maid and that we were harboring a spark that could set the world on fire. But what I had failed to realize was that the future heir to the Elrondi family was Grayson, and not Valerius, the known crown prince of the Elrondi kingdom. Knowing that Grayson wasn't my blood felt like a relief, but realizing that the bastard was my blood was the disaster and when I learnt the whole truth, it was already too late."