I couldn’t help her. I couldn’t move. I stared blankly into the fire, at the chair still beside it, until she slammed the last trunk closed. “Done. Let’s get you out of here.”

“Lang and Perrault are handling the formalities,” Yu announced grimly as we stalked into the night. He and Skop piled bags onto the waiting cart, boots crunching on the gravel path.

“After what Bertilak’s done, this should be simple,” Cobie muttered. Lithe as a cat, she leapt onto the tail of the wagon and began arranging our luggage.

Suddenly, we all paused, glancing back at the castle’s gray facade. Skop flexed his fingers, then fisted them. “Oh, no way.”

But there was no mistaking the sound of the approaching crowd.

Bear skidded onto the gravel path, panting, the end of his sash and the hem of his tunic billowing behind him. “Selah!” Servants and nobles poured outside behind him, Kay and Veery and Tristan at the head of the throng. They surrounded him, wide- and worry-eyed.

“Keep moving,” I said darkly, fumbling with the handle on one of Perrault’s suitcases. It tumbled from my grasp, its corner tearing a hole in my skirt.

“Selah, please let me—”

Skop put a protective arm around me, and Cobie pulled the knife from her boot, fingers flexing around its handle. “You’re going to want to back away from her.”

Veery surged forward. “Steady on!”

“Cobie, no,” I blurted.

She shoved the knife back into place but continued to glare at Bear. He waved off his friends, and they backed into the crowd, expressions ranging from fury to fear.

I shook my head at him. “Don’t make this worse than it already is.”

“I can’t let you leave without explaining,” Bear said, desperate.

“Explain?” I demanded. “You had two weeks to explain the truth to me! You missed your chance to come clean.”

“You must see, we had to be sure—”

“What? To be sure your whole family had the chance to thoroughly humiliate me with their lies and that stupid game?” My shout was jagged in the damp night air. I dragged the back of my wrist across my tears, clenching my rosary in my other hand. “No. In violation of all convention and my trust, you tricked me.” My voice cracked, thin and weary. “I broke the rules for you. I never break the rules, and now I remember why. I won’t be so naive again.”

I turned away from him, making to climb onto the cart.

“Selah, we were worried about your stepmother!” Bear blurted.

I froze. Turned back to him. Drew near.

Bear’s chest rose and fell in agitated breaths.

“What did you say?” I whispered.

“Your stepmother,” he said again. “Her letter came mere months before your arrival. It was—urgent, pressing. Aggressive.” Bear shook his head, eyes luminous, dying to make me understand.

“You lied to me because of a pushy letter?”