“I am abed. I’ve been bloody abed for weeks.”

“You are not abed. You are sitting on the side of it.”

“For I am about to take up my sticks and move to that chair and sit in that and you will be here to make certain I manage this feat. But before the attempt, you’ll answer my question.”

“I am your nurse. My duties are seeing to your health, not enduring an interrogation.”

“It’s hardly an interrogation, asking you why you have not given up on me when I have been so unkind to you.”

“Again, I am a nurse.”

“That is not all it is.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“It is.”

“It is not.”

“It is.”

“Bronagh, answer me.”

“Fine! I do not give up because you are a hero!”

I listened very hard.

But there was only silence from Alfie.

Not from Bronagh.

“You gave so much in order to save the queen and you did it without thinking all that you’d give,” Bronagh stated. “And it could have been much worse. All over Wodell, people talk about the former king diving behind the pew. But not you. Not you. And they all talk about you too and what they say is that you are a hero. And they say it because it is true.”

More silence from Alfie.

“And…and…you’re annoyingly handsome,” Bronagh went on.

I smiled at the door I had my ear to.

“And I like your eyes and you have the most attractive hands I have ever seen,” she finished. “So there. You know why I have not given up on you. Now will you either lie abed or get on your sticks?”

Alfie finally spoke.

“Come here, Bronagh.”

My smile got bigger.

“I don’t…don’t think it would be proper if I did so, considering that look upon your face.”

I almost didn’t hear it when Alfie said quietly, “Please, Bronagh, come here.”

“My queen.”

I jumped in shock, my hand going to my leaping heart, and whirled at those two whispered words said behind me.

Helga stood there.

She looked to the door, then to me, the door and then she asked me, “My queen, are you…eavesdropping?”

Swiftly, I moved to her, hooked my elbow in hers and drew her down the hall.

“I just…” I searched for a lie. “Was making certain Sir Alfie was all right.”

Helga glanced over her shoulder worriedly. “Has he taken a turn?”

I hoped he was taking a turn.

“Not for the worse, no.”

“Good,” she murmured.

“Now, did you need me?” I asked.

“I do not know. I was…”

She stopped at the end of the hall and turned to me, thus I unhooked our arms.

“Well, I was clearing some things away of…of…Queen Mercy’s,” she shared.

I reached a hand to her arm and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry, Helga. It needn’t be you who does that. Would you like me—?”

“No, you see, I found these.” She reached into the pocket of her skirts and pulled out a set of folded missives tied in a green satin ribbon. “I have not read them.” She proffered them to me. “And it likely matters not now, as he is gone and good riddance. But they are letters she had intercepted. As I have not read them, I know not what they say. But she kept them, so I thought it best to give them to you and you can decide.”