“If I were sent into exile, and my mother went with me,” True continued, “she would not help me to build the new life we would need to build and then set about living it. She would plot and she would connive to find a way that we were both, especially me, put back in our rightful place. Even if it meant her, or my, death. So I do not know warmth and smiles and understanding from my mother. When she dies, I will miss her. I will mourn her. I will forever be grateful that she spent so much energy crafting me into the honorable and just king I hope to become. I did not have what I saw you had from your mother. Though if I did, one thing I know, I would miss it more.”

“True,” I whispered.

His arm around me disappeared in order that he could wrap his fingers around the side of my neck.

“And you will not be the queen my mother is,” True whispered back harshly. “I will see to it there will be no need for that to become you. You will provide our children with smiles and warmth and understanding. You will be the mother your mother was. And that way, she will live on through you. There will be peace and joy and family in the royal quarters of Birchlire Castle. That will be my gift to you. And that will be your gift to Sofia. But I cannot give it, and you will not have it, if I am Your Grace. I am your betrothed, Farah. I’ll be your husband. The father of your children. Those come first. And the last will always be your king.”

I was lying beside him in the dark, unmoving, and yet breathing as if I was running.

“You must feel your sorrow, sweets, of course,” he said in a softer tone. “It is an honor to your mother. But I do not know what we face. We’ve barely left this palace and we’ve had two casualties—”

“Two?” I interrupted him to ask.

“Aramus lost a man.”

I didn’t know that.

“Oh no,” I said quietly.

“Yes, Farah,” he replied, now stroking my throat with his thumb. “There will be times when you will need to be weak, and I will be strong. There will be times when that’s the other way around. But we have no idea what we’re going to face. So when you are weak, I will persist in helping you to find your strength. And I will need you to do the same for me.”

“I miss her,” I blurted.

“Farah,” he whispered, his hand coming up to cup my jaw.

My voice was getting thicker. “I ca-cannot believe that the sun will rise tomorrow, like it did today, and I-I will not s-see her.”

“Darling,” he murmured.