“How can you remember all those names?” Han said.

“My family’s been at court for generations, you know,” Rebecca said. “Some of it had to soak in. You’ve heard those songs, haven’t you, that name off the Gray Wolf queens in order?”

Actually, he knew some drinking songs that named off the queens, but they didn’t bear repeating to a blueblood. “I don’t have to memorize them, do I?” he asked. “I’d just as soon skip over that. To tell the truth, I don’t give a rat’s arse about the queens.”

She flinched, as if he’d slapped her. “All right, but I just thought—”

“The queens, the nobility, that whole lot—they’re just bloodsuckers feeding off the people. They don’t care at all what happens in the streets.”

“You don’t know that,” Rebecca said, color staining her pale cheeks. “You don’t know anything about Queen Marianna and what she—”

“You’re the one that doesn’t know anything,” Han said. “Forgive me for being a cynic, but I know how people are treated outside of the castle close.”

“What makes you think I don’t?” Rebecca said, her voice rising. “I was in Southbridge Guardhouse, remember? I saw how you’d been beaten. I saw what happened to your friends. But you can’t think the queen had any—”

Han plowed right over her words. “The queen has had everything to do with every bad thing that’s happened to me in the past year.”

Raisa sat frozen, her green eyes fixed on his face, speechless for once.

Why are you telling her this, Alister? Han thought. Just shut it. Not the way to follow up on flowers. But he opened his mouth and the story came pouring out.

“Me and my mam and little sister lived over a stable in Ragmarket,” he said. “My mam did washing for the queen until she was dismissed for ruining one of her dresses. I’d given up thieving, so we had no money at all. That was the start of it.”

Rebecca leaned forward, lacing her fingers together. “I never realized that your mother worked for the queen,” she said. “Perhaps…perhaps there’s a way to get her reinstated. I…know some people and…”

Han shook his head. “Don’t try and fix this. It’s not fixable. Just listen. The queen’s responsible for public works, right? For the water supply and like that. Well, the wells went bad in Ragmarket, and my sister, Mari, caught the fever. While I was out trying to get the money to buy some medicine for her, the bluejackets came looking for me, thinking I was the one hushed the Southies that died. When they didn’t find me, they set fire to the stable with Mam and Mari inside.”

“What?” Rebecca whispered, her face now gone ashen.