Once we were safely within the stables, Vagabond knocked me over. I scrambled to my feet and buried my face in his mane, breathing in the stench of him without so much as a care. He had ridden very far and long to see me. The smell of his toil brought me nothing but admiration and relief.

“He has missed you very much,” June explained. “I used your grandmother’s funds to purchase him back once the Tower’s sold him off. I…simply could not imagine a world in which he was not yours.”

At that, it was June’s turn. I threw my arms around the spindly lady, and she embraced me in return, petting my head as she did.

“My dear, has it truly been so dreadful?”

I did not answer, only held on for longer. For who knows, in a world such as this, when a dear one might be torn from my arms once more?

“Oh my, I believe it is now very awkward to reveal that I have been sitting here the whole time. I meant to speak up at the very first moment, but I hesitated, and then the next moment seemed ill-fitting and then too many moments passed and now it is dreadful and I seem like a spy of some sort. So very sorry.”

Niall was slumped on a bale of hay, his eyes wide as he witnessed our warm embrace.

“Don’t worry, Cousin,” he added, his voice cracking. “The only person I would tell is long gone. Your secret is safe with me.”

Episode 84: A Young Braun Tells His Story

June rubbed her palms over my arms, taking in the sight of me. “How have you been, sweet child? Have they been good to you?” She squeezed my arms gently, frowning. “Why, Aurelie, you are half-starved! Why is this? Do they not feed you here? Surely they have the means to.”

But alas, with June present, a bit of my resilience was allowed to collapse, if only momentarily, and I realized how hungry I was—and how weary and how frightened and how angry—and I was so overwhelmed with these realizations that I could not find a way to express to June how horrid my stay at Rennington manor had been.

June looked over my shoulder to Niall. “You are one of the Renningtons? Why did you not greet me alongside your siblings?”

“Me?” Niall jabbed a thumb at his chest. “I am not exactly one of them, though by all technicalities, I bear the Rennington name. They do not…want me.”

“But why?” she sighed. “I’m sure it has some connection to the bruises and gashes on your handsome face, Braun Rennington?”

“Please, call me Niall. And….” His eyes flicked to me from behind his large spectacles as he measured whether he wanted me to know the story.