The things he’d mentioned in the carriage had been tangible. Dresses and horses and diamonds. How about a small cottage by the sea? With a garden full of blooms where I could live out the rest of my life however I wished . . .
No, no. I could never be so selfish. If I was off living in some cottage, what was to stop my fate from becoming Keelynn’s? And if our father forced her to marry anyone but Robert, she’d be miserable. I should save my wish and use it for her.
Still, when I closed my eyes, I pictured a tiny, white-washed cottage with yellow shutters built on a height, overlooking a stormy sea. Bright red poppies, blue cornflowers, and yellow forsythia growing on either side of a stone path shuddered in the salty breeze.
Dark clouds lurked off the coast, promising rain. I could see myself racing across the field, my heart singing with happiness even as my lungs burned from exertion, eventually reaching the door. Twisting the cold, damp brass handle. Throwing it open.
And finding Rían smirking on the other side.
I bolted upright.
Was that cinnamon? It was.
“Rían?”
Only silence answered.
I shoved my curls back from my sweaty forehead. I was slowly going mad. It was this room. That had to be it. I kicked the covers aside and dragged my dressing gown from the back of the chair.
The empty hallway felt like a cavern in the darkness. My father’s snores echoed from his room at the end of the hall. I turned to my sister’s chambers three doors down from my own and opened the door.
When we were smaller, we used to share this bedroom. Roughly the same size as my own, her bed had a whimsical white canopy and a quilt with lace edges—uniquely feminine and unblemished by memories of cursed princes.
And bloody freezing.
The coals in the hearth glowed a dull orange. Why was it so cold?
Lacy curtains on either side of her window fluttered. Was she mad? Leaving the window ajar so anyone could come in—
My eyes flew to the bed.
Empty.
Oh, Keelynn. What have you done?I didn’t have to think too hard to know where she had gone—and with whom.
Robert.
I could have gone looking for her, but the truth was, I didn’t want to know what they were doing. Instead, I sank onto the mattress, the weight of my burdens making me droop until my head hit her lavender-scented pillow.
Some time later, a soft curse lifted on the breeze. A hand appeared on the sill, followed by a head of dark hair. Keelynn threw herself into the room, collapsing onto the pink rug beneath the chaise, her hair falling in a heavy curtain over her face.
I sat up slowly to keep from startling her.
The moment she began to sob, I jumped out of bed and fell to my knees at her side.
When she saw me, she cried harder, hiding her face behind her hands.
“Are you all right?” I asked, trying to pry her fingers away from her eyes. “Are you hurt?”
The question made her wail.
No sense talking to her when she was like this. The best thing to do was let her get all the tears out first. So, I held her until her sobs turned to sniffles and her trembling stilled.
Pressing a palm to her sticky cheek, I brushed her dark strands aside and brought her face to mine.
“Robert begged me to meet him in the garden,” she confessed, her eyes downcast. “He—we. . .” A sniffle.
Dammit. I should’ve been protecting her instead of wasting my time dreaming of something that would never be. I couldn’t use that wish for myself. I couldn’t.