Page 66 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

I nearly spit out my soup, setting into a violent round of hacking. “I beg your pardon?”

“Sweetheart,” Charity says with a chuckle. “I’ve known the entire time. There’s no need to hide it.”

I stare at her, my mouth fallen open, and I don’t know whether to be afraid or desperately relieved.

“I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re afraid of.” She takes the empty bowl, sitting on the edge of the bed.

I groan, closing my eyes. “How did you know?”

“A woman knows another woman, sweet. Now,Nat, would you like a confidant in . . .all this?” She gestures around us. “Or shall I leave you to your secrets?”

The words come tumbling free without consulting me, anxious to be spoken. “My stepmother sold my horse, and I was afraid she would do worse if I didn’t marry a man Ineverwant to see again in my life. I had to get out before I would be forced to accept his proposal!”

The rest of the story pours out without restraint. I don’t tell her my name, but I do mention that I have an inheritance that everyone keeps trying to steal. It’s enough that she will know who I am.

I do not tell her about my identity as the Ivy Mask.

“It’s all a mess!” I cry, throwing up my hands.

“That isquitethe situation,” Charity agrees. She sits beside me, her legs crossed and her black stockings poking out beneath the hem of her frock. “Have you considered confiding in the master?”

“Confidingin him?” I release a high-pitched chortle. “You cannot be serious.”

“I am. Did you not see how worried he was about you?”

She should have seen him interrogating me only moments ago.

She continues. “I am not one to trust a fae, but his attentiveness is unusual—not even human masters care so much about their servants—and I find it to be a virtue. His steward is amiable, too, for that matter.”

I shut my gaping mouth and wrap my arms around my knees.

“If you told the master, he might be able to help you,” she adds.

I’m already shaking my head. “I’m not saying he has not a single virtue, but I just . . . I cannot confide in him. If he sent me away or exposed me to my stepfamily, I’d have nowhere else to go. What I stand to gain from his aid is nowhere near as much as I stand to lose.”

Bartholomew, my fortune, my freedom, my ability to perform raids.

It feels like I am clinging to all the things I will inevitably lose because I didn’t deserve to have them in the first place.

Charity gets to her feet. “I’ve got work to do, but I am glad you are doing better, and I will do what I can to protect your secret until you’re ready.”

“Thank you,” I say earnestly as she takes the empty bowl and leaves.

Chapter 20

Rahk

Ididn’twantyouto die . . . because you are a person.

Those strange words rattle around in my brain. No matter how much I try to distract myself, they keep returning. Along with the image seared into my brain of her, eyes widened, face wreathed in panic, clutching the marble bust she’d used to break through my door.

She looked frightened. As if she genuinely cared whether I lived or died. And she took those injuries without hardly flinching—injuries that were supposed to be forme. She never should have been hurt. I never should have left myself sovulnerable.

I was wrong. Nat is not easy to understand. She must be telling the truth, that she saved me simply out of the goodness of her heart. There are precious few people I would willingly, without ulterior motive, put myself at risk for. Ash, his wife, their heir, and Pavi. That is it.

Does Nat just sacrifice her safety for anyone, then?

Why?

---