Page 134 of Bloom
It was assumed they’d left their horses free to graze, and they’d fled. Or someone had stolen them.
Jaime had to pretend he’d been on the cart and fortunate enough to not catch what his parents had. Seeing them dying, he’d panicked and wandered away, hoping to find other adults to help. He’d been lost in the woods, and what luck that he’d managed to find Trida and William’s home after being lost for so long. He had no other family, so they didn’t need to write or send him away.
His new name was Theo, and he had to repeat the story over and over with other lies including the name of a village far away. Trida barely left his side in the first few weeks, and if he stumbled over a detail, she always butted in to help while comforting him and saying the whole thing had traumatized him.
Trida said she didn’t know if their lord could be trusted because they couldn’t tell who was responsible for the slaughter of the Scaliger family and their entire court. He hadn’t been the Baron for long, and then all that happened?
William said he likely had nothing to do with it, but it was best if they said nothing. He might blab, and if anyone knew a Scaliger remained…At night, Jaime heard Trida whispering andworrying. Surely, they’d look for Jaime, thinking to silence him even though he knew nothing of the few attackers he’d seen.
Jaime feared the same. He often huddled under his blanket at night, listening for boots running toward him. Or he cried himself to sleep because he missed his family.
After a couple of years, the villagers had accepted him and his story. He was one of them. He learned to respond to the name Theo, and the Baron seemed to think nothing odd of Jaime. Trida stopped being suspicious of him, but she said Jaime couldn’t utter his real name or who he was.
She tried to change Jaime’s speech too because his accent was a bit too fine in her opinion. William covered it up by saying that’s how everyone sounded back where Jaime came from.
He called the couple Aunt and Uncle. Aunt Trida said Elira must have guided him to them because they’d had a son once. He’d died a long time ago, and she’d never had another child. Elira knew Jaime needed a family, and she’d made sure he found Vemer.
Jaime grew into a teenager of sixteen. When Uncle William died, Aunt Trida, who had been with him for over sixty years, soon followed.
After burying her, Jaime hadn’t known what to do with himself. The familiar house was too empty and might as well have belonged to strangers. The new roots the kind couple had put down for him had been ripped out, and he had nowhere to go. His old home wasn’t his anymore. King Alton had later given Hemshire to a Knight because a hold must have a lord.
If Jaime went inside the Castle, everything would be different with a new man sitting in Father’s chair at the High Table. He knew nothing of the Knight-turned-lord, but he guessed the man’s children ran about the halls where Jaime had once played. If he went into his parent’s old rooms, he wouldn’t see their portraits or Mother’s jewelry box on her vanity. Jed andFather wouldn’t be heard laughing from the office, and even the servants would be different.
The Scaliger’s were merely a memory to everyone who knew of them.
All he had was Father’s sword with the hilt wrapped in leather and hidden under his Aunt and Uncle’s bed, and their empty house.
He had no idea the truth of that night and he never would. Either way, it was time to leave Rhyo. Maybe he’d be able to put roots down somewhere else.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aleric leaned back in his armchair, partly blown away. “That’s it? You never found out anything?”
Jaime shook his head. “They killed everyone except for me, so…it could have been revenge. I don’t know what for. They didn’t loot the Castle, and while the burned bodies were random, it seemed like malice. All the Scaligers were killed, and the rest were permanently quieted. Uncle William said the married couple might have angered someone, and since they’d been friends with Father…I don’t know. Whoever it was, I’m guessing they never suspected where I was. They must have realized no one had managed to kill me, but they had to go, and if a particular person was overall responsible, perhaps they lied and said I was dead too. I don’t know.”
“Someone specific must have been in charge of the event.”
“And I don’t know if that person was there. Maybe they burned bodies to cover up the fact that one had gotten away. Technically two, since Jed made it out of the Castle.”
“Do you remember any of those men’s names?”
“No. I was young, and courtiers came and went. Not all of them lived either since the court tried to fight against the sudden attack. Mixed in with the rest, they would have been counted as victims.”
Aleric couldn’t think of any reason or any person who held a grudge against the Scaligers. He’d never heard anything. Then again, it wasn’t something a man would speak of out loud. All he remembered as a child was the shock of everyone who heard of the vicious attack.
“Aunt and Uncle told me over and over to lie and never admit my real name, especially the last one. If anyone ever found outwho I was, and that info reached the wrong ears, they might come after me. If my parents pissed off the wrong person, killing me would be further punishment.”
“But you go by Jaime.”
“I didn’t want to be Theo. Jaime is common enough, and so is Meyer. I kept my Aunt and Uncle’s last name, Father’s sword, and the name Mother gave me. I told no one the truth, and I changed my story to make it harder to trace me, just in case. I’ve wandered since I was sixteen. Every time I stayed in a place and wondered if I could settle, it never worked out. Work would get a bit scarce, I didn’t like the area, my job was terrible, or someone I’d be seeing wanted to break things off, or I just couldn’t see myself married to them. I thought things were pretty serious with one guy. It turned out he was fucking two others…” He looked away.
His protectiveness made sense now. He wouldn’t leave Aleric because others had stayed with him either until they couldn’t or didn’t need to. Jaime said Vemer and his mate had gone away to the South Sea where a good deal of werewolves lived, and he’d never seen them again.
“I’m sorry about the way I acted,” said Aleric.
“I meant to tell you,” said Jaime. “I swear I did. I didn’t think you’d run to blab to everyone who I am, but it’s not easy to tell someone the truth when you’ve kept it a secret for most of your life. I lived a lie for so long, it’s become normal to me. It was safer even when I left to drift. Gautier’s not my Father, and every time I look in the mirror, I see bits of Federico. Mémé always said I looked so much like Nonno when he was young, and I took a lot after my Mother, but I’ve got Father’s eyes. They were orange.”
“I’m sorry, Jaime. About your family and what I said downstairs.”
