Page 58 of The Forgotten Queen
“I remember that too.” The queen mother laughed. “You had to work that entire summer out in the garden to replant all the bushes you destroyed.”
“While Palmer got to play all summer with his friends,” Dannyn added.
“I don’t recall Palmer being a part of that situation. I only remember Marx,” King McKane said, glancing around the table.
Sydria noticed Marx’s eyes drop.
“Oh, Palmer was definitely a part of it,” Dannyn said, taking another bite of her food. “What other stories can I tell about Marx?” Her question prompted him to look up again and smile.
Sydria spent the next hour listening as Dannyn and Marx swapped stories from their childhood. She envied the way they could recall each memory so easily, like it had only happened yesterday. She didn’t know how family dinners usually went for them, but there was a lightness in the air. A burden had been lifted off their family, for a moment, as they laughed and reminisced. Even Meldrum McKane seemed to be having a good time.
She looked around the dinner table, and all she saw was a family, not royalty. A part of her wanted to slip into the role of a daughter-in-law, to allow these relationships to become her relationships. And if she wasn’t careful, something like that could easily happen.
Family dinners with Von and Edmay hadn’t been like this. Sydria felt more loved and wanted on day two with the McKane family than she ever had with her aunt and uncle. But despite all of that, Von had saved her life. Why would he do that if he didn’t care for her even a little bit?
She needed to stay focused on remembering who she was, on finding the truth, and hopefully remembering whatever family she still had left.
If there were any.
Marx
“Dinner was fun,”Sydria said as they walked out of the castle and into the garden. The waves below seemed louder than usual, crashing against the rocks.
“Yeah,” Marx said. “I thought so too.”
His family hadn’t had a dinner like that since Palmer had died, but somehow Sydria’s presence had pieced them together again, even if it was only for a night.
They stopped at the balcony, looking down over the moonlit cliff.
“I’m sorry if my father made you feel uncomfortable about your memory.”
“It’s okay. I don’t blame him. No one, including myself, knows what to do with a person who has no past. It makes getting to know me kind of hard.” She turned to face him, the wind pulling strands from her dark hair and blowing them back from her face. “I wish there was someone I could ask, who could tell me everything I need to know about myself. What I like. What I don’t like. The things that are unique about me.”
“You don’t need somebody to tell you all of that.” He smiled back at her. “Just be the woman that you want to be. Like what you want to like.”
She gripped the railing. “That’s easier said than done.”
“Why?”
“Shouldn’t you take your own advice?” Her tone was flat.
“How so?” Her boldness amused him.
She brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “When we met on the beach, you said you were pretending.”
“Oooh, look who’s calling me out,” he said, bumping her shoulder with his own.
“Shouldn’tyoube the man you want to be?”
“You got me there.” He laughed.
“See,” she said. “It’s not that easy.”
“Well, if you’re looking for someone to tell you who you are, I’m the man for the job.” He pushed off the railing and walked over to a stone bench on the other side of the balcony. The smell of flowers filled the air around him.
“What do you mean?” she asked as she watched him.
“I’ve got a great imagination.” He patted the seat next to him, hoping she’d join him.
