“No, Molly, please, Molly, come back, come back,” and I flung myself across the bed after her and managed to catch the hem of her skirt as she stood.
She turned back to me, still full of uncertainty.
“You are always exactly what I need. Always.”
A smile ghosted across her lips and she sat on the edge of the bed. “You seemed so distant.”
“I was. Sometimes I just need to clear my mind.” I stopped, uncertain of what else I could say without lying to her.
I was determined to do that no longer. I reached and took her hand into mine.
“Oh,” she said after a moment. There was an awkward little pause as I offered no further explanation. “Are you all right?” she asked carefully after a few more moments had slipped by.
“I’m fine. I didn’t get in to see the King today. I tried, but he wasn’t feeling well, and-”
“Your face is bruised. And scratched. There were rumors ….”
I took a silent breath. “Rumors?” Verity had enjoined the men to silence. Burrich wouldn’t have spoken, nor Blade. Perhaps none of them had spoken to anyone who hadn’t been there. But men will always discuss what they have witnessed together, and it wouldn’t take much for anyone to overhear them.
“Don’t play cat and mouse with me. If you don’t want to tell me, then say so.”
“The King-in-Waiting asked us not to speak of it. That isn’t the same as not wanting to tell you about it.”
Molly considered a moment. “I suppose not. And I shouldn’t listen to gossip, I know. But the rumors were so strange … and they brought bodies back to the Keep, for burning. And there was a strange woman, weeping and weeping in the kitchen today. She said that Forged ones had stolen and killed her child. And someone said you had fought them to try and get the baby back, and another said, no, that you’d come upon them just as a bear attacked them. Or something. The rumors were so confusing. Someone said you had killed them all, and then someone who had helped burn the bodies said that at least two of them had been mauled by an animal of some kind.” She fell silent and looked at me. I didn’t want to think about any of it. I didn’t want to lie to her, nor even to tell her the truth. I couldn’t tell anyone the complete truth. So I just looked into her eyes and wished that things were simpler for us.