He glanced at me, an odd look. Sympathy, but no false comfort. “I’ll let her know,” he promised.
I left the stables feeling that somehow I had grown. I wondered if I would ever stop measuring myself by how Burrich treated me.
I went directly to the kitchen, intending to get something to eat, then go rest as Burrich had suggested. The watch room was packed with the returning soldiers, telling stories to the ones who had stayed home while devouring stew and bread. I had expected that, and intended to find my own provisions and carry them off to my room. But within the kitchen, everywhere, kettles were bubbling, bread was rising, and meat was turning on spits. Kitchen servants were chopping, stirring, and going to and fro hurriedly.
“There is a feast tonight?’ I asked stupidly.
Cook Sara turned to face me. “Oh, Fitz, so you’re back and alive and in one piece for a change.” She smiled as if she had complimented me. “Yes, of course, there’s a feast to celebrate the victory at Neatbay. We would not neglect you.”
“With Verity dead, we still sit down to feast?”
Cook looked at me levelly. “Were Prince Verity here, what would he wish?”
I sighed. “He would probably say to celebrate the victory. That folk need hope more than mourning.”
“So exactly Prince Regal explained it to me this morning,” Cook said with satisfaction. She turned back to rubbing spices into a leg of venison. “We’ll mourn him, of course. But you have to understand, Fitz. He left us. Regal is the one who stayed here. He stayed here to look after the King, and mind the coasts as best as he could. Verity is gone, but Regal is still here with us. And Neatbay is not fallen to the Raiders.”