They pulled to at the palace steps and Favor opened the door.
"We made good time, thank Providence. The king is that upset. He'd likely blame me for loitering if anyone had slowed us down today."
"Ups-s-set?" Skoch stuttered. "What is he upset about? We didn't go without authority. It was the prince himself who suggested the trip and procured the money from the M-m-ministry of Education."
Repentance stared at Skoch, aghast. If the prince had arranged the trip—
Generosity flew out the front door, wringing her hands. "You're back. I'm to take you to the king."
"What's wrong? Favor said the king was upset."
Giving her a pitiful look, Generosity whispered, "My Lady, he is very angry about something, I know not what. When Provocation told me to fetch you she told me your tongue could ... your tongue could melt the palace as easily as dragon breath." Her words drowned out the happiness Repentance had been feeling under the glow of Sober's smile. The maid might as well have dumped a bucket of mud into her heart.
"Provocation said that if you lived through this one she'd know for sure you were a blessed one under protection of Providence, for none but he can save you now."
"That's what Provocation knows," Repentance said as she followed Generosity down the hall. She'd done nothing but dodge the prince and mind her own business for two horrible weeks. And for that she was in some kind of trouble. "There are no blessed ones among the lowborns. Providence hasn't bothered himself with us for two hundred and fifty years."
Generosity gasped. "I'm sure you're wrong, my Lady."
She wasn't wrong. She was always in trouble simply for having the misfortune of being lowborn. She hadn't even seen the king, but she'd done something to offend him.
Surely it was some kind of mistake.
Or the prince was up to something.
"Did you call him a name, my Lady? Did you say anything to him?"
"I've done nothing, I tell you. I haven't seen him in two weeks."
"Lower your voice, my Lady." Generosity went pale. She pulled at Repentance's arm trying to slow her down.
Repentance shook her away.
"It's here," Generosity said, motioning toward a closed door. "The king's personal library is here."
Repentance reached for the door handle.
"I'll pray for you, my Lady," Generosity said.
"If it helps you, Generosity, pray as you wish." She opened the door and strode in.
Provocation stood in front of the king's desk, looking at some parchment. The king leaned over to peer around her. Then, looking up, he nodded to dismiss her.
Provocation brushed by Repentance on her way out, throwing her a look of disgust.
The king waited, his face livid. As soon as the door swished shut he spoke. "Must I kill you? Will you force me to hang you on the frame?"
"What have I done?"
"As if you don't know." He coughed a couple of times. "Who else have you told? How many of my enemies have you sold information to?" He coughed several more times.
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
He took a flask from his drawer and took a healthy swig. "I saved you, Repentance. I saved you out of pity. And this is the way you repay me? You tell my enemies that I am sick. Too weak to take a concubine. Coughing all the time."
She hadn't told his enemies. "I've told no one."
Only Sober.
Sober!
"There! Your face tells the truth that your mouth will not admit."
But surely Sober wouldn't have told anyone.
"I've nothing to admit to."
"You lie. No one knew that you were my concubine in name only except for you, Repentance. I never told anyone."
"Neither did I tell!"
"Word of your treachery reached me down at the healing house. If you told no one then why is half the palace laughing over the fact that I am too old and sick to take a concubine?"
"I never—"
"Provocation heard it. The tutor told her. My footmen heard it. One of them passed it to the milkmaids, no doubt, who tattled it to Cook. She may have hushed it up at table but not before the stable hands caught hold of it. In one day the whole palace knew. Three days later all Harthill was aware, for the story made its way to the city market to be bartered back and forth with the broccoli and the beads."
Sober!
"The thing that makes me angriest is that I treated you so kindly. I gave you so much. You had the queen's bedchamber. I have paid for a wardrobe full of rich clothing. Above all, you had honor. You were being educated beside my own flesh and blood."
She hung her head.
"I don't believe you told anyone because you wanted to harm me. I believe you did it because you are stupid and impetuous."
She was both of those and selfish besides. She'd told Sober because she wanted him to like her. She'd been ashamed and she'd wanted Sober to know that she wasn't really a concubine. And that had been more important than keeping her word to the king and securing his trust so that she might save Comfort and her little brothers when they landed on the slave dock.
"I am stupid and impetuous, my Lord," she said.
"A king must command respect from his subjects or all is lost. You've treated me like your pet potentate. You dance around the palace as if you own it."
"I'm sorry."
"But that doesn't do away with the damage you've done. Had you been working instead of meeting with boyfriends, and shaming me in
