Silas snorted. “Right. Between best friends.”
Dimitri gave him a wry look. “I’ll marry your cousin when you marry mine.”
“Deal.”
Gwen frowned at them. “Surely you’re not discussing Annika or myself without our knowledge. We will be deciding our own futures. Thank you.” She turned her back on them and strode down the hallway.
“I—I’m not done talking,” Silas called after her.
“As the leader of our clan, I’m responsible for you,” Dimitri yelled.
She ignored them both and passed through the doorway into the courtyard.
“Damn,” Dimitri muttered.
Silas sighed. “This business of marriage might be more difficult than we thought.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Gwennore slept late the next morning after tossing and turning most of the night. She was a princess? Half Norveshki? Dimitri was her cousin? She’d met his mother at the manor house and had really liked her. Now she realized the woman was her aunt.
No wonder Gwennore had felt a connection to the land here. And a connection to the dragons. She had family here. She was a member of the Tolenko clan and the daughter of a shape-shifting dragon.
But what about the elfin part of her? Why had she been sent away as a babe? Had they considered her unworthy since she was a half-breed? If she was a princess, then her mother must have been from the royal family and fallen in love with Lord Tolenko. Had it been a secret affair, or had the two lovers married? How had her father died? Had he been murdered for fathering a child with an elfin princess?
And why did someone in Woodwyn want her captured and taken back to use as a pawn?
Silas wanted her to stay here. Even Leo and Luciana thought she was safer here.
But what did she want?
Her thoughts kept returning to the passionate moment in the cabin. Could she trust her heart to Silas? Her immediate reply was yes. Did she love the countryside and her new friends? Yes. Could the Norveshki people accept her as Silas’s wife and future queen? No.
Her heart clenched with regret, and then a spurt of anger. If she cured the plague she might be accepted, but why did she always feel a need to prove herself?
While eating breakfast with Margosha and Annika in the workroom, she told them what she’d learned about her parents. They were delighted she was half Norveshki and insisted she remain here with her new family and friends.
The verna leaves they had picked the day before had dried enough that they set to work, tearing them into tiny pieces. As the pile grew on the table, they chatted about what was happening around the castle.
“Dimitri asked me to have dinner with him tonight in the Great Hall,” Annika announced, her cheeks flushed with excitement.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Margosha smiled. “Do you have a pretty gown you can wear? I could loan you one.”
While the two women discussed what Annika should wear for her date with Dimitri, Gwennore’s mind wandered back to the conversation she’d overheard between Dimitri and Silas. Were the two men in some sort of race now to prove their honorable intentions?
“When I attended the queen this morning, she was feeling much better,” Margosha said. “She insisted on getting dressed, so she could take a walk in the garden.”
“That’s excellent news!” Annika grinned. “I think the verna tea is working.”
“It looks that way.” Gwennore glanced at her greenish fingertips. They were becoming stained from two days of handling verna leaves.
Margosha sighed. “But because it’s Opalday, Her Majesty wanted her opal ring back.”
“Oh, dear.” Annika winced. “Did you tell her it was poison?”
Margosha shook her head. “I didn’t want to frighten or agitate her, so I told her we were still cleaning her jewelry.”
“That was wise,” Gwennore told her. “I don’t think the queen is healthy enough to handle any stress right now.”
“Olenka told me that everyone is saying you’re a witch,” Annika muttered. “And you’re brewing secret tonics up here in your lair.”
Margosha snorted. “One of the ladies-in-waiting asked me if you could make her a love potion.”
Gwennore sighed. Could the Norveshki people accept her? As a witch perhaps, but not as a queen.
A knock sounded at the door, then Silas peered inside.
The rascal. Making deals with Dimitri as if marriage was their decision alone. Gwennore ignored him and scooped some shredded verna leaves into a large stone mortar.
“Silas!” Margosha waved him over. “Come in.”
He strolled toward them. “I thought I would check to see how you’re doing.”
Just the sound of his voice made Gwennore’s skin tingle.
“We’re working,” Annika told him, then nudged Gwennore with her elbow.
She glanced up and discovered that Silas was watching her closely. With a quick movement, she grabbed the pestle and slammed it into the mortar.
The sound startled Annika, and she leaned close to whisper, “Careful. You could break it.”
Margosha cleared her throat, then smiled at Silas. “As you can see, we’re preparing the verna leaves. What is that you’re carrying?”
He set a small clay crock on the table. “I had planned to give this to Lady Gwennore last night, but she left before I was finished with our conversation.”
The pestle made a grinding noise as Gwennore pressed it down and twisted it.
Annika lifted the lid on the crock and peered inside. “Holy Light, this stuff is strong.” Her eyes watered as she closed the lid.
“It’s a spice made from a hot pepper that grows in southern Eberon,” Silas explained. “It’s what the Eberoni royal physician recommended. This was all that Luciana had on hand at their camp, but she said she would have more delivered from Ebton Palace. I’ll go back to Vorushka tomorrow to pick it up.”
“Thank you.” Margosha slid the crock across the table to Gwennore. “What do you think?”
She opened the lid and took a sniff. Holy goddesses. “It certainly seems powerful enough to wipe out a disease.”
Annika nodded. “I’m thinking a little bit will go a long way.”
Gwennore glanced at the ground-up verna leaves in her mortar. “We could make a tonic of verna leaves and this spice, but
