Page 169

“That wrinkly, poisoned toad? Hell no.” Scoffing, she shakes her head, a slow, fond smile lighting her face. “She hadsomething much better than him.Me.” Raising her glass, she says, “And a reigning Princess.”

I don’t realizethat I’m shaking until Adeline hands me the cup of tea.

“I always knew this day would come,” she says, sitting across from me. Mama B, who offered to drive after Wicker took Justice home, is perched on the other armchair. “I just didn’t expect it so soon. I guess I just figured the King was invincible, and we’d all go to our graves carrying his disgusting secrets.” She’s in a fuzzy pink robe, her hair twisted into a dozen or more rollers, and a pair of oversized eyeglasses are perched on her nose. No makeup or curls or accessories, just a pocketful of tissues.

It’s like seeing behind the curtain.

Awkwardly, I shrug. “He thought he was, too. But turns out, he was mortal like the rest of us.” I take a sip and realize she added a heavy dose of bourbon. Thank fuck. “You lied to me that day I was here,” I say, recalling our discussion at the Gilded Rose.

“This woman, clearly someone you’re related to, is a mystery. We’ve got no information on her at all. I was hoping you might know.”

Adeline gives me a regretful smile. “I wasn’t sure yet how much you knew. In truth, I wasn’t even positive you were the baby Rufus forced her to give up. It was just a hunch. But I could tell you were curious. Searching.” Her head tilts. “Duplicity isn’t something I boast about, but I’ve learned to be good at it.” She glances at Mama B, a proud grin on her face. “Fifteen years and the bastard never knew I was involved in getting Odette out of that cell.”

Mama B chuckles. “No one ever suspects a woman in fuzzy pink slippers.”

Adeline raises her glass in a toast. “Hear, hear.”

I watch them with a sense of total disbelief, wondering, “How the hell did you do that? The dungeon is impenetrable. Ask me how I know.”

Pushing her glasses up her nose, Adeline looks skyward, pulling up the recollection. “I remember I’d just been coronated—barely a month along in the pregnancy. My Princes were—and I’m sure you can relate, Pace—handsome and ambitious, and very eager with their deposits.”

Mama B chokes on her tea, hacking a cough. “Christ, Adeline, I don’t want to hear that shit.”

She just shrugs, unbothered. “But they were dreadful at the uglier bits. The morning sickness and the constant puking were repulsive to them.” Rolling her eyes, she recounts, “One day, after returning to the palace from campus, I was rushing up the stairs to get to the bathroom. But I didn't make it. Doubled over right there and hurled my guts out on the second- floor landing. I’d grabbed onto the nearest thing I could find to brace myself, which turned out to be a?—”

“Wall sconce.” I set my tea down slowly, sensing where this was going. “You found the secret passage.”

“Yes!” she chirps, growing animated. “So, being the curious girl I was, I followed it down to the basement.”

“The dungeon,” I correct.

She nods impatiently. “And right there, in that awful cell, was none other than Odette Delisle.” A hand flutters to her chest. “I was shocked to see her there, obviously pregnant, but far too thin. At first, I was so confused. Everyone had heard the rumors about the failed Princess that the King took pity on by giving her a job at the Gentlemen’s Chamber. To the rest of Forsyth, she was entertainment, but to future princesses, she was a warning.”

Swallowing, I ask, “What did you do?”

“Oh, I just talked to her.” A tenderness fills her eyes as she stirs her tea. “For the next couple weeks, I’d bring her all the food that I couldn’t manage to keep down anyway, and I tried to think of a way to help her. But,” She pauses, pain filling her eyes. “I was weak and always sick. My pregnancy wasn’t going so well.” Twisting a tissue in her hands, she looks away. “And then, during the Lords’ Christmas party, I met Liberty.”

“I had a four-year-old, a babysitter, and five precious hours to spare.” Mama B levels me with a look. “I was three sheets to the wind, ranting about Rufus fucking Ashby.”

“I took a chance and told her about what I had found,” Adeline explains, sitting to her full height. “And together, with the help of a couple of other Royal women, we organized a little rescue mission.”

My heart races as I glance between them. “You got her out?”

Mama B nods. “We did. Right out the solarium, through the back lawn, and into a little jon boat anchored on the shore. Rufus never saw it coming.” Her stare shifts to Adeline, who’s grown conspicuously silent, that tissue in her hands being twisted to tatters. “Unfortunately, that was the night Addy lost her baby.”

It grips my chest, the way the creation of life in Forsyth always seems to cling to death. Adeline’s baby, Lex’s parents, Wicker’s father, Rufus and Laura Walker…

Can creation ever just come without destruction?

“I’m sorry,” I say, voice tight.

Adeline shrugs this off with a breezy, “That miscarriage may have saved my life. I wasn’t just a failed Princess. I was broken, and Rufus released me, none the wiser.” But the anguish is there, right beneath the surface. “It was easier knowing I’d helped save three lives.”

Taking a deep breath, I raise my plaintive gaze to hers. “If there’s anything you know—anything you can tell me about my mother or siblings…” Pausing, I try, “I can… pay you, or?—”

Adeline goes rigid, throwing Mama B a shocked look. “Heavens! What do you take me for?”

Mama B extends a palm. “He was raised by Rufus, Addy. Nothing’s free in his world.”