Ayla Thorn's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Ayla left the garden with the prince's fear folded away in her chest, but by noon a new problem had reached her door. A page brought word from the steward: the betrothal announcement was on hold. The king's council wanted a sponsor. A voice at court to name her worthy. The Thorn name meant nothing in these halls. Her father's title was old paper. Without someone to speak for her, the announcement could sit for weeks, and forty other girls were still inside the walls. She knew who she needed. The dowager duchess held the west wing. She had buried two husbands and a son, and she picked the girls the last three princes married. She did not take visitors before tea. Ayla went before tea. She borrowed the gown from a lady's maid who owed a cousin a favor. It was blue, cut deep at the shoulders, ruffled down the skirt, stitched with pale stones that caught the window light. It did not fit at the ribs. Ayla laced it tighter and did not breathe deep. The duchess's sitting room smelled of dried lemon. The duchess did not stand. She looked at the gown first, then at Ayla's face. "Whose dress." "Not mine," Ayla said. "I couldn't afford one that would please you. I still came." The duchess's mouth moved. Not a smile. Close. "Sit." Ayla sat. She did not curtsy. She had promised her mother's memory that much. "They tell me the prince picked you because you asked him questions," the duchess said. "Ask me one." Ayla thought of the small green fruit in the garden. The two names he would not say. The kitchen he wanted. "What did you give up," Ayla said, "to sit in this chair." The duchess was quiet a long moment. Then she rang a small bell on the side table. A clerk came in with paper already prepared. "I sponsor the Thorn girl," the duchess said to the clerk. "Send it to the council before supper." She looked at Ayla. "You'll owe me. I'll say when." "Yes," Ayla said. She walked out with her ribs aching and the paper moving down the hall in another woman's hand. By dusk a servant confirmed it. The council had accepted. The announcement would be read in the great hall at the week's end. She went back to her room to unlace the borrowed gown. A folded note sat on the pillow. No seal. Four lines in a careful hand. The prince has been seeing someone for a year. She is still in the keep. He means to keep her after the wedding. Ask him. See his face. Ayla sat down on the edge of the bed in the blue gown she could not pay for. She had her sponsor. She had her announcement. She turned the poison ring on her finger once, and did not open it, and began to think.