Lady Morn Kneels
Beatrice did not kneel because she wanted mercy.
She knelt because her legs failed.
The movement was small and terrible. One hand reached for her cape, then missed. Her black gown folded around her knees on the marble. The court stared at the noblewoman who had stood over servants for half a lifetime and now found herself lower than the girl she had shamed.
Mara watched without pleasure.
Rowan moved as if to stand between them again, but Mara touched his sleeve.
"Let her speak," she said.
Beatrice lifted her face.
The precision was gone from it. Her arched brows, her severe braid, the scar at her jaw, the faint wrinkles around her mouth - all of it seemed suddenly human and very tired. But humanity did not equal innocence.
"Your mother was kind," Beatrice said.
Mara flinched at the word mother.
Beatrice swallowed. "Too kind, I thought. She wanted to forgive rebels who had burned farms. She wanted to open the palace kitchens during the fever. She believed the crown existed to shelter the weak." A bitter laugh touched her mouth and died. "I thought that would destroy us."
"So you destroyed her child instead," Rowan said.
Beatrice looked at him. "I told myself I was saving the kingdom from men who would use her."
"And then you used her absence."
"Yes."
The admission entered the hall without armor.
Mara's hands curled beneath the cloak.
Beatrice turned back to her. "I sent money the first year. Then the accounts were hidden. Then I stopped looking. That is the truth. Not because I believed you dead. Because your life made me guilty, and guilt is easier to manage when it is far away."
The words were ugly.
They were also honest.
Mara breathed through her nose, slow and unsteady.
"Mrs. Finch died apologizing because she thought she had failed me," she said. "She did not fail me. You did."
Beatrice lowered her eyes.
"Yes."
Mara looked at the nobles then - the pearl-wearing lady, the laughing gentleman, the heirs, the ministers, the silent guests who had mistaken cruelty for order.
"And all of you laughed," she said.
May you like
No one answered.
That silence was its own confession.
