Page 103 of Dead Crown

“All right. Thank you.”

Meela watched him leave the porch and get on his horse. Without a backward glance, he rode away. She pulled her shawl tighter about her and hurried inside the small home. Her husband was away fishing with their son-in-law, and her daughter lived at her husband’s house with her in-laws and two daughters.

Meela was alone with a letter she couldn’t quite bear to open. All she could imagine was bad news of some sort.

If it was bad news, it was best to get it over with and find a way forward.

It was addressed to her, and when the writer said who they were, she had to sit in her rocking chair by the fire.

Jaki’s words were rather halting, like he was unsure of himself, although they smoothed out a bit. It had taken him a while to decide if he wanted to contact her. Elswere had never been told her name, but a midwife in Havaska had known.

He told her about Jacqueline. Like most people, Meela knew about the little Crown Princess, but she hadn’t heard of the second child just yet. He’d been born in January, and despite coming early, he was perfectly well. They’d named him Armas, and his husband, Lumi, had recovered well from the birth. Jacqueline had grown used to the baby, and now, she found him rather enthralling.

Meela held it in until she came to the end of the letter where Jaki said she could write, and maybe one day, they could arrange to see each other. If she didn’t want to, she didn’t have to.

He’d signed his name and stamped it underneath.

The words blurred as she clutched the letter. Every day, she’d thought about her son. She’d been young and foolish when she’d had the short affair with Reesing, but she’d never regretted Jaki.

Her husband and daughter knew about Jaki, but that was it. She hadn’t even told her closest friends in town, and she figured she’d never see him again, and her only news of him would be what she heard in gossip.

She’d write back, and if he still wanted to, she’d go to see him and finally lay eyes on her grown son and the two children he’d had with his husband. She wiped her eyes and leaned back in the rocking chair to read the words of her son once more.