Page 198 of Maksym

The Magistrate’s expression did not change.

I continued. “Did it make you believe the bond itself was false?”

“No.”

“Did you, at any time before going to Ironwood, decide to reject Prince Nikolay as your mate?”

“No.”

“Did you want another mate?”

“No.”

“Did you want Sage Lynch?”

Her eyes sharpened. “No.”

The prosecution shifted at his table. I heard fabric move, paper whisper. Good. Let him dislike clean answers.

I walked one slow pace along the lectern, then turned back.

“Now I want to discuss the days immediately before the moonlight run. Had anything changed in Prince Nikolay’s behavior toward you?”

Maddie’s expression altered in a way that hurt to watch. Not softness exactly. Hope had its own afterimage, and hers still lived in her face despite everything that had followed.

“Yes,” she said. “He had started to soften.”

“In what way?”

“He talked to me. Not just orders or corrections. Real conversations.” She glanced down briefly, then lifted her chin again. “He listened. I don’t think he knew I noticed, but I did.”

“Were there any gestures that he was giving a real effort at affection?”

Her throat moved once. “Yes.”

“Any in particular?”

“He surprised me with the purchase of a rare first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, my favorite book.”

The title did something to my chest I had not expected. The old human part of me, the Vanderbilt law graduate, the girl raised poor in the foothills with a grandmother who believed books could make a room bigger than its walls, recognized the intimacy of that gift. Not jewelry. Not flowers. Not something selected by an assistant. A book. Her favorite.

I kept my face composed.

“How did he know that was your favorite book?” I asked.

“We had a conversation. He knew the context.”

“Was the gift meaningful to you?”

“Yes.” Her voice lowered. “It made me think maybe I hadn’t imagined everything between us.”

Nikolay’s head bowed slightly.

“Did Prince Nikolay encourage you to attend the moonlight run with Ironwood?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”