Chapter 2 - The Child Who Was Supposed to Be DeadLily did not sleep that night.
She was taken to one of the palace guest chambers, a room larger than the cottage where she had grown up.
Servants brought food.
She touched none of it.
Every few minutes, she reached for the locket.
It had belonged to her for as long as she could remember.
Marian had always told her:
“Never sell this. Never remove it for long. If you ever feel completely alone, remember that someone loved you before you could remember them.”
Lily had assumed Marian meant herself.
Now she was not sure.
A knock sounded.
Elias Hart entered.
Lily ran to him.
“Papa.”
He held her.
That single word immediately clarified something for both of them.
Whatever blood said, Elias was still her father.
He smelled like soil, cedarwood and the tobacco he secretly smoked behind the greenhouse.
Lily pulled back.
“Did you know?”
Elias’s expression changed.
Not enough.
But enough.
Lily’s heart sank.
“You knew something.”
“I knew Marian came to me carrying a baby.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I promised her.”
Lily stepped away.
“Everyone keeps telling me I’m someone else.”
“No.”
Elias’s voice became firm.
“You are Lily.”
“But apparently I’m also a dead princess.”
“A missing royal child,” he corrected.
“Wonderful. That makes everything much easier.”
Despite the situation, Elias almost smiled.
Then his face darkened.
“Marian was terrified when she arrived eighteen years ago.”
He explained that he had been a young assistant gardener then.
Three nights after the palace fire, Marian appeared at his cottage.
Burned sleeve.
Blood on her hands.
A newborn wrapped beneath her coat.
“She told me people inside the palace wanted the child dead.”
Lily stopped breathing.
“Who?”
“She never said.”
“Why?”
“She said knowing would get me killed.”
Marian stayed hidden for months.
Eventually, palace authorities declared both nurse and infant dead.
Years later, Marian and Elias married.
They raised Lily as their own.
“Why did she come back to work at the palace?”
Elias looked toward the window.
“Because she believed the safest place to hide was sometimes inside the place everyone had already searched.”
It sounded impossible.
Yet Lily remembered Marian.
Quiet.
Observant.
Always watching palace doors.
Always teaching Lily which corridors not to use.
There had been rules Lily never understood.
Never enter the west archives.
Never speak to Chancellor Varen alone.
Never remove the locket.
If someone asks where you were born, say Northbridge.
Lily sat down.
“Oh God.”
“Your mother loved you.”
“Which one?”
Elias’s eyes filled.
“Both, I think.”
Before Lily could answer, the door opened.
King Rowan entered with Queen Mother Helena.
No attendants.
No guards.
The king looked uncomfortable.
Not because Lily was beneath him.
Because he did not know how to approach her.
Helena did.
She walked directly to Lily.
“I want to tell you about Seraphina.”
Lily looked away.
“I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“Then I will wait.”
That surprised her.
Royal people were not famous for waiting.
King Rowan placed a folder on the table.
“We have ordered a blood comparison using preserved medical samples from my sister.”
Lily stared at him.
“You kept her blood?”
“Royal births and medical procedures are documented extensively.”
“That sounds terrifying.”
Rowan almost smiled.
“She would have agreed.”
“Who?”
“My sister.”
Silence.
“What was she like?”
The king looked toward Helena.
The old queen answered.
“Annoyingly brave.”
“She climbed palace roofs,” Rowan added.
“She stole my horses.”
“She corrected ministers during council meetings.”
Helena smiled through tears.
“And she loved people who were ignored by everyone else.”
Lily looked down at her rough hands.
“Was she married?”
“No.”
The queen hesitated.
“She loved someone.”
“Who?”
“We never knew.”
That answer seemed strange.
A princess could not hide love easily.
“Did she die in the fire?”
Rowan’s expression hardened.
“That is what we were told.”
“Now you don’t believe it?”
“We found something tonight.”
He opened the folder.
Inside was an old report.
The palace fire had started in Seraphina’s wing at 1:12 a.m.
Marian disappeared with the infant.
Seraphina’s body was reportedly discovered two hours later.
But the medical report had been signed by a physician who died one month afterward.
And the original report was missing.
“What does that mean?”
Rowan answered quietly.
“It means we may have spent eighteen years accepting a story someone wanted us to accept.”
Helena reached across the table.
She did not touch Lily.
She merely placed her palm on the wood between them.
“If you are my granddaughter, I will not ask you to become someone overnight.”
Lily looked at her.
“But I will find out who took you from us.”
A guard entered hurriedly.
“Your Majesty.”
Rowan turned.
“What is it?”
“Chancellor Varen is gone.”
The room froze.
“He left the palace?”
“No, Majesty.”
The guard swallowed.
“His rooms are empty.”
A second guard appeared behind him carrying something.
A burned piece of parchment.
“We found this in his fireplace.”
Rowan took it.
One sentence remained readable.
The child survived. Marian betrayed us.
Lily felt Elias move closer to her.
Queen Mother Helena stared at the paper.
May you like
And King Rowan whispered:
“Then someone knew you were alive.”
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