129 Chapter 129

His face turned gray as the church spire.

"I'm so sorry to tell you, Your Grace, but you came all this way for nothing." She peeled herself off the wall. Ignoring him, ignoring everything except the ground beneath her feet, she turned away, began to walk. Away from him. Away from everything in that second too. What he thought, about this, about her, had nothing to do with her.

"You're lying," he shouted after her.

"If that is what you want to believe, Your Grace."

"How do I know? Because I know you. You're not Babs. You're not Marietta. Do you think I don't also know I was the first? Why the hell didn't you just tell me?"

His voice, quiet, deadly, cut across her senses. It wasn't going to stop her. But she knew she owed him that much. She swung round.

"Why? You ask me? Why do you think, when you can't say a single civil word on the subject?"

He turned his face to the side. "Are you trying to tell me you were prepared to take-"

"I wasn't just prepared. I did it."