The Royal Hunter Part 42

"I was protecting myself. I didn't know what I was walking into."

"You also seemed rather earnest, if uncertain, about helping me. You could have been faking that, but I didn't think so. I observed you in the pa.s.sageways and the antechamber with Archer, watched as you prepared yourself to enter your mother's room. Your demeanor is not that of a predator. Then, when you arrived today and the connection was instantaneous, I knew all I had to know.

You truly had no idea, did you?"

Talia shook her head, amazed at the intrigues and a.s.signations that had been swirling around her, all without her knowledge or suspicion. "Archer was right," she muttered. "I'm not cut out to survive at court."

"You will learn."

Talia's head jerked up. "Surely you don't still think I want to take what is not

-" Catriona's expression smoothed, but her eyes were lit with an inner light. Talia recognized it. It was hope. "I know you didn't come here planning to be part of the royal family, but here you are anyway. And seeing that you are here, you must take your rightful place in it." If Talia had thought herself panicked over the burden of healing this young woman, she was completely overwhelmed now. "You can't be serious." Catriona frowned. "Surely when you returned, a.s.suming you were the royal healer, you intended to stay here? Your position has merely undertaken an extreme transformation." She smiled. "No need to look so horrified. I a.s.sure you I will set everything up before I die." Talia leaped to her feet. "How can you say that? And how can you talk about your own death so cavalierly? I am not royalty, despite what my DNA says. I am not cut out to run anything more than my animal shelter back home in Connecticut, year two thousand and one." She paced. "Please don't think me ungrateful, but I came here planning to do whatever I could to help you, then go back home."

"This is your home." A touch of the imperious returned to her tone. "This is where you belong." Her tone softened as she touched her stomach. "We are your family. Your only family."

Family. What about her mother's family? There was only one person she knew that her mother had been close to. Baleweg. But she'd asked him about her father and believed even now he hadn't known. Or he'd have known she wasn't a healer. But someone had known, someone had suspected. Or had Eleri merely been paranoid to think someone would try to find her and kill her or her half-royal child? Then a part of what Catriona had told her of her own mother, about her bitterness, came back to her and she looked to the queen, a sick feeling in her stomach. "Are you sure your mother never knew about me?

Or suspected?"

The queen stilled. "Why do you ask?"

"Because someone knew. Someone tried to kill my mother here. It's why she left. And she was concerned later; that's why she moved us around so much."

She gasped as she put the rest together. "And whoever knew must have used the Dark One's powers to have her followed. Baleweg honored her request to be left alone and I believe him. Which leaves Emrys as the only other one who

could have followed her through time." She thought about the car crash that had claimed her mother's life. "And perhaps killed her."

"And you think my mother was behind this?" Catriona's face grew even paler.

"Who else would have hated Eleri enough? Was your mother in Cynan's life

before my mother left?"

The queen nodded. "They weren't romantically linked then, but soon after."

She paused and rubbed at her belly.

Talia, despite the series of shocks she had been subjected to, felt immediately

contrite. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be questioning this now. You had nothing to do with that and no one can possibly know for sure. It's all in the past."

The queen wasn't listening to her. "You think your mother was murdered?""I never did before. I'm-This is all just too much to deal with. I'm imagining things."

"Your mother didn't think so. You say she moved you often." The queen fell silent. "Maybe my mother did suspect. As much as I hate to say this, she would be the type to do whatever necessary to ensure that Eleri never came back, especially with a child carrying royal blood." She seemed to slump

down in the bed and Talia hurried to her side, but stopped short of touching her when the queen s.h.i.+fted away. "My G.o.d," Catriona whispered brokenly. "The Dark One... he must have known. And when the time was right, he made sure Chamberlain knew."

Talia took her hand then, steeled against the rage of pain but allowed it to invade her anyway, giving the queen any respite she could as she dealt with the blow of her mother's apparent vengeance. "Baleweg says the Dark One doesn't care about the throne or Chamberlain. It's all just a game to him. He enjoys toying with lives, Baleweg's specifically. It was Baleweg's connection to my mother that likely drew him into this in the first place."

Catriona looked up to her then and Talia was shocked by the fierce light she saw in her sister's eyes. "Well, he won't toy with my life!" She pulled free from Talia's grasp then and struggled to sit taller in her bed. She waved away Talia's hand.

"Your Highness-"

"That is your t.i.tle too now, you know. And we will thwart them all because of it. Or you will." Talia opened her mouth, then snapped it shut again as she felt the blood rus.h.i.+ng from her head. She sat heavily in the chair next to the bed. "I... I can't - I'm not-"

"You are. And you will. At least until nay son is of age to take over. My son.

Your nephew."

Talia's gaze followed Catriona's to her distended stomach and terror filled her

at what the queen was suggesting. "You will raise my son, protect him. You will raise him as the next ruler of this country, to continue the legacy of the House of Dalwyn. A legacy you are now a part of."

Talia began to shake, but she couldn't look away from the mound of blankets

that covered the next king. "I don't know anything about how to be ruler. And I know even less of being a mother."

"You say you run an animal shelter. Your maternal instincts are there."

"I hardly think that's the same thing."

The queen's expression sharpened, as well. "It's more training than I have."

She held Talia's gaze with her own steely one. "You are the only one who carries the blood of my son and my father... and me, inside you. Don't you see, Talia? You are the only one."

Talia shot to her feet. "You don't even know me! How can you trust me with

something like this?"

'You're my sister. You are a Dalwyn, Talia. Perhaps not purely, but what is not Dalwyn is Trahaern, the most trusted servant to a Dalwyn. How can I not trust you?" She held out her hand once again. "I must trust you."

Talia stumbled back behind the chair. "I need to- I need to think. I can't think."

Catriona lay there pale and wasting, and yet the fierce light of determination remained as powerful as ever in her eyes. Talia saw the strength then, the strength of a woman who had somehow managed, despite her youth and failing health, to rule a country. Talia was in awe of her. And completely terrified that this same woman would place all her hopes and dreams on Talia's so eminently unqualified shoulders.

Suddenly the queen's a.s.sistant was beside her again. She hadn't even seen her approach.

"Marietta, see Talia back to her room."

"But-"

"You can do this, Talia," the queen said, fatigue clear in her voice now, as was the pain. "We will speak of it again later. For now I must have rest." Talia felt as if her world were spinning and indeed it was as Marietta helped her from the room.

Chapter 22.

Archer sprawled on one of the lounges, his demeanor deceptively casual as he watched guards oversee the clearing of the supper service that had awaited them upon Talia's return from seeing the queen. He was deeply worried about her and still trying to absorb the bombsh.e.l.l she'd dropped.

All dozen of them, from the apparent involvement of Emrys and Catriona's late mother, Her Royal Highness Gwendolen, in Eleri's death, to Talia's royal blood tie to Catriona, to the stunning request of the queen that Talia take her place and raise her child. He could hardly take it all in. He had no idea how Talia could be handling all this.

She was pacing in front of the fireplace, her food mostly untouched. Once the guards and palace personnel had finished and left, he rose and caught her in mid-stride, rubbing the shoulders she held so rigidly. "What can I do to help you? Tell me and I'll do it." He'd never felt so helpless, or so angry. Angry at Catriona for the horrifically unfair position she'd placed Talia in. Had he had any idea that was the fight she'd intended when she rang for Talia...

Talia turned to him, lifted her hands, then dropped them to her sides again. "I have no idea. This is all way too much for me to deal with. I... I didn't come here thinking-" She broke off with a harsh laugh. "Obviously I didn't come here thinking, period." She paced again.

Archer grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "I always thought you carried yourself like a royal. I guess I had it right all along. Do I have to address you as 'Your Majesty' now?"

Talia made a face at him. "Very funny."

Archer held on to his smile, but it cost him. Not only was he dealing with the astonis.h.i.+ng turn Talia's life had taken, but also the devastating death of his last remaining fantasies of somehow making things work with her. He understood now why the queen had been so concerned about his feelings for Talia. In fact, he was surprised she hadn't tried to separate them. Likely she realized Talia needed him now to steady her. And despite the fact that he felt wholly helpless to do anything for her, he wasn't above wanting to nurture that need.

She sank down onto one of the lounges. "I have a sister," she whispered. She'd alternately worried about the burden the queen had placed on her slender shoulders... and remained astonished by the fact that she had family living.

Archer took her hand as he sank down next to her. She looked up at him, her

eyes luminous despite the worry and fear. "I honestly can't believe it."

"It's a gift. No matter what happens, Tali, you can believe in that. You have family now."

Her face crumpled. "A family that is going to die. Leaving me with a child I

can't possibly be a mother to."

They'd already gone over this. There was nothing left that he could say to convince her. Not that he honestly wanted to. The idea of leaving her in this pit of political vipers made his stomach knot. He simply couldn't see her raising a royal, either. Not that she wasn't capable of mothering him, but this wasn't the life he'd envisioned for her.

For them?

He shut that vision right down. Instead he tipped her face to his and kissed

her. He felt her relax and sink into him a bit. "Maybe we should let this go for the night. You're going to have to talk a great deal more with Catriona before any decisions are made. Which can't happen tonight. So why not leave off and come to bed with me."

When he stood and pulled her with him, she whispered, "Thank you," a smile

rising to her lips.He wondered how it was possible for a heart to both swell and break at the same time. He squeezed her hand and led her silently to the bedroom. She came easily into his arms, as if she'd been born to fit there. But even as she gave herself over to him and allowed him to take care of her, making him feel as if he were the only one that could... he knew she'd been born for another role entirely. One that had no place for him.

The following morning Archer summoned the guard before the queen could summon Talia. She'd tossed and turned all night and was paler than he'd ever seen her this morning. He hadn't forgotten the mission Catriona had asked of