Turning to the wall mirror, she was shocked by the transformation, the clothes giving her that same androgynous appearance of a medieval knight that the Stewards possessed. She was suddenly a fighter of the ancient world, proud and powerful. I look like one of them. She could almost hear the battle horn, feel the sword in her hand.
If her father saw her in these clothes – if Tom saw her—
‘It suits you,’ said a voice behind her, and she jerked around.
Will spoke as he swung onto her balcony, dropping soundlessly down from the railing. He was wearing an identical copy of the Steward livery. The clothes had the same androgenising effect on him that they had on her, highlighting his striking bone structure, though his dark eyes were too intense for him to look pretty.
‘I don’t usually wear skirts,’ said Violet, with a tug at the tunic, which was skirted below the belt to mid-thigh.
‘Me neither,’ said Will, echoing her gesture. Tentatively, they were smiling at each other. The silver tunic suited him too, she thought. She didn’t tell him that. She didn’t tell him how glad she was to see him. She remembered him lying for her at the White Hart, taking her side against Justice though she barely knew him.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For telling Justice that I was’ – she felt strangely shy to say it – ‘your friend.’ She drew in a breath. ‘If they find out Tom’s my brother, I don’t know what they’ll do.’
Will looked so different in the Steward clothes. They transformed him from the bruised, bloodied wastrel in Simon’s hold to a young man whose looks suited this strange, ancient place. It reminded her that he was a stranger, who had called a sword to his hand.
She didn’t know him. She still felt wary. But he hadn’t turned her in to the Stewards. He had lied for her when he didn’t have to.
‘So you’re really – like Tom?’ said Will quietly. ‘A Lion?’
She said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve always been—’
Strong.
As children, she and Tom had done everything together. She even shared Tom’s cast-off boy’s clothing, a habit that Tom’s mother had disliked, but her father had thought of fondly.
Or so she’d thought.
Tom can’t come into his true power without killing another like him.
‘I never heard the word Lion until yesterday. But you heard my father. He thinks one Lion has to kill another. That’s why he—’ Why he brought me here from India. Why he raised me. Why he kept me in the house even though Tom’s mother hated me—
The full truth of it hit her, breathing sharply difficult. Her family planned to kill her, to sacrifice her for Tom to gain power, and she couldn’t ever go back to them.
She remembered when her father had sat by her bed for five days and nights when she’d gotten sick, telling the physician, Whatever it costs. I need her to recover. She thought of all the times he’d stood up for her to Tom’s mother, all the times he’d reassured her, told her she was special—
He’d brought her home to kill her. He’d kept her there to kill her. His caring, his concern, none of it had been real.
‘The Stewards won’t find out,’ said Will. ‘I won’t tell them.’
Shaken by her thoughts, she looked over at him. He said it with the same calm certainty he’d had on the docks, as if when he made a promise, he kept it. She might not know him, but they were alone in this place, the two of them. She drew in a steadying breath.
‘You were right,’ said Violet. ‘The Remnants – those three men on horseback – galloped right past us. They only wanted you. Justice and I waited until they were gone, then crossed the river on foot.’
Step where I step, Justice had said, picking a careful path across the marsh. Any time she hadn’t followed his footsteps exactly, she had found herself up to the waist in mud, scowling at Justice’s outstretched hand ready to haul her back up. In the distance, they had heard the eerie baying of the hounds, and once they had glimpsed the Remnants in their ancient armour on the horizon, galloping over the bridge. ‘We saw them riding west back to Simon.’ Streaming across the land with hounds. She had been surprised at the sharpness of her own relief that Will wasn’t with them.
‘To tell him where I am,’ said Will.
It was darkly shocking. Violet shivered at the thought of Simon turning his attention to the Hall. She had a vision of those black hounds swarming across the Lea, baying as they surrounded that lonely, broken arch on the marsh.