I do not have time to think about what it means — for her, for me, for my father who does not yet know and will need to be managed carefully when he does — because I step out of the ward corridor and into the main hall and Ryder is waiting for me.
Jake. My most trusted guard, the one I send when I need something done without it becoming a conversation. He is standing with his hands clasped behind his back and the expression he wears when he has something to tell me that he would prefer not to tell me.
I stop.
"What," I saysay, almost harshly.
"There is something going around the staff," he says. Carefully. "A rumor. It began in the east corridor yesterday afternoon and it has — spread, Your Highness. Considerably."
I wait.
