Chapter 243: The Duke’s Heir
The boy’s eyes flickered with confusion, recognition, and finally, something that looked like longing. He took a step forward, then another, his hands balling into fists at his sides.
"Mother?" he asked, his voice small and uncertain.
The woman before him was very thin and sickly. He remembered his mother, who had radiant, beautiful eyes and was very pretty. Why did his mother turn out like this?
Linnea sobbed openly, rushing forward and collapsing to her knees before him. She reached up, cupping his face with trembling hands. "You’re alive," she wept. "You’re alive..." Her fingers traced his cheeks, his brow, as if verifying that he was real.
Sandoz recognized the voice—the same gentle voice that sang lullabies to put him to sleep, the same voice that would protect him whenever a maid bullied him or the duchess scolded him. The voice that gently explained to him that he needed to dress as a girl so the duchess could not harm him.
"Mother!" This time, Sandoz cried out with certainty. His voice cracked, raw with yearning, and he threw himself into his mother’s arms. He underestimated his strength, and the force of his embrace almost sent them both to the floor if not for Lara’s swift reflexes, her steady hands bracing them both. Linnea clung to him fiercely, her frail arms trembling as they wrapped around her son. Her bones pressed sharply against him, startling him.
Sandoz frowned as he pulled back just enough to look at her, his face full of worry. Why was his mother so thin? Her cheeks were hollowed. Dark circles were under her eyes, and her embrace felt brittle, as though she might shatter if he held her too tightly.
Linnea pulled away from his embrace. She hungrily studied him, and her dry lips curled up. "You have grown." She said in between sobs. "My baby has grown up and looks so handsome." Her fingers traced the line of his jaw, her touch feather-light as if he might vanish at any moment.
Still on her knees, she looked up at Lara gratefully and bowed her head. She did not have to ask. She knew immediately that she must be General Odin’s daughter, the one who had saved her son. She had silently listened to the duke’s conversation while they were on their way to the general’s residence, and she learned that the daughter’s name was Lara.