“So he was right to hold his tongue and let his friends mock you.” He gave a curt laugh. “Can you honestly say that you do not feel the least bit betrayed by his indifference?”
I wanted to protest, to argue further that Henry had no other option. The words wouldn’t come though, and I finally shook my head, knowing that Julian was right. Henry had let me down, had stood by in my time of need. Tears trickled from the corner of my eyes, wetting my cheeks before dropping to the ground. Julian placed a hand under my chin and gently lifted my face. Producing a linen handkerchief from a coat pocket, he started to dry my cheeks.
“I am very sorry you had to go through that tonight,” he said. “More than anything else, their rudeness is a reflection of their own hearts. Never doubt that you are worth more than all of them put together.”
Deep down, I knew he spoke the truth. The other guests had proven ill-mannered fops, hardly worth my contempt. Even so, it still hurt to be laughed at, especially by those who considered themselves to be Henry’s friends. And then there was Henry, too occupied as Amelia’s milksop to pay heed to my distress. I sniffed and brushed away a few new tears.
Julian handed me the linen square. “You and Henry were fighting earlier, weren’t you?”
“How did you know?”
“I heard your interchange before Amelia so kindly invited me to settle the dispute over your finer attributes.” He paused for a moment to study my face in the little light offered by the rising moon. “You can trust me, Selah, if you wish to talk about it.”
I let out a long breath. Julian was the only person I could trust with such a secret. “We fought about my gift. He...he called my power unnatural.”
“That seems a sudden change. Did something happen?”
“On our way home from the play last night, a boy was struck with the pox right outside Lady Dinley’s front door.” I considered telling him about the wretch from the docks, but decided to hold off so as not to sidetrack from Henry. “Since my power was gone from the Otherworld, I had to draw from my own life to heal the boy. Henry was angry with me for putting myself at risk and demanded that I not heal again until my power was restored.”
“And you refused because you had no other choice,” Julian said, finishing my thought.
“Yes, but he was still angry even after the basket arrived.”
Julian’s eyes slid to the side. “From the front porch,” he murmured in a soft voice I had to strain to hear.
“Of course from the front porch. Which other basket could I mean?” The man made it sound as though he often passed out baskets in the dead of night.
“No other...” he rushed, looking back me. “What was inside?”
I blinked at him. “Why are you asking me when you’re the one who put it there?”
He shook his head in obvious confusion. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“But you sent it,” I said, growing increasingly exasperated by the interchange. “It had everything to cross over and keys to All Hallows by the Tower.”
Julian started. “So that’s where it is. And all this time I’ve been searching Westminster Abbey.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That the basket wasn’t from me, Selah. When I was young, my mother once spoke of an ancient altar in London that was rumored to be located in a church crypt, but I hadn’t thought to check All Hallows since it had been partially destroyed by a gunpowder explosion in the mid 1600s. I just assumed the crypts would have been buried and any altar demolished during the renovation.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Then who sent it?”
“Another leath’dhia, someone who knew you had been at sea for months and would be in great need to crossover once you arrived. Really, the only people we can rule out for certain are your friends from the Colonies and Lord Fitzalan. It could even be the king for all we know.”
I raced over each person from the past week. No one stood out except for the wretch, but she had tried to kill someone, so could not be a leath’dhia...
“Selah,” Julian said, cutting into my thoughts. “I must know. Did you tell Henry about the altar?”
“Of course I did. He helped me find it.”
“So I feared.” Frowning, he gazed up at the clear night sky, at the half risen moon and profusion of shimmering stars. The air had grown noticeably cooler. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.
“You’ve nothing to fear from Henry,” I said. “He would never betray our secret.”
Julian sighed and looked back at me. “Can you not see it? Henry is no different than my father. Once your power proved inconvenient, he declared it to be unnatural. He will never understand you.”
“No—” I started when Julian surprised me by placing a finger over my lips.
“Please do not try to defend him to me, Selah. Not tonight, not after what he did to you.”
I remained silent, lacking the conviction to argue Henry’s virtues.