Chapter 41

Winter’s POV

With distress creeping into me, my shivering hands made to raise up the dress a little above my calves, watching the crooked paths and the trails of blood formed around my legs. It was as though my instincts were already telling me the meaning of what I was seeing before my head could think of the words to describe it.

A low gasp escaped my throat, and I looked at Eliza.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Haedia’s voice broke the silent tension with much-appreciated discreetness.

“You, stay behind to clean that up,” she told Eliza, who immediately set to work on the floor.

She held me by the hand and took me to my temporary room, which I’d be using throughout the period of the change of head ceremony. When we entered, she let go of my hand and added some extra sheets of leaves on the bed so that I wouldn’t soil the linens.

“You were pregnant?” Haedia asked me. It was curiosity and surprise at the same time that reflected on my face.