Lilac is almost asleep when she hears a soft knock.
It is coming from the small door, the one that leads to the room next to her bedchamber.
Another knock, a little louder this time.
Her heart seizes. She can barely breathe. But hope springs to her chest before she can stop it.
She thinks back to her last moments with Cal, her desperate request of him.
You can come back, to be by my side . . . You will not be my husband, but I will be yours forever.
Lilac runs to open the door, her heart beating wildly in her chest, filled with fear and hope and love.
There it is again. A knock from the little room just off her bedchamber, the one that will be known in history as the Queen’s Secret.