The Heiress of Baylin

“The Estrians are here,” I warned Henry, waking him up while he was asleep in his tent. “Alert everyone. Prepare our rebels for an ambush!” He leapt up immediately at my words. From the moment I had seen the Estrian man’s presence in the woods, I knew that I had to act speedily. I didn’t know what an Estrian was doing here but if there was one, there was bound to be an entire fleet of them nearby. If they didn’t know of my presence here before, they did now after the man had seen me and ran off to tell others of my whereabouts.

I bolted to the cottage, shouting in haste for Brandon and Thomas to wake up. Brandon immediately jumped from our bed and slid on his armor and boots. He grabbed his sword and ran outside. I could see from the window as lanterns turned on, lighting up the campsite as more men arose in panic to prepare for a battle. Thomas stood idly in fear, unsure of what to do. He was but a servant, not a soldier.

I grabbed Jane from her crib and held her to my chest. I had to think quickly about how I would keep her safe and hidden. I didn’t want the Estrians to find her. I considered running away with her but there was a problem with doing so. I thought about how I would be easily spotted because of the obvious appearance of my sex. If we were found together, the safety of both of us would be placed in jeopardy. Besides, I needed to stay here and motivate the rebels, as Henry had wanted me to do. I unwillingly decided that Jane would be safer if she were apart from me. Acting expeditiously, I shoved her into Thomas’s arms. He glanced at me with confusion.

“Take Jane as far away from here as possible,” I ordered him. He hesitated.

“But, Mary –”

“Now!” I barked sharply, interrupting his protest.

He nodded, throwing on a cloak. He wrapped both himself and Jane in it to hide her in his arms. With a heavy heart, I followed them outside and then I watched after them as Thomas leapt onto a horse and took off in a raging gallop with my daughter. No one would take notice of Thomas, I contented. He was a little man, no threat to anyone. For this reason, Jane would be safer with him. They disappeared into the trees and faded from sight in the knick of time. In the moment that followed, a large group of Estrian troops emerged from the surrounding forest. The Baylin rebels were mounted on horses with swords, ready in position to fight.

“Don’t let them touch her!” Henry ordered his men and then a group of them surrounded me while on their horses, creating a barrier of protection. I looked around but could not find Brandon anywhere in the crowd of troops. The Estrian brigade came to a halt in front of our wall of rebels. One of the Estrians, the leader, stepped out on a black horse in front of the red and black army. Henry did the same for our side. The two leaders of opposing sides stood facing each other. I could hear their conversation as their sharp voices echoed through the trees.

“So you thought you could hide her. You should all be hanged for treason for acting against the king’s majesty,” threatened the Estrian commander.

“We do not follow a foreign king,” Henry replied.

“Need I remind you that your own king has been killed?” he countered.

“We have a queen,” Henry informed him, clearly implying me. The Estrian commander searched for me, his eyes circling the army until he spotted my head through the sea of horses. “And you can’t kill her without killing yourselves. The last woman is Baylinian. You must accept that fact.”

“We do not intend on killing her but, rather, uniting our two kingdoms with her marriage to our king.”

“We refuse to marry our nation with a kingdom that fails to deliver on false promises,” Henry pointed out. He was referring to our kingdoms’ history. Many years before the plague, Estria and Baylin had decided to set aside their differences to conduct a trade negotiation. Estria, known for its ale production, offered to provide Baylin many barrels of its finest stock. In return, Baylin, known for its production of gold, was to send many blocks of it their way. Baylin delivered on their end of the bargain while Estria refused. The two kingdoms had been uneasy with one another ever since. Now, tensions were even higher, increased with the desperation of our dire situation.

The Estrian commander continued to eye me, as though I were a prize he would have. He began searching for something else. He was looking for my child, confused as to why I was standing alone. Word must have carried about the existence of my daughter.

“We were told that she was pregnant. Where is the baby?” he asked then, ignoring Henry’s words.

“My daughter did not survive the night,” I lied, lifting my voice so that it carried loud enough for him to hear me. His head tilted to one side, gaging my words. He was clearly attempting to figure out whether or not I was telling the truth. “She caught the plague and I found her dead just before you arrived,” I added. My lie must have been convincing because even the Baylin rebels looked at me in stunned silence, some appeared to be shedding tears at the news.

“Where is the body?” the Estrian leader challenged.

“I burned it in one of the fire pits. My heart could not stand the sight of it,” I explained, thinking quickly. Even from a distance, I could tell that he looked suspicious so I added, “She was so small that her body turned to ash very quickly.” He scrutinized me for a moment. The air contained an eerie silence as the men absorbed this new information. I could tell that the Estrian commander was trying to listen for a baby’s cry. When nothing could be heard, he seemed to accept my lie as truth.

“Well then, I’m very sorry to hear it. Hopefully the children you have with our king will live,” he told me.

“No!” Our troops shouted in protest. The rebels were fueled by anger and sadness. My false news had pushed them.

“As long as we live, we will not see Baylin surrender to Estria. If we are to go extinct then we choose to fall as a proud nation,” Henry stated and his followers shouted in agreement. “We will fight and we will die to protect our kingdom’s honor!” The Baylin rebels roared, cheering on Henry’s words. “For our queen!” Henry added.

“For Baylin,” I corrected in a yell. They cheered at my words, raising their swords high in the air. That’s when Henry gave the order to charge. I watched in horror as the two sides merged in gruesome battle. Blood soaked the white snow. They trampled over tents, fought amongst the trees. Swords clashed with one another, sending sharp sounds through the air. When my guards had to assist in the fight, I darted behind the cottage to hide. My heart raced in my chest as I peered around the wall to watch the battle. Dawn broke over the horizon like blood rising in the sky, radiating with a red glow.

My eyes searched frantically for my husband but he was still nowhere to be seen in the midst of the violence that shook the land. I observed as one Estrian stabbed a sword into a Baylin man’s chest. Then another pair of fighters consisted of a Baylin man knocking an Estrian soldier off his horse so that he could be trampled. There was no way to tell which side was winning since they seemed to be causing an equal amount of damage against one another. I was afraid for my safety and the safety of my people but at least Jane was far from the conflict. If I were to be harmed in this, at least she’d live on.

Suddenly a man on a horse raced towards me. He grabbed my arm and flung me over the back. For a second, I felt relief, thinking he was Brandon. My relief was short lived when I recognized this man as Edward instead. Despite worrying about Brandon, I was glad to be taken away. Edward kicked his horse into a furious gallop, carrying me far away from the action. I clutched my arms tightly around him, gazing behind as we drifted away from the bloodshed. I prayed mentally to myself that Brandon would survive this wherever he was.

Edward and I came to a halt by a rivulet within the deepest part of the forest. The cries of battle were muffled into silence from the distance.

“We’re safe here,” Edward told me. I dismounted and collapsed by a tree. My body was trembling. I sat on the snow, not caring that it was cold. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms tightly around them. Tears raced down my cheeks as I cried hysterically. “Mary, you must try to contain your cry. Someone could hear you,” he urged. He dismounted his horse to remove his armor plate from his chest and take a seat by me.

“You’re right,” I croaked, trying to swallow the hard lump in my throat.

“Take deep breaths,” he told me, placing a hand on my back for comfort. I closed my eyes and complied, focusing on keeping my breathing low and even. It took a while for the panic to dissipate. I felt lightheaded and after a while so I leaned my head upon Edward’s shoulder. “Easy, my lady,” he soothed. I clung to him and buried my face into his chest.

“My husband is gone,” I cried.

“I’m sure he will be alright. He is a strong fighter. I should know,” he said, feebly attempting to make light of the situation. “Is the princess, Jane, really dead?” he asked after a moment of silence. I shook my head in response and felt the tension of his body ease.

“Good,” he commented with relief.

“I made Thomas take her away,” I whispered to him as though I were telling him a hushed secret.

“Thomas? You think he can take care of her? You left the baby with a frail man!”

“Thomas is more likely not to be detected. He is free of suspicion,” I argued.

“I hope you’re right,” he murmured thoughtfully under his breath.

“I had to think fast,” I rationalized my action. “Now, I might never see my daughter again.”

“No, you will. We’ll find her,” he promised me comfortingly but his words felt empty. I tried to overcome the sting I was feeling at being separated from my family. My daughter was far from me and I felt her absence as painfully as if someone had ripped open my stomach with a dagger and tore her directly from my womb. Additionally, I was anguished with not knowing whether Brandon was alive or dead. I didn’t know how long Edward and I needed to wait here but I felt too numb to care. He continued to hold me through the pain. His arms, at least, were warm like Brandon’s.

“Brandon,” I uttered his name helplessly, my eyes swelling with tears.

“You really love him don’t you?” Edward wondered. I nodded.

“He’s my husband,” I reasoned. He swallowed sadly in response to that.

“Sometimes marriage doesn’t always indicate love. There are all kinds of reasons why people marry, for obligation or out of fear. I guess I had hoped your marriage was based on one of those reasons…” he thought out loud.

“I chose him out of a store of other men that I could have been with,” I explained as a reminder to him that I had all the options of the world. “In my situation, why would I marry anyone for less than love?”

“I guess I just hoped,” he replied with a shrug.

“If he’s dead, I would hope to die too,” I whispered grimly.

“You can’t. Your survival is too important,” he reminded me to my dismay. “Unfortunately, Mary, any man who is fortunate enough to possess you will face the risk of death, either in this manner through battle or by assassination. Any husbands you have will never be truly safe. That’s just the nature of our world’s circumstances. It is your purpose, not to secure one husband but to produce as many daughters as you possibly can.” The reality of his words struck me like a pile of rocks. I cried heavily, wanting to deny them.

“If Brandon is still alive then by God’s good grace I will do everything in my power to keep him,” I spoke with determination in my tone. Edward sighed, realizing the true extent of my love for him. I think he realized glumly in that moment that he would never be able to compete.

“You there!” an ominous voice shouted. We jumped at the sound. To our horror, Estrian soldiers had found us. A group of them rounded us up, crowding us so that we couldn’t escape. Edward stood over me defensively, holding out his sword.

“Don’t venture any closer,” he threatened them feebly.

“You are outnumbered, boy,” they reminded him. I had remained seated, frozen with fear. They eyed us as though they were hunters and we were prey.

“Are you her husband? Are you the one they call Brandon?” they questioned Edward. I almost cut in to tell them that he wasn’t. That’s when Edward made a bold move.

“I am,” he confirmed.

“Come with us,” they ordered, guiding Edward and I through the woods to an open clearing where a road and a carriage awaited. They snatched Edward’s sword from his grip and tied his hands behind his back with rope. We were defenseless.

“Step in,” they demanded, shoving both of us into the carriage before locking the doors firmly. Once inside, we sat across from one another. As the carriage lurched into forward movement, we lapsed into silence for a while, wondering what would happen to us. By lying about being my husband, Edward had positioned himself in grave danger. There was no doubt that he would be executed when we reached the destination. This realization caused me great sadness. I peered up at him with watery eyes, worried for him. I realized then that I cared for him more than I had allowed myself to admit before. After composing my thoughts, I felt compelled to ask the big question that was on my mind.

“Why did you do it?” I didn’t need to clarify what I meant because he was already thinking about it too.

“To spare Brandon’s life if he has survived,” Edward answered. “If I die in his place, everyone will think he’s dead. They won’t go after him.” I knew Edward and Brandon to be enemies so this puzzled me to a great extent.

“Why?” I wondered.

“Because you love him,” he sounded sad as he spoke this out loud. I fell silent, unsure how to formulate my next question. He examined my mixed and bewildered expression. “Saving him would take away your sadness and worry,” he explained, figuring out where my confusion stemmed. “Your happiness is all that matters.”

Edward was acting out of love for me. I felt flattered but I also felt a deep sense of guilt and remorse. I had hurt Edward by choosing Brandon as my mate over him. Yet he still sought to sacrifice himself for my benefit.

“Well, Edward, you wanted to prove your love for me. Now you have.”

“Good. As long as you realize it, I can die a happy man,” he replied.

My heart fell into a pit of despair. I couldn’t bear the idea of losing him just as I couldn’t fathom losing Brandon.

“I love you as well,” I uttered, realizing it was true. He looked unsurprised, as if he had already known this to be a fact.

“I know you do but you love him more.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Brandon was my first love and I would always hold him in high regard above any others. He was my husband and the father of my child. I glared downward sadly to the carriage floor at our feet. I thought about how fiercely appreciative I was of Edward’s action now, how much I loved him for it. If Brandon were still alive, he’d have Edward to thank for keeping him that way. I also considered darkly that if Brandon had died in battle, I would lose them both.

Edward was gambling on the idea that Brandon was still alive, which spoke even greater volume of his deep admiration and affection for me. Acting on impulse, I leapt to him out of gratitude. I pressed my lips firmly to his. He moved his mouth with mine feverishly as we engaged in a passionate kiss. When I slowly maneuvered away to retake my seat, parting from him, his eyes were soft and contented.

“That was worth a thousand deaths,” he said to me.

“Thank you,” I said to him, breathless.

“If Brandon is still alive, he better appreciate what a lucky bastard he is.”

“I’ll tell him,” I assured. As the carriage approached the castle, it looked vastly different than how I remembered. It was now completely taken over with Estrian guards and soldiers surrounding the parameter. Red and black replaced the familiar brown and gold. The statue of the hawk had been torn down and replaced by a statue of a fox. My heart ached at the sight.

“Do me a favor, Mary” Edward said to me as we pulled into the interior of the castle walls.

“Anything,” I answered willingly.

“If you ever have a son, name him after me,” he requested as his dying wish.

“I will,” I promised. That’s when the carriage came to a halt amongst a crowd of Estrian soldiers. They were cheering loudly at our arrival. Edward closed his eyes, preparing for the worst that was to come. The door flung open and we were pulled outside with force like prisoners of war.

“Mary of Estria! Down with Baylin!” they chanted when they saw me. I recognized the king as he emerged from the castle entrance. The crowd bowed in respect for him. Edward and I were shoved to our knees as he approached us. The king’s hair looked whiter than I remembered. There was also something unstable about the look in his eyes. I noticed how his eyelids possessed a slight twitch – the twitch of a mad man. He looked broken, probably from the loss of his son, the prince. The crowd fell into silence as they waited for him to speak. He glared at us icily.

“So, Mary, we meet again! And this is your husband.... This is the man you chose instead of uniting our two countries. Shame… He is way less good looking than I.” I kept my gaze to the ground, afraid to respond. The king turned to Edward, gestured for him to stand. Edward complied, putting forth a brave face.

“Young man,” stated one of the king’s guards, “by marrying Mary against the king’s will, you have committed an act of treason. How do you plea the charges set against you?”

“Guilty,” replied Edward without hesitation. The crowd erupted in cheer, chanting wildly for his execution.

“Then you are to be arranged for treason and are hereby ordered to execution by his majesty’s pleasure,” informed the guard firmly.

“I command,” stated the king, “that you are to be drawn on a hurdle through the streets of town, there to be hanged until you be half dead. After that you are to be cut down alive, your bowls to be taken out of your body and burned before you. Your privy parts are to be cut off, your head cut off for all to see. That is what you deserve for taking my bride from me. Lord have mercy on your soul…”

It was a good thing that Edward was already on his knees because his legs began trembling to the point where he would not have been able to hold himself up in a standing position. His face looked as white as a ghost.

“Please, I beg you earnestly. Commute the sentence to beheading,” I cried. Edward’s punishment was indeed of the harshest kind. My gut wrenched at the thought of it. The wickedness of it kicked my thoughts into gear. I quickly thought of something and, upon composing myself, I held up a hand in protest so that I could speak.

“If I may,” I intruded, gazing up at the king pleadingly. “I have a legal point I would like to make.”

He laughed wildly at that.

“You have a point? Oh, what kind of point would a woman have to make?” the crowd joined in his laughter. “Go ahead, my dear. This should be amusing!” The crowd then fell quiet to hear me, anticipating a good laugh.

“With all do respect, your majesty, my husband married me while the Baylin king was in power. Thus, he committed treason against the Baylin establishment, not the Estrian one.”

My point was a surprisingly good one. The crowd of Estrians fell into a state of deep contemplation, shocked that a woman could bring up such an interesting issue. It stumped them. The king’s advisors and lawyers had to gather around him right there and then to discuss my point at length. Edward flashed me an extremely grateful expression. I might have saved his life.

My point was enough to extend his life for an extra twenty minutes at least while everyone deliberated on the matter at hand. However, if the law could not bring forward Edward’s execution, I worried that they might find a different excuse to perform the job. One fact was for certain, they wanted him dead. In their view, my “husband” needed to die so that I could marry the Estrian king and produce legitimate heirs and heiresses to the throne.

“Just kill him!” a man in the crowd heckled.

“Kill him anyway!” another voice chimed in. I deeply feared for Edward. I knew that he was likely to die but hopefully my argument would spare him the gruesome death and grant him a merciful one instead.

“What kind of kingdom do you have if you execute a man without cause? Where is your sense of Estrian pride?” I questioned the people and the hecklers fell silent as they realized that I was right.

“We will keep him locked in the tower while we examine this issue under further investigation,” the king reluctantly announced when they had failed to come up with a different reason to kill him. My guess was that they either needed more time to think of something or they thought to wait for Edward to slip in some way. Perhaps they would place him in a situation where he’d be forced to commit a criminal act of some kind that could be constituted as treason. Still, I had successfully managed to prolong his life for the time being.

I was taken to my old room in the queen’s chambers. A group of servants, including some of which I had recognized as being once Baylinian, washed and dressed me. Having male eyes upon my naked body was nothing new to me anymore. I felt numb to it now as I let them mold me in their ideal image. I looked to the corner of the bathroom where Brandon had once awkwardly stood when he was feebly trying to conceal his feelings for me. I smiled when I thought of those days. I deliberated how far we had come from then. I prayed silently to myself that wherever Brandon may be, he was safe.

The servants used silver nitrate to darken the color of my hair. Afterwards, they dressed me in a red gown with black lace. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and hardly recognized the brunette woman standing before me. She represented Estria, the kingdom I despised. I glowered at my appearance.

I was taken into the familiar ballroom where a ball was being held. Musicians strummed their violins while men danced and drank ale, similar to the old, Baylin king’s celebration. The men cheered when they saw me dressed in Estrian fashion.

“Mary of Estria” they enthused. I sighed, disgruntled. I hated my new name. The king approached me, impressed by my new appearance.

“You look way better as a brunette,” he enthused. He asked me to join him for a dance and I knew that I could not refuse. He spun me across the floor as we moved to the music. My second time dancing with a king was as unremarkable as the first.

After the dancing commenced, the king requested that I sing for everyone in the room. I did not have a choice in this either. I sighed deeply before choosing a tune. For obvious reasons, I would not be able to sing the Baylinian ballad as I had for the gold king, nor did I wish to sing the Estrian anthem for I knew it would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Instead, I chose something safe, a song that was well known to both kingdoms. I stood up on a platform that was delivered to me, inhaled deeply and began to sing. The room was silent in awe as they listened. It had been long since any of them had ever heard the soothing sounds of a woman’s voice. It was while singing when I spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

I almost broke my place in the song when I noticed Brandon. I felt both astonishment and relief by the sight of him. He placed an index finger to his mouth, gesturing for me to remain silent about his presence in the audience. I cleared my throat and quickly collected myself, continuing with the tune where I had briefly stopped. I was able to play off the pause as though I had simply had some saliva stuck in my throat.

Brandon was dressed in an Estrian guard uniform, well hidden amongst the others. He flashed me a wink and a smile, communicating to me that he had a plan. I continued with my song unthinkingly until I realized that my tune had shifted slightly. It was now starting to sound like the Baylinian ballad. I had to correct it before anyone noticed, changing the pitch so that it followed the original, neutral song that I had chosen.

“Keep stalling,” Brandon mouthed to me. When the melody of the song dropped to a soft conclusion, my audience applauded.

“With your majesty’s permission, I would like to perform another song,” I said to the king. He nodded enthusiastically, gesturing for me to do so. I chose a higher pitched tune with a jolly melody, lighting up the room with a positive sound. The musicians chimed in, flowing with the rhythm of my voice. The men danced merrily across the floor, drunken and disorderly.

“She seems overly happy for someone who has just lost a child, don’t you think?” I overheard a man mention to the king to my dismay.

“That’s because the child wasn’t mine,” he cackled in response, dropping the issue. He seemed to have lost all sense of reason, I noted. I was, however, thankful for his mental insanity since it prevented the arousal of suspicion.

I noticed as Brandon took advantage of the disorder in the room to exit stealthily through the ballroom opening. I wasn’t sure where he was going or what he was doing but I was greatly thankful for the assurance that he was alive and that he seemed to have a plan. I hoped for the same good fortune to fall upon Edward who was locked away in the tower. The king watched intently me as I sang. I noticed his eyes illuminating with lust throughout the course of the evening.

I considered how I could have easily taken control of the situation by doing something outlandish or threatening to take my own life. However, I recalled what had happened the last time I tried to pull a similar stunt when the Baylin king overpowered me physically to the floor. I shuddered to think what the Estrian king would do to me since he seemed to have lost connection to his senses. With this in mind, I decided against it. Instead, I would utilize the king’s conjugal appetite to my advantage.

“Subtle,” Thomas’s voice rang from a memory of the past as I realized my own power. I would have to exercise this power with tact. The key was to play along until I could act. I knew exactly what I would do and I swallowed nervously at the idea.

When the ballroom party concluded, the king requested that I accompany him into his chambers. I agreed, feigning enthusiasm. He walked me through the hall, chattering to me excitedly. I nodded, pretending to listen while mindfully plotting my next move. That’s when he started with some disturbing murmurs. He appeared to be talking to someone but it wasn’t me.

“I know, son, but she’s mine now,” he said laughingly.

“Whom are you talking to?” I questioned, looking around only to see an empty hallway aside from the guards who were guiding us. They simply rolled their eyes when I glanced to them. Obviously this wasn’t the first time they had seen the king speak nonsense words to a nonexistent entity.

“My son is jealous of me because I am to have you and he cannot because he is dead,” the king explained with a boisterous laugh, gesturing with a hand to a space in empty air. I gaped at him, puzzled. “Do you not see him?” he asked me. I swallowed, looking to the guards. They mouthed for me to say yes.

“Sure, your majesty. I see him…” I croaked, attempting to keep my voice even.

He smiled widely at my response. I wasn’t sure if it was better to encourage his delusions but if my plan was successful, he’d be put out of his misery soon enough. I wasn’t sure if I would be strong enough to carry out my plan but in my mind, it was worth an attempt. My heart thudded wildly in my chest at the thought of what I was planning to do. Outside the king’s chamber doors, I was relieved to see Brandon as he stood amongst the other Estrian guards. I flashed him a glance, communicating that I was about to pull an extreme stunt. I would need his assistance when I performed this act. Hopefully he gathered my silent message but it was difficult to tell him my plan with just one look. He nodded very subtly so that only I noticed the movement. Hopefully that meant that he understood.

Once the doors shut behind us in the chamber, I was left alone with the king. He placed his hands on my hips and pressed his lips to my neck, kissing me. I forced out a moan, pretending to enjoy it. Inside, my skin crawled and I was feeling utterly repulsed.

“Oh, my lady,” he breathed. “It has been too long since I have enjoyed the company of a woman.” His hands traced the curve of my body. His touch started off as soft but then quickly became fervent. He pressed my body tightly against his and endeavored to untie the back of my dress. He managed to pull the collar over my shoulder. He kissed the exposed skin of my neck and collarbone.

“I hope you don’t mind if my son being here,” he said, his words continuing to confuse me to a great extent.

“Oh, your majesty, take me to your bed,” I whispered seductively into his ear, ignoring his delusion. The king lifted me excitedly, tossing me onto his mattress. At once he threw himself on top of me. The bed was where I wanted him to be so that I could carry out my plan. I let him continue to kiss me as I placed my hand precariously on a pillow. My hand gripped the cushion tightly, preparing.

I concealed my dark intentions as playful as I rolled on top of him. My playfulness suddenly turned cold as I crammed the pillow to his face. I leaned on him with the full force of my weight, restraining his breathing as his body thrashed wildly from underneath me. His screams were muffled. It was difficult to maintain my hold of him though, which was why I had gestured with my facial expression to Brandon outside that I would probably require his aid.

“For Baylin!” I called out. This murder was the ultimate act that I could perform for my kingdom. By killing the king of Estria, I was freeing Baylin of this tyrant’s rule. As if answering my prayers, Brandon emerged from the door right then and dove on top of the king to help me with my effort. My guess was that Brandon had either bribed or murdered the other Estrian guards because no one followed after him. We worked together to keep the king pinned down until his stubborn body finally fell limp. I was impressed with Brandon’s ability to read my unspoken intention. My husband certainly knew me well. The dark deed was done. The king of Estria was now officially dead. Brandon and I exchanged glances of relief.