So I was rereading Prince’s Gambit and
When they were staying at Chastillon (the place the Regent loves to go to hunt, remember?), this happened [CW: Spoilers for the Captive Prince trilogy, talk of sexual/child abuse]:
[Long description of the bedchamber Damen is lead to (and he’s supposed to sleep in Laurent’s room/tent), ending in:]
“There was no sign of the blue and gold starburst. The draperies were blood red.
Damen said, ‘These are the Regent’s chambers.’ There was something uneasily transgressive about the idea of sleeping in the place meant for Laurent’s uncle. ‘The Prince stays here often?’
The castellan mistook him to meant the keep, not the rooms. ‘Not often. He and his uncle came here a great deal together, in the year or two after Marlas. As he grew older, the Prince lost his taste for the runs here. He now comes only rarely to Chastillon.’” (Prince’s Gambit, p. 13-14)
I don’t know how I didn’t notice this the first time I read the book but the second time, I did, and so many alarm bells were going off in my head because this place and this room, specifically (evidence below), are clearly places that Laurent was abused. (Possibly a place where a large percentage of his abuse took place, because abusers like to isolate their victims, which might be why there were frequent trips to Chastillon.) The timing (”in the year or two after Marlas”) and the fact that it stopped as Laurent got older and the fact that Laurent rarely goes there anymore– The evidence is overwhelming and I can’t believe I missed it the first time around. (I’m saying this as someone who knew from the moment Laurent said “Ancel is too old to interest my uncle” that Laurent must have been abused by the Regent.)
I didn’t remember exactly how the beginning of Prince’s Gambit went down and so I was freaking out like, “Laurent, you can’t sleep in there, isn’t there another room–didn’t Auguste have a room there? Go find Auguste’s room, don’t do this to yourself, honey–” (because I legit talk out loud to book characters like that, I kid you not).
AND THEN eventually Laurent comes to join Damen in the room and they talk strategy over a map for the first time and:
“Laurent hadn’t seemed to show any inclination to sleep. He had never once glanced at the bed.” (Prince’s Gambit, p. 21)
“About an hour before dawn, Laurent had risen. ‘We’re done for tonight,’ he had said briefly. And then, to Damen’s surprise, he had left to begin preparations for the morning.” (Prince’s Gambit, p. 21)
“The next time he had seen Laurent had been in the courtyard, changed and armoured and coolly ready to ride. If Laurent had slept at all, he hadn’t done so in the Regent’s bed.” (Prince’s Gambit, p. 21)
So at least he didn’t have to sleep in the place where he was abused. But still. The pain of the realization of what must have happened at Chastillon…… [internal screaming]
And I read this thinking Laurent leaving the room was just him avoiding sleeping near Damen–which is the obvious answer, the overt answer, the answer CS Pacat placed there to throw Damen us off the scent–but we know Laurent doesn’t fear Damen because of the thing with the knife early in the scene, when Laurent proved Damen couldn’t hurt him.
Anyway, I’m not certain whether I should praise CS Pacat’s masterful use of biased POV (look, Damen, all these clues are there, hellooo, are you blind???) or masterful use of subtext or, you know, just sit in my corner and cry into my doughnut. (Probably the last. Also, kill the Regent.)
