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It felt so wrong for Theresa to drag me into Chevalier’s room with Belle on our heels. Our room, I corrected myself. It was my room now, too. And it was okay for me to spend time with my friends here. Chevalier had all but told me to spend my afternoon with them, settling into his—our room. He didn’t mind. And Theresa was my maid, so she would be in here daily, anyway. In the future, we could have our friendly get-togethers elsewhere, but I needed to unpack my luggage now, and—
The negligee. The powdered sugar negligee.
I was already a blushing bundle of nerves before the door closed behind us.
“Belle has some big news,” Theresa said, shoving me onto the sofa. “Why are you so red?”
“Because she had lots of fun on her honeymoon, and she knows we want to hear all about it,” Belle said, plopping onto the sofa beside me and grinning like Clavis. “So, first night? Second? When did it happen?”
“Th-that’s private,” I stammered.
Theresa rolled her eyes and sat on my other side. “Not the first night. I told you how freaked out she was. My guess is second, or maybe even third. Right?”
“I…”
“Don’t try to say you didn’t, because I can tell that you did,” Belle chimed in again. “It was all over your face when Chevalier carried you over the threshold.” She sat back and sighed. “How romantic!”
How was it all over my face? What sort of face did a woman make after she and her husband had made love for the first time? Why had I never noticed anybody else wearing this face?
“Was it that obvious?” I asked in a small voice.
Theresa laughed. “Yes! You looked so happy! If it hadn’t happened, you would have looked upset. And he probably would have looked like he wanted to murder somebody.”
“But he looked like he wanted to carry you back here and make mad, passionate love to you the rest of the day,” Belle added.
“H-he did not,” I protested weakly, knowing much better than either of them he definitely did.
“So, when did it happen? Did you like it the first time, or did it take a few tries to get it right? How was he? Come on, Ivetta, details!” Theresa demanded.
I shook my head. “I’m not telling you all that!”
Belle groaned and grabbed my shoulders. “Well, tell us something!”
“Um…” I bit my lip nervously, looking down at my fingers clenched into my skirt. “The…first night.”
High-pitched squeals erupted around me. Theresa pulled back, her green eyes wide with shock, while Belle leaped to her feet and danced around the room.
“I told you!” she sang out.
Theresa seized my arm and fixed me with an intense stare. “Okay, now you have to tell me more. How did he get you from a nervous wreck to a moaning mess?”
“Theresa!” I exclaimed, covering my face in my hands.
“And she liked it!” Belle continued in a sing-song voice.
“How was he? No, wait, not a good question, because you can’t compare him to anyone. How about…are there any tricks he did? Anything that made you—”
“N-no!” I interrupted Theresa before she could specify what she meant, although I had a pretty good idea. “I-I mean—yes, but—”
“You can tell us,” Belle said, dropping onto the sofa beside me again. “If it makes you feel better, I can go first. See, there’s this thing Rio does—”
I slapped a hand over her mouth. “I don’t want to know!”
Her brown eyes shone with mirth. The sofa shifted on my other side as Theresa stood, and she cleared her throat.
“What about any tricks you did?” she asked, and I knew immediately by her tone that she’d already looked in my luggage trunk. I removed my hand from Belle’s mouth and snapped my head around, watching in horror as Theresa opened the lid and withdrew what I knew had to be the negligee. She turned back to face us, and there it was, a crumpled red garment unfolding from the straps between her fingers to display the red silk in all its powdered sugar glory. Thanks to the dusting of white muting its vibrant color, I was probably redder than the silk.
“What is that?” Belle asked, delighted.
“My wedding present for the happy couple,” Theresa explained, smirking triumphantly. “Although I did not include the powdered sugar.”
“Powdered sugar?” Belle squealed.
“Care to explain, Ivetta?”
I swallowed. “Um…well…”
“Words, Ivetta!” Belle prompted.
I sighed and my shoulders slumped dejectedly. “Theresa, do you remember the first time I made beignets? When I was his maid?”
She resumed her seat beside me. “I heard about it, yes. Wasn’t it for your mother’s birthday?” Her eyes widened, and her smile fell. “Sorry.”
I shook my head. “It’s fine. Um, well, I took some to Chevalier before I left, and…” I stopped and bit my lip.
Theresa frowned. “This sounds like a juicy story you never told me.”
“Of course, I didn’t! I never told you anything about what went on between Chevalier and me. N-not that anything went on!” I added hastily. “A-and you never asked, either! You were always more interested in, in Nokto, a-and anybody who—”
Theresa waved her hand to cut me off. “Uh huh. We’ll address the rest of the stuff that supposedly didn’t happen between you and Chevalier later. What about the beignets?”
I swallowed again. “Um…he, um…I-I don’t think he meant to tease me, at first, but he, um…h-he fed me a beignet. Well, made me take a bite. A-and then…he ate the rest.”
More squealing on both sides of me.
“So now, beignets turn him on, so you dressed up in this and got cooking,” Theresa summarized with a wicked smile.
“And then things really got cooking,” Belle added.
“Yes, okay! Yes! I had a lot of fun! We made love every chance we got, he’s as good at it as he is at everything else, and I’m not telling you anything else!”
My outburst silenced them for only a few seconds. Then Belle threw her arms around me in a tight hug, and Theresa’s lips curved up into a knowing smile.
“I’m so happy for you!” Belle squealed.
“‘Every chance you got’?” Theresa repeated.
“W-we did other things! We talked, and read books, and went for walks outside—”
“And dropped all of that to make love whenever you felt like it.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but then I pressed my lips together again. She wasn’t wrong.
“I don’t want to leave,” Belle suddenly wailed.
I whipped my head around to look at her. “What?”
“Rio’s a prince,” she lamented. “Valerio Ricci. Silvio’s brother. We leave for Benitoite tomorrow.”
I stared at her in shock, unsure of what to say or ask first.
Theresa was the one to break the stunned silence. “I’ve already heard this, so I’ll go get lunch for us.”
“And then when you get back, you can tell her your big news,” Belle told her.
“It’s not that big,” Theresa replied dismissively.
The door shut behind her, and I finally found my tongue. “‘Valerio Ricci’? He’s Silvio’s brother?”
Belle nodded against my shoulder. “Younger half-brother, actually.”
“But—there wasn’t anything with him when you found him? Nothing to point to his being a prince?” I asked, still having trouble wrapping my head around the sudden turn in this conversation.
“Well…there was,” she admitted. “A fancy coat, a sword, and an expensive-looking ring. When he woke up and I realized he’d lost his memory, I tried showing them to him, but he got really upset. I was worried he’d hurt himself more, so…I hid them.”
I’d always had questions about the circumstances of Belle finding Rio, and this revelation only added more. It was a carriage accident, she’d said. Rio had been barely conscious near an overturned carriage, and when she’d asked his name, she only heard the last part: Rio. But there had been no sign of the horses or the driver for the carriage, which always made me wonder if the ‘accident’ had been staged.
“And none of the princes knew him? Not even Nokto?” I wondered aloud.
She shook her head. “His mother was a commoner and the king’s mistress, so Rio tried not to draw attention to himself. That’s why they could keep it quiet when he went missing, although they kept looking.”
That made no sense, but it was the answer she knew, and asking her more wouldn’t change it. I swallowed and refocused on the most important part. “And you’re leaving tomorrow…”
She nodded again. “His parents wanted him to go back with them, but he talked them into letting us stay until you got back. Sariel used his connections to get me a job as an official ambassador of Rhodolite, so the nobility will be more accepting of me even though I’m a commoner, but I’ll have to put in a lot of work to be ready for the wedding. Which is still happening this summer. Rio doesn’t want to postpone it.”
She was still hugging me, mumbling into my shoulder as she explained, acting as though this was the worst news ever. I swallowed again and hugged her back, forcing a smile to my face, even though she couldn’t see it. I knew she would hear it in my voice.
“This is great! You’ll be a princess, too!”
“But I have to leave,” she complained again.
“Yes, but as an ambassador to Rhodolite, you’ll visit often, won’t you? And we can write to each other. And you’ll get to see the ocean, and sail on a ship, and…and read Benitoitian books…”
She sighed and looked up at me, uncertainty wavering in her brown eyes. “You’ll visit, won’t you?”
“Of course I will!” I reassured her. “Other countries have been inviting Chevalier to visit ever since he became king, but he’s been putting off traveling that far because of me. Now that we’re married, there’s no reason we can’t go together. And since Benitoite was Rhodolite’s first ally, we should go there first, anyway.”
She took a deep breath and forced herself to smile. “I’ve always wanted to see the ocean.”
“And wear fancy ball gowns,” I reminded her, remembering all the times she’d oohed and aahed over my wardrobe.
Her smile widened. “And get my own personal chauffeur to take me to my favorite stores.”
“You might not get that one,” I said, feeling my cheeks stretch with my smile, too. “Rio isn’t the king, after all. But you’ll probably get your own Theresa.”
The door opened as I said that, and Theresa was quick to interject. “Excuse me? There is only one me, and I take offense to the idea that Belle can find a replacement for me in Benitoite. Someone help me with this.”
“Of course there’s only one you,” I said quickly, standing up and taking one of the two trays she was balancing on her hands. “I was just saying she’ll probably get her own maid. Um…I guess…put this on the writing desk? We’ll have to figure out the furniture situation.”
Belle jumped up to clear the papers and writing supplies from Chevalier’s desk. “Unless you want to come with me, Theresa,” she said. “Since you’re having so many issues with Jin and Leon. What is this?”
Theresa groaned. “Thanks for blurting it out like that.”
“It’s the birthday present I gave Chevalier,” I explained, setting the tray on the desk and taking the wooden dove from her. We’d have to figure out decor, too. For now, I decided to put it on Chevalier’s nightstand. “What’s going on with Jin and Leon?”
“I broke up with Leon,” Theresa said flatly.
I froze. “What?”
“You saw them at the wedding. I like Leon, but not enough to get into a fight with one of my sisters over him. He and Jin are too close and too good of friends for me to mess their relationship up when I don't care about him that much. So, I broke it off.” She shrugged. “Guess everybody can’t have a prince. It’s back to butlers and knights for me. Speaking of which, can we move your mother’s portrait out of your old room? I can’t have any fun if that’s there. It’s almost like my own mother is watching me.”
Theresa clearly didn’t want to talk about it more, so Belle and I left it there and turned to lunch and planning. I ate at Chevalier’s desk, and they ate on the sofa, balancing their plates on their laps. That was the first thing that needed to change—we needed an actual table in here. Theresa had already moved my bureau and vanity into the room, and there was plenty of space for more, but I didn’t want to clutter it up with all the things I’d accumulated since becoming royalty. Everything we didn’t move could stay in my old room, which was now Theresa’s room, since being the queen’s maid gave her extra privileges.
My mother’s portrait, however, was a problem. As much as I loved it, I didn’t want it in my new room, either. Chevalier and I would have to cover it up every time we wanted to make love.
We moved it to the library.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ7olbgv8UJ
