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My reflection still wasn’t pretty. It was better than when I first woke up from being rescued, but it would be a long time until ‘better’ actually looked good. The swelling that distorted my facial features was finally gone, leaving behind a heart-shaped face painted in an array of colorful bruises. Black, blue, purple, green, orange - I looked like an artist’s paint tray when the painting was done, and the colors were all mixed. At least my face didn’t bear the same ugly scars that marred my skin from my shoulders down. The nightgown hid most of those, except for the jagged lines on my bare arms.
I sighed in frustration and forced my gaze away from the mirror to the doctor’s callused hands, carefully re-wrapping my wrists, but my eyes slid past the bandages to the scabbed-over scars. They hadn’t bothered me yesterday when he removed the stitches and declared I was healing nicely. Yesterday, I was happy with any progress. Now, staring at the exposed lines of brown scabs and pink scar tissue, I wished he would bandage them again.
“Could I change into a long-sleeved nightgown?” I asked when he finished bandaging my wrists.
“Hm,” he grunted, running his rough fingers over the uneven marks. “I don’t see why not. None of these have opened since I removed the stitches yesterday. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be here,” I sighed in resignation. He gave me an encouraging smile and left.
I sat there in the lone chair in the bright, tiled room, my eyes wandering as I searched for something to look at. The mirror, the dirty bandages in the laundry hamper, the caddy of medical supplies - everything brought me back to my arms and wrists. The doctor had considered casting my wrists instead of re-bandaging them this morning, since the rest of my arms didn’t need bandaging anymore, but he decided casts would be too abrasive to the healing cuts extending the length of my forearms. I stared down at those bandages, remembering the horrible sound of bones snapping above my head, the feel of the air leaving my lungs from the blow to my stomach in front of me and the thud of my body hitting the stone wall behind me. That happened more than once. My broken ribs probably came from that, and so did whatever fractured bone made sitting upright for too long a painful ordeal. My tailbone? Or hip? I didn’t know. Whatever it was, lying down was the most comfortable position right now, and I still hadn’t had breakfast today.
Not that I was hungry anymore.
I hoped the doctor wouldn’t take too much longer.
“Here we are,” he said cheerily, returning to the bathroom after only a few minutes with another white nightgown over his arm. “This should keep you warm.”
Keeping warm wasn’t what I had in mind, but I didn’t correct him. It was silly of me to be vain about my appearance when my broken body was still too weak for me to even help the doctor change my clothes.
“Belle and Rio left already,” he said. “But Prince Clavis isn’t leaving until Prince Chevalier returns, and I believe he has one more surprise lined up for you.”
“He does?” I asked, my mood lifting immediately. Prince Clavis’ surprises and the constant stream of visitors to my room had become lifelines to keep me from falling into the darkness of my own thoughts.
The doctor’s gray eyes twinkled behind his glasses. “‘Something to improve the view,’ he said.”
“Well, it can’t be fireworks. Not in broad daylight,” I mused. “He doesn’t plan on moving my bed closer to the window, does he? I don’t think Prince Chevalier would like that.”
The doctor chuckled. “No, he isn’t moving your bed. Ready for breakfast?”
“Yes, please.”
My eyes were on the window as soon as the doctor carried me out of the bathroom, but not for long. A flash of white in my peripheral vision drew my attention from the drawn shades to the sofa, where Prince Chevalier sat, legs crossed and book in hand. His name escaped my lips in an excited gasp before I could stop myself, and his crystal blue eyes flicked up from the pages to me, a small smile playing across his lips. I think my heart did three somersaults in the time it took the doctor to reach the bed. Prince Chevalier’s eyes were back on his book by then, and my stomach was so full of butterflies, I didn’t think there was room for breakfast anymore.
“Prince Chevalier, you’re here rather early,” the doctor commented, setting me on the bed and propping the pillows up behind me.
“I don’t recall giving a specific time for you to expect my return,” he replied coolly.
“No, but as a physician, I don’t recommend making a habit of riding your horse across the country all night.”
“Noted.”
There went my heart, doing another somersault. The doctor’s eyes crinkled at the corners under his bushy eyebrows as he propped the breakfast tray over my lap. I hoped there weren’t any gaps in the bruising on my face for my blush to peek through. My childish reaction to Prince Chevalier’s appearance was embarrassing enough, and the revelation that he’d ridden through the night just to be here this morning had the butterflies doing cartwheels in my stomach.
It couldn’t be healthy for my insides to be doing all these acrobatics.
A tapping at the window distracted me from my elation, and I looked over at the closed curtains, alarm creeping into my chest as I remembered Prince Gilbert sneaking in a few nights ago.
“What is that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Just Prince Clavis’ surprise,” the doctor reassured me. “Open up.”
Now I was even more embarrassed. Of course, Prince Gilbert wasn’t climbing through my window in broad daylight, and of course, Prince Chevalier wasn't Prince Clavis’ surprise. Prince Clavis had no way of knowing Prince Chevalier would be here this morning. Even though Prince Chevalier certainly improved the view.
Did I really just think that?
I was at risk of choking if I didn’t focus on eating, so I did my best to ignore my jumbled thoughts and racing heart while the doctor fed me breakfast. The tapping continued outside my window, sometimes rhythmic, sometimes silent, helping to distract me from Prince Chevalier, sitting quietly on the sofa, reading, and apparently oblivious to the effect he was having on me. I’d never yet guessed one of Prince Clavis’ surprises correctly, and I wasn’t having much luck concentrating on the possibilities right now.
But another distraction was making itself known, at first a subtle annoyance, gradually building into something I couldn't ignore the longer I sat up. Pain. Between the sponge bath this morning and the added time of the doctor changing my nightgown twice, I’d been sitting upright longer than usual, and the dull throbbing had become a sharp, burning sensation.
“Almost done,” the doctor said, perceptive as always. “Do you need extra pain medicine?”
“No, I think I’ll be fine once I lie down,” I replied wearily.
He frowned and removed the empty breakfast tray from my lap. “Where does it hurt?” he asked, feeling my forehead with his hand.
“I just need to lie down,” I repeated, wishing he wasn’t making such a big deal about this in front of Prince Chevalier.
“You’re a little warm. Any stomach pain?” he pressed on, removing his hand from my forehead and fixing me with a stern glare.
“No, just…my hips, I guess.”
He reached for the bottle of pills on the nightstand and poured a few into his hand. “You have been up longer than usual this morning. If it’s just pain, rest and extra medicine should help. Here.”
I took the pills obediently, and then he adjusted the pillows and eased me down to the mattress. The whimper that slipped out of me with that simple movement burned my ears.
“You need to tell me before the pain gets this bad,” he scolded me gently.
“It wasn’t this bad until a few minutes ago,” I protested.
“When did the pain begin?”
“In the bathroom,” I admitted reluctantly, my fingers plucking at the blanket.
“When in the bathroom?”
Did we have to do this with Prince Chevalier here?
“When you left,” I mumbled.
He sighed again. “Young lady, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I can’t help you. Now, get some rest, and I’ll be back later to check on you. If anything changes, you need to tell Prince Chevalier right away.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling like a scolded child.
Another series of taps came at the window. The doctor scowled and picked up the breakfast tray. “I need to have a word with Prince Clavis,” he muttered, storming toward the door. It flew open just before he reached it.
“Nice to see you looking so chipper,” Prince Clavis said, pushing past the doctor into the room with a bright smile. “And Chev, how nice of you to kick me out early. How do you put up with these two, Ivetta?”
Prince Chevalier hadn’t even looked up from his book. The doctor spun on his heel to follow Prince Clavis, already across the room and at my window.
“Prince Clavis-” the doctor started.
“I know, I know. You’re dying to see my last surprise for your favorite patient. He’s such a softie, isn’t he?” Prince Clavis asked, looking over his shoulder at me and winking. “Well, luckily for you, it’s done.”
He threw the curtains wide and stepped back. I gasped in surprise, smiling widely at the sight in front of me. A window box overflowing with colorful flowers covered the entire width of the bottom of the window. The doctor shook his head and turned away, his mustache twitching as he left.
“Thank you, Prince Clavis. They’re beautiful.”
“Well, they’ll have to do, anyway,” he said, coming over to the bed and sitting down beside me. “Since I can’t trust anybody here with fireworks while I’m gone. It’ll be some time until that gardener’s eyebrows grow back. Now, I know Chev is as dull as they come, but you’ll just have to make the best of it until I can get away again. With Leon out of the palace, Jin will need my help in managing our unruly younger brothers.”
“Oh, that’s right, Prince Leon is coming, too,” I said, excitement bubbling in my chest. “Is he here yet?”
“That’s right. Put on a brave face. I’ll be back as soon as I can to rescue you from this slum,” Prince Clavis said, his golden gaze sparkling with mischief. Then he leaned in and kissed me on the forehead. I stared up at him in shock, but his smile was still the same teasing grin as before.
“Goodbye, Ivetta,” he said, standing up and walking away, his long white overcoat fluttering behind him. “She’s all yours, Chev.”
There was the slightest bitter edge to his parting words, and I looked at Prince Chevalier, motionless on the sofa except for his glacial blue eyes, following Prince Clavis instead of the pages of the book. He sighed and snapped the book shut as soon as the door closed, setting it beside him and removing his gloves.
“Sorry about that, Prince Chevalier.”
He dropped the gloves on the book and stood up, crossing the room with long, easy strides. I expected him to sit down beside me. Instead, he put one knee on the bed beside me and reached across to put his right hand on the pillow next to my head, making my heart race all over again as I stared up at his face, hovering above mine.
“Why are you apologizing, little dove?” he asked softly, the ice in his eyes melting away and a smirk curving the corner of his lip up. “Is it because Clavis persists in his belief that he may yet win you over?” he continued, the fingers of his left hand brushing across my forehead and up into my hair, still damp from the bath. “Or because you are still too stubborn for your own good?”
“Um…Prince Clavis,” I said haltingly, finding the words with some difficulty as his breath tickled my lips.
He chuckled. “Did he get the same reaction from you as I did when you first saw him?”
I shook my head.
“Good.”
I closed my eyes just before his lips pressed into mine, warm and soft, his kiss as gentle and restrained as I remembered it, but then it was gone. His lips, his hand on the pillow, his knee beside me - I opened my eyes, confused by the way he pulled away so quickly.
“Prince Chevalier?”
He was gone from my right side, but the bed was shifting to my left, and his lips brushed against my forehead as he settled in beside me.
“I didn’t lose a night’s sleep just to kiss you and leave,” he murmured, resting his head on the pillow next to mine.
“But why did you-”
“The flowers.”
I looked back at the window as his hand found mine, and I realized he moved so he wasn’t blocking my view. The butterflies were back, swarming inside my stomach as I turned back to smile at him. He was smiling, too, and he kissed my cheek.
“May I?” he asked, his hand sliding under my shoulder. I nodded, and he carefully slid it under my upper back, nuzzling his face into my neck as his hand came to rest on my opposite shoulder.
“You need to listen to the doctor, Ivetta,” he murmured against my skin.
“I just didn’t want to bother him,” I replied, closing my eyes and breathing in the smell of roses wrapping around me. “I didn’t realize it would get that bad that quickly.”
“He’s here to take care of you. You aren’t bothering him.” He sighed, his warm breath sending a shiver up my spine. “I want you back at the palace as soon as possible, but I won’t compromise your health to get you there.”
“The doctor was talking about some exercises-”
“And I don’t want you pushing yourself unnecessarily.” His hair brushed across my cheek as he shifted his head, and I lifted my eyes to see his, inches away from mine on the pillow. “Get some sleep, little dove. Nobody will disturb us until the doctor returns.”
“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in your own room?”
He smiled and leaned in for another light kiss. “No, I wouldn’t."
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