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Prince Chevalier wasn’t there in the morning, which was strange, especially given my weird dream from the night before. I could only remember bits and pieces of it. Something about Prince Gilbert, and I was giggling about being tortured, and Prince Chevalier might have been there, too. It made no sense, but at least it wasn’t a nightmare.
Probably all the medicine. It couldn’t have been real. Because if it were real, that would mean Prince Gilbert snuck into my room.
It couldn’t have been real.
“Did you give me extra medicine last night?” I asked the doctor.
“Yes, I did. Prince Chevalier told me you have active nightmares, and I don’t want you hurting yourself in your sleep.” He fixed me with a stern glare. “If you’d been sleeping, you wouldn’t have noticed.”
“I was sleeping. I just had an odd dream, that’s all,” I said quickly. “Where is Prince Chevalier?”
The doctor’s mustache twitched, which I knew meant he was fighting a smile. I suddenly realized how that sounded, that he probably thought I had a dream about Prince Chevalier, and I was once again glad for the bruises that hid my blush. I didn’t have a dream about him. He was in it, but it wasn’t about him. And why shouldn’t I dream about him, after all he’d done for me? What was wrong with that?
Great. Now I was justifying my dreams to myself.
“Sleeping in, I expect,” the doctor said, interrupting my rapidly spiraling thoughts. “The guards told me he was up late greeting our newest arrivals. I believe he mentioned them to you yesterday?”
“Yes, he said Prince Clavis and Belle were coming, but I thought they wouldn’t be here until today.”
“They came early,” the doctor said cheerfully. “Who would you like to see first after breakfast? Assuming you’re feeling up to it, of course.”
Embarrassment gave way to excitement welling up in my chest. “Can I see them both?”
He chuckled. “Prince Clavis is a handful on his own. I don’t want you overexerting yourself.”
“How could I do that? I’m just lying in bed. Please?”
“I’m afraid that won’t work on me, young lady,” he said, his mustache twitching again. “You may have one visitor. One. And, after you’ve rested from that, you may have another visitor. I will supervise closely, of course, and I reserve the right to bring visiting to an end. These are the rules.”
“Well, that’s not very fair,” I said, trying a different angle. “Prince Chevalier comes whenever he wants, and you don’t have to supervise him.”
“Prince Chevalier makes the rules,” the doctor reminded me, his gray eyes twinkling behind his glasses. “Now, who do you want to see first?”
I sighed, defeated but not upset. “Surprise me.”
He opened the door to take my empty breakfast tray away, and we were both surprised when a crowd of people bounded into the room, knocking the tray over and nearly upending the poor doctor. It wasn’t just Prince Clavis and Belle. Rio and Theresa were here, too, and they all exclaimed my name in unison.
“Ivetta!”
“No, no, no!” the doctor shrieked, abandoning the mess in the doorway to interpose himself between them and me. “One at a time. One! The rest of you, out!”
“I’m first! I’m first!” Belle squealed, raising her hand and jumping up and down.
“As the only prince in this room, my rank says I go first,” Prince Clavis said, smoothing his violet hair with smug assurance.
“Well, I need to clean that mess up,” Theresa argued.
“I’m staying with Belle,” Rio volunteered.
“Do I need to call the guards?” the doctor asked sternly, putting his hands on his hips. “Or Prince Chevalier?”
“Um, hello everybody,” I said awkwardly. “I’m okay, and I will see all of you, but he’s serious about calling Prince Chevalier.”
The doctor grabbed Prince Clavis and Rio by the shoulders and dragged them toward the door. It made an interesting picture, considering he was shorter than both of them.
“Out. Out! You, clean up that mess, and then get out!”
He shoved Prince Clavis and Rio out into the hallway and stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Theresa. She sighed and knelt down to pick up the upended tray. Belle bounded happily toward me and landed in a sitting position on the bed beside me, bouncing the mattress and thoroughly jarring me.
“Please don’t do that, Belle,” I winced, glancing furtively at the doctor and hoping he hadn’t seen that. His glowering expression said he did.
“I’m sorry! It won’t happen again!” she cried frantically as he stormed across the room to us. He grabbed a chair along the way and dragged it into position next to the bed, crossing his arms again and glaring pointedly at Belle. She meekly rose from the bed and seated herself in the chair.
“You have fifteen minutes, and if I hear anything concerning, I’ll have to ask you to leave,” he said, shaking a finger in her face.
“Yes, sir.”
He turned back to the door, prompting Prince Clavis and Rio’s heads to vanish from the doorframe and Theresa to duck down and finish cleaning up the tray. Everybody was smiling, except the doctor and Belle, who was pursing her lips so tightly they were white. As soon as the door closed and we were alone, we both burst out laughing.
“It hurts to laugh,” I moaned, unable to stop smiling despite the pain.
“Shh! If the doctor hears you, he’ll kick me out!” Belle said, putting a finger to her lips. She and I looked at each for a moment, and then we were laughing again.
“I didn’t know Rio and Theresa were coming,” I finally said when I could speak again.
“Well, Rio’s my personal attendant and my best friend, so of course he came,” Belle said matter-of-factly. “And Theresa’s your new maid.”
“My new maid?” I asked in disbelief. “But she works for Prince Leon. And I’m a maid.”
“So, you plan on cleaning your own room while you’re like this?” Belle asked pointedly.
“No, I guess not.”
“And I can’t stay here until you get better, so Theresa can keep you company. The princes are fun, but sometimes you just need another woman to talk to, you know?”
I’d almost forgotten about that until she came to the palace, too busy and too tired to even do more than say hello to Theresa in passing, but she was right. Talking to them differed significantly from talking to the princes.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” I said, genuinely pleased and almost relieved to see her. We hadn’t spent too much time together before all this happened, but we had an instant connection.
“And I’m just glad you’re going to be okay,” she said, leaning forward in her chair, suddenly serious. “When we found out you were missing - well, the entire palace was in an uproar about it.”
“You must be exaggerating,” I said, embarrassed.
“No, I’m not. Everything came to a stop while the princes were looking for you.”
“I…really?”
“Really,” she said with an emphatic nod. “I heard Prince Chevalier almost killed Prince Gilbert, and his brothers didn’t even try to stop him.”
That wasn’t hard to believe.
“All the princes were so angry, but Prince Chevalier - he was downright terrifying,” she continued.
“You should have seen him when he found me.”
“I can imagine.”
“No, you really can’t,” I said, shaking my head.
She studied me for a moment, pursing her lips in thought. “If you want to talk about it, I’m here,” she finally said, her big brown eyes full of concern.
“I’d rather not right now.”
“Okay.” She paused, chewing her lip, and then her lips curved up into a smile. “He really loves you, you know that?”
I was so glad she couldn’t see me blush through the bruises. “I - y-yes, I know.”
“Well, of course, you know. You’d have to be an idiot not to know after all this. But the big question is, do you love him?” she pressed, her brown eyes shining.
There was no point in trying to hide it.
“Well, I’d have to be an idiot not to after all this, wouldn’t I?” I asked, smiling as I turned her words back on her.
“I knew it!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “So, how long has this torrid affair been going on?”
“It’s not a torrid affair,” I insisted, averting my gaze to my fingers, plucking nervously at the blanket.
“How long, Ivetta?”
“Not that long,” I said defensively, still not meeting her eyes. “We only said ‘I love you,’ the day after…after my mother died.”
Belle made a squeaking sound. “You - Ivetta, how am I supposed to respond to that? I can’t be excited and sympathetic at the same time! And now I feel awful for not saying something sooner about your mother!”
“I’d rather talk about something else, anyway,” I muttered.
“Oh, no, you don’t. First, I’m really sorry about your mother. Really,” she said, her voice softening as she reached out to take my hand and give it a gentle squeeze.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
“And second,” she said, her volume rising as she released my hand, “you don’t start a relationship at ‘I love you,’ which means this thing between you and Prince Chevalier has been going on for a lot longer than I thought! Did you really spend the night with him?”
“It wasn’t like that,” I protested.
“Oh, my gosh, you did! I thought everybody was making it up!” she exclaimed, her brown eyes dancing.
“Thanks for the reminder that everybody knows,” I grumbled.
“So…” She leaned in and lowered her voice conspiratorially. “How was it?”
“Belle, my mother had just died,” I said, meeting her eyes. “I had a meltdown, he put me to bed, and I fell asleep. That’s all.”
She put her hands over her face and sat back, moaning. “I’m really horrible at this.”
“You didn’t know,” I reassured her, trying to ignore the pang in my chest.
“I could have put two and two together,” she argued, dropping her hands to her lap. “Okay, so what is safe for me to talk about?”
“Well…” I let my eyes wander around the room with my thoughts. “What about you and Rio?” I asked, smirking as my eyes landed back on her. Unlike me, she had no bruises to hide her immediate blush.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said dismissively.
“You’re blushing, Belle.”
She clapped her hands over her cheeks. “He’s just a good friend!”
“A good friend who tells you he loves you and you’re his future wife?”
“That’s just his way of teasing!”
“If you believe that, you’re an idiot.”
She dropped her hands to her lap and scowled at me. “You know, you can't get away with saying stuff like that forever. Someday, you’ll be out of this bed, and then I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” I taunted her.
“Well, you’ll be in this bed for a while, so I’ll have plenty of time to think about it,” she retorted.
We were laughing again when the doctor returned to shoo her away. Her exuberance had been refreshing, but it was also exhausting. The doctor checked me over and frowned.
“No more visitors until you’ve had some rest.”
Except for Prince Chevalier, of course. He came later in the morning, before the doctor pronounced me ready to see anybody else, strolling into the room as if he owned it and dismissing the doctor with a single curt word: “Out.”
“Prince Chevalier, that wasn’t very nice,” I chided him, smiling as he sat on the bed beside me and removed his gloves.
“I’m leaving in a few minutes, and he’ll have full authority over who comes and goes from this room in my absence,” he replied dismissively, taking my hand. “Belle already informed you about Theresa.”
“Yes, she did. Do I have you to thank for that?”
“And Leon. Unless an unforeseen complication arises, he’ll accompany me when I return in a few days.”
He called Prince Leon by his name. Was he using everybody’s names now? Even if it was just when he talked to me, it made me feel surprisingly happy.
“You really don’t want me getting lonely, do you?”
He smiled. “No, I don’t. But I also don’t want anybody else doing this.”
He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my lips before I could react. My heart rate skyrocketed, and I know my eyes were as wide as saucers when he pulled away just enough for the breath from his chuckle to brush my face with his pale blonde hair.
“I didn’t send the doctor out just so we could talk,” he replied, his teasing blue eyes hovering over mine, and I couldn’t breathe. If he kissed me again, my heart would explode, and that would finish me off. I was sure of it.
“Do you remember last night?”
I nodded, although it was hard to focus on his words when his hand was pressing into the pillow next to my head.
“I’m only leaving because I know he won’t be back. But I will return, and I won’t let anything like that happen to you ever again,” he murmured, his crystal blue eyes holding me and drawing me into their depths. “So, follow the doctor’s orders, and I’ll see you in a few days, little dove.”
I nodded again, and he pulled back, finally allowing me to draw in a breath. He stood up and headed for the door, as if nothing had just happened.
“Um - Prince Chevalier,” I called hesitantly.
He stopped and turned back to me.
“C-could you give me some warning next time?”
He smirked. “Consider this your warning. Goodbye, Ivetta.”
I closed my eyes and exhaled deeply as the door closed behind him, my head spinning. If his goal was to distract me from Prince Gilbert sneaking into my room last night, he succeeded. That fact lodged somewhere in the back of my mind, behind all the butterflies. I only had a few days to prepare for him to do something like that again.
It might not be enough time.
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