“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Leon said with his usual friendly grin. “Guess I don’t need to ask how you’re doing.”
“This had better not be a social call,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. If I were to really have an uninterrupted day off with Ivetta, we were going to have to leave the palace completely, after I cleared our schedules with Sariel so he wouldn’t come looking for us.
Leon chuckled. “No, ‘fraid not. How’d the meeting with Obsidian go?”
“Fine. Get to the point.”
“Alright, alright. There have been some incidents with ex-slaves near the border. Seems Obsidian hired them to fight against us, but now that we’re not going to war, they’ve been discarded again. Yesterday, they raided a village.”
I sighed. Slavery was illegal in Rhodolite, but Obsidian thrived on the practice. Escaped slaves lived in the uninhabitable wilderness of southeastern Obsidian, usually keeping to themselves, but always available for hire to anybody for the right price.
And, unfortunately, this was a matter of great importance that couldn’t wait just because I wanted some time with Ivetta.
“You know what I recommend,” I said coolly.
“Yeah, I know. And I’d like to try something different. They just want a place to live, a steady income, food on the table, y’know? Remember Jack’s girls?”
I frowned. “Yes.”
Leon had brought me to the safe house where they were staying once. Most of them were teenagers. All of them were frightened, but not because of my status or my reputation. I was a stranger and a man, and I was not to be trusted.
Ivetta was almost one of them.
“I had to move them to another town for them to have a chance, but they’re actually doing really well now. The older ones have even started venturing out and learning trades. People just think they’re a bunch of orphaned sisters. It got me thinking, why can’t we do something like that for the ex-slaves? Give them their own place, a fresh start, somewhere they can make a living?”
His amber eyes were alight with passion as he spoke. I could tell he’d given this a lot of thought, but I was skeptical.
“They’re not victimized girls. Many of them are mercenaries for hire, without a shred of loyalty,” I reminded him.
He shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. They’re very loyal - to each other. And they’re just doing what they have to do so they can survive. There’s a place up north in the foothills that’s uninhabited because the ground is so rocky, but the soil is fertile, and there’s plenty of space. A little hard work, and it could be a very productive little area. I’d like to offer it to them. They can build a town and become honorable members of Rhodolite. What do you think?”
I frowned. It was a grand idea, with significant risk attached. “And why should they believe your offer is genuine?”
His smile faltered. “Yeah, about that. Follow me.”
I did so, glancing at the windows down to the gardens as he led me back to my private library. This was taking much longer than I would have liked.
“What is it?” I asked testily as I closed the door behind us.
“I’ve got a secret that only Belle knows,” he started. “And you won’t like it. But it will get the ex-slaves to believe me.”
“Go on,” I prompted, my interest piqued.
“I’m not Leon Dompteur.”
That was unexpected. I narrowed my eyes as I studied him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, Leon Dompteur died when he was six years old. He had a heart condition, and his mother knew it was coming. She was afraid of losing her favored status as the mother of a prince, so she had one of her knights find an identical replacement before it happened. I was that replacement. And I was a slave whose use had run out. Her knight found me getting whipped to death, and he bought me with a single coin. I still have the scars on my back, if you need proof.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I replied quietly. Everything about his expression and his posture radiated truth.
“They kept me locked up in his room, learning everything about him, until the day he died,” Leon continued. “Then I became him, and his mother had everybody who knew about the switch killed. She died not long after from guilt.”
I remembered when he’d suddenly disappeared from palace life amidst rumors of serious health issues. Then his nanny and the knight who guarded him were found murdered, sending the palace into an uproar. He’d emerged from the ensuing chaos, a changed boy, suddenly lacking in confidence and awkward. I’d attributed the change to his illness and the murders, as did everybody else who noticed.
But he really was a different boy entirely.
“You have been deceiving the royal family, which technically makes you a traitor,” I finally said.
He nodded. “As a kid, I was too scared to say anything, but I didn’t even want to be here. I was angry that people could live like this, so far above slaves like me that they didn’t even know or care about us. But…” He sighed and shook his head. “It’s a lot to say about a six-year-old kid, but I really think Leon would have made a good king. He knew he was dying, and he knew I was going to replace him, and all he wanted to do was help me figure this mess out and change things. That’s why I ended up deciding to become him and carry on in his legacy.” He shrugged. “But it’s all over now, and you’re going to be king. It’s your call what happens to me from here.”
The silence was deafening.
“Three months ago, I would have beheaded you without hesitation,” I started. “But I have only your word to confirm the veracity of your claims.”
He reached up to the clasp holding his cloak in place.
“Only your word,” I repeated sharply, stopping him.
His amber eyes widened slightly as he caught my meaning, and he dropped his hands to his sides.
“And, by your own account, you are a liar, meaning your word cannot be taken at face value. But you are a capable leader, and it would be a waste to execute you.” I smiled ruefully and shrugged. “Make your offer to the ex-slaves.”
He grinned and clapped me on the shoulder. “Thanks, Chevalier. Sorry for interrupting your time with Ivetta, but I’ll make sure you don’t regret this.”
“What’s your name?”
“My name?” he asked, surprised, dropping his hand to his side again.
I nodded. “It can’t have escaped your attention that I’ve begun referring to people by their proper names. What was yours?”
“I didn’t have one,” he replied, shrugging nonchalantly. “The closest thing was my number, fourteen.” He paused, and then he added with a forced chuckle, “Maybe you should just go back to calling me Black.”
I ignored that last comment and glanced at the clock. Ivetta would have to wait a few moments longer.
“Leon,” I said deliberately, “if any of those ex-slaves are competent jewelers, let me know.”
His eyes widened, and he let out a low whistle. “Don’t tell me you’re going to propose?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I already have the engagement ring, but I’ll need the wedding rings in a few months.”
“Moving kind of fast, aren’t you?” he asked, his amber eyes sparkling.
“Jin seems to think I’ve been dragging my feet,” I replied, smirking.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Leon said, chuckling again. “I’ll look into it, and if I find somebody, you’ll be the first to know. But you’d better go find her. She doesn’t have her guards with her, right?”
I wasn’t so sure about that. A single glance out the windows before I left the library confirmed that Julius was loitering in the gardens, well out of her sight but very much within hearing range. And she was plainly visible lying in the grass down by the pond, the pale pink dress spread about her like a rose in bloom.
One week to the coronation ceremony.
She was the picture of beauty in repose as I approached her, lying on her stomach, intent on her book. Her high heels were discarded in the grass beside her; her long black hair was swept over one shoulder, forming a curtain on one side of her face. The full skirt of her dress flared about her hips, spreading on the grass on either side of her, and her knees were bent so her bare feet were up in the air behind her, crossed at the ankles. She’d completely forgotten about hiding the scars on her calves, exposed to the warm sunlight. And, though I was mildly irritated by their presence, they did nothing to mar her appearance.
“You aren’t concerned about grass stains on that dress?” I asked.
She rolled onto her back, smiling up at me. “I guess I didn’t think about it.”
There was nothing proper about her pose, and everything right about it. Her silky black hair cascaded down her shoulder, across her chest to her waist, the strands teasing me with their route. I forced my eyes up to her face and sat down beside her, propping myself up on my elbow. Her full lips, slightly parted and eager, were no less of a temptation than the rest of her.
“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” I said, running my finger lightly across them.
“I just used the extra time to think about the letter I’ll write to Gilbert,” she said innocently with a sweet smile.
I leaned in and kissed her hard. “You need to stop that.”
“But it’s just so much fun to tease you, Chevalier,” she replied, her green eyes sparkling mischievously.
“You are a foolish little dove,” I smiled, kissing her again.
“Are we going to be interrupted again today?” she asked.
“I hope not. I would hate to have to draw my sword,” I said, lying beside her on the grass. Her rosy cheeks begged to be touched, and she blushed deeper as my fingers stroked her skin. “You seem to be enjoying yourself.”
“I am,” she said, beaming at me. “I haven’t had a chance to spend time with you in far too long. Maybe I should just go back to being your maid.”
“Then neither of us would get any work done,” I said, rolling over to kiss her again. The book trapped between us prevented me from fully enjoying the feel of her soft form underneath me.
“Somebody might be watching us, Chevalier,” she said shyly, though the hands on my shoulders were not pushing me away. They did, however, remind me of my earlier request.
“Good. Perhaps this will discourage the other Noble Beasts from chasing after my little dove. Now, the gloves.”
The way her expression fell as I pulled back tempered the heat in my veins. She dropped her gaze to her hands and sighed heavily as she reluctantly removed the offending gloves and tossed them next to her shoes. The irregular gashes, the streaks of white skin even paler than her usual color, were everywhere. But they didn’t bother me. What did bother me was the way she couldn’t meet my eyes, as if she expected me to be disgusted with her.
“There. Is that better?” she asked nervously, tensing as she waited for my rejection.
I needed to put an end to this. Now.
“Yes.”
She looked up at me with wide eyes. I took one of her hands and kissed each of her fingers, and then the back of her hand, and then her wrist. She was too startled to protest, but her skin flushed where I touched and each kiss sent a shiver through her. Her response erased all thought, and there was only her, moaning and gasping as I worked my way up to her shoulder, every inch of her deliciously sweet and begging for more. By the time I made it up to her neck, her eyes were closed, and she was breathing hard, her body radiating heat beneath me. I scattered kisses across her ear and jaw, and then there were her lips, ready and waiting as her hands tangled in my hair.
“Oh, Chevalier,” she gasped.
My hands found the book on her stomach and shoved it aside, sliding across her waist and around to her back, up to her shoulders, skidding across the laces that teased my fingers as I pulled her away from the grass and pressed her into me. The rays of sunshine on my back were combining with the heat between us and roasting me alive.
Grass. Sun. We were outside, in the gardens, visible from certain windows. Like the library. And the round table room.
“Now, do you believe me?” I asked breathlessly, pulling back slightly.
She was a mess. Deeply flushed, her eyes half-lidded with desire, her chest heaving against me. She didn’t look like she could even remember her name, let alone reply to my question.
I should be the only one allowed to see her this way.
“Uh huh,” she managed to reply.
I chuckled and gave her one final peck on the lips before I released her. The cool grass on my back, the slight breeze across my chest, were woefully inadequate cooling mechanisms. Jumping in the pond would be better. But I found the book she’d brought for me and opened it up, staring at the pages as if they meant anything.
Maybe I should just take her back inside.
“You really don’t play fair,” she muttered, sitting up and looking for her book. I glanced over as she picked it up and smoothed the wrinkled pages, the fabric at her waist crinkling slightly as she leaned forward. “But I’ll get you back someday.”
“How do you plan to do that?” I asked, smirking up at her.
“I don’t know.” She lay back down and stared at her book, the fabric smoothing out at her waist and tightening across her chest, the bow at her hip rubbing against mine. “But I’ll come up with something.”
I chuckled again and reached over for the bow, rubbing the satiny fabric between my fingers.
“Hey!” she protested, swatting my hand away. “Keep that up, and I’ll go somewhere else.”
“No, you won’t,” I said smugly. “But I’ll stop.”
“Good.”
No going back inside, then. She didn’t even realize that she just got back at me. Not that I regretted anything. I turned my attention back to my book, waiting for my heart to stop racing, for the words to make sense, for the suddenly erotic scars glimpsed out of the corner of my eye to stop teasing me.
Maybe it would be better if she wore gloves around me.
We spent the rest of the afternoon there, eventually cooling off enough to read, and we probably would have stayed there until dark if Jin hadn’t interrupted us just before dinner.
“Aw, now isn’t this cute? A pair of lovebirds in the garden,” he teased.
She was so immersed in her book that she actually jumped at the sound of his voice, sitting up and spinning around to scowl up at him.
“Jin, you scared me!” she chided as he laughed.
“She’s adorable when she blushes, isn’t she, Chevalier?”
“Indeed,” I agreed coolly, already on my feet.
She reached for her shoes, her fingers brushing against the gloves and freezing momentarily. I glanced at Jin, his expression darkening at the sight of the scars. That was the reaction she’d expected from me. I stepped closer to her, close enough for my cloak to shield her from Jin’s eyes. She pulled the gloves on quickly, and then the shoes, and I offered her a hand as soon as she looked up.
“But you would do well to remember that she is mine to admire, not yours,” I added, meeting her green eyes and holding them. A smile spread across her face as she took my hand and allowed me to pull her to her feet. I interlaced my fingers with hers and led her past Jin to the palace.
“Oh, I remember,” he said, falling into step beside us. “I just can’t help but look. After all, she’s not just a looker, but she’s a beast tamer, too.”
“Jin-” she protested, ducking her head and leaning in closer to me.
“I know, I know. I’ll lay off for now. But fair warning: your little debut into politics is going to be the big topic of discussion at dinner, whether you choose to gift us with your presence or not.”
“As it should be,” I said. She looked up at me, surprised. I glanced back down at her and smiled. “She exceeded my expectations.”
“I think hell just froze over,” Jin said, his sharp brown eyes wide with surprise.
It wasn’t my intention to have dinner with my brothers, but I wasn’t ready for my day with her to end, and my room was not a safe option after the events of the afternoon. So we walked with Jin to the round table room, and I pulled out a seat for her as she tried to pretend not to notice the glittering eyes and teasing smiles on us, even as her blush gave her away.
“Well, look who’s joining us,” Leon said with a broad smile as he filled his plate. “Welcome to the table, Ivetta.”
“I trust you were able to attend to your business satisfactorily?” Clavis asked slyly.
Luke already had his mouth full of food, but he joined in the teasing anyway, his words garbled. “Oh, is that what you call it? All that kissing by the pond?”
I had a feeling somebody saw that.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Yves snapped. “If you choke, I’m not saving you.”
“I don’t think he wants you to save him, anyway,” Nokto said. “Of all the people at this table, there is one clear favorite for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.” His crimson eyes met Ivetta’s with a mischievous sparkle.
“Then I suggest he be more careful,” I said coolly. “It would be a waste for him to die over a mouthful of food.”
“Is this how all of dinner is going to go?” she asked, her face bright red. Licht’s quiet voice was the first to answer.
“Pretty much.”
“And you thought the diplomatic meeting would be difficult,” Clavis said with a smirk.
“I heard you handled that like a pro,” Leon threw in.
“I heard one better,” Jin interjected. “Chevalier said she exceeded his expectations.”
Everybody’s eyes widened as they stared at her, silverware frozen in midair. Luke’s mouth fell open, crumbs dropping onto his shirt.
“Of course, my face was its normal color for that,” she said, breaking the silence. “I wouldn’t have done so well looking like a tomato.”
Leon burst out laughing, and just about everybody joined in. I nudged her with my elbow to get her to look at me.
“Red suits you,” I said quietly, so nobody else could hear. My teasing smirk didn’t go unnoticed.
“There they go again. Never thought I’d see the day when Chevalier fell head over heels for a woman,” Jin teased.
“She’s quite the charmer,” Clavis said, his eyes sparkling mischievously as they met hers. “Gilbert sent her a personal letter.”
The shock was limited to Leon’s faction this time, but it was still just as dramatic as before.
“So much for the treaty,” Licht muttered.
“It was a very nice letter,” she interjected. “And Chevalier didn’t have a problem with it.”
“Well, where is it? C’mon, let’s have a look at it!” Luke’s mouth was empty this time, so we could clearly appreciate his enthusiasm.
I smirked. “Ivetta?”
“Okay, maybe he did have a slight problem with it,” she admitted.
“Now we’ve got to see it.” Even Yves was joining in on the teasing at this point.
She sighed. “He hid it on a top shelf in his library.”
Leon was the first to laugh again, and, again, it was contagious.
It was a rowdy dinner, and although she never stopped blushing the entire time, she thoroughly enjoyed it. She was still smiling when I walked her to her room at the end of the night.
“You did that for me, didn’t you?” she asked, beaming up at me. “It seemed like you were having fun, but I know you prefer a bit more solitude.”
“I don’t like the thought of you being lonely,” I confessed. “And I don’t want to leave you alone with them.”
She sighed. “Jealousy rears its ugly head again.”
I smirked. “Not jealousy. Pride. I may enjoy showing you off occasionally.”
“I haven’t even stopped blushing yet from dinner!” she protested.
She hadn’t. And our day together was rapidly drawing to its close. I suddenly grabbed her about the waist and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
“I don’t want you to stop blushing,” I murmured, kissing her again before she even had a chance to catch her breath.
“Chevalier, we’re in the middle of the hallway,” she complained, although she didn’t make any attempt to pull away from me.
“You said it’s my day. This is how I want to end it.”
“But what if somebody sees us?” she managed to ask between kisses.
“Then it will be their turn to be jealous.”
We eventually made it to her room, where her guards were waiting at the door. Their presence had never irritated me before, but it did now. She dropped her gaze to the floor, loosening her fingers from mine. I tightened my grip.
“Goodnight, Chevalier,” she said quietly.
I turned her toward me and leaned in to give her a light peck on the lips. “Goodnight, Ivetta.”
Her eyes were back on mine, shy and warm. I opened the door for her, forcing my feet to stay firmly rooted in the hallway, forcing my hand to pull the door closed behind her.
One week until the coronation ceremony.
I headed back to my room, lost in thought.
“Struck out?” Leon asked, his voice snapping me back to reality.
“Not quite.”
At least I ran into him and not Clavis or Nokto.
“You’re here, alone, and not there, with her. What else would you call it?” he asked, grinning.
“To ‘strike out’ would imply that I asked.”
“Why didn’t you?” he asked curiously.
“She’s not ready.”
He chuckled. “How do you know if you didn’t ask?”
“I know,” I said coolly, letting myself into my room and slamming the door shut so he wouldn’t get any foolish ideas about following me. None of this was any of his business, anyway. Just mine, and hers, and the cold bath where I was going to drown my pent-up desires once again.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU6GsROpEdN
