Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Not one week later, Heinrich and Gertrude were married.
Though Roderick and I should have been either in the dungeon or the gallows for our parts in delaying her wedding, we were forgiven due to sparing her from Wilhelm and ridding Heinrich of his father.
The wedding was on a warmer day, but it was still cold.
I finally got to see parts of the city when we traveled to its center for Heinrich to sign the new law of faerie citizenship.
I hadn’t attended that historic event, so I hadn’t seen Roderick, not since he’d been taken to the infirmary.
If I hadn’t been assured of his uneventful recovery, I would have assumed the worst.
“I still can’t believe what you did to the king,” Gertrude’s voice dragged me out of my oppressive musings. We were traveling to the grand temple where she and Heinrich would be wed by the high priest.
I sighed, eyes fixed out the window to watch the city as it went by. “I’m still surprised you wanted me here.”
“Heinrich says that you spared me from his cruelty and I should thank you.”
Still feeling daring, I’d said, “You should, because now you’re free to marry him with no consequences, and you get to be queen a lot earlier than expected.”
A snap of her fingers made me look at her. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a low chignon to make room for her veil and tiara, silvery to match her pearly, puffy gown. It’s what I would have worn if I had stuck with my original plan, and maintained the deception.
I frowned. “What?”
She rolled her eyes. “It never used to be this hard, getting your attention.”
“And snapping your fingers was never how you should have ever gotten it.”
She lowered her gaze, before she exhaled. “I suppose I do owe you my thanks, and an apology.”
In shock, I felt the need to ask,“Have you hit your head?”
She briefly scowled at me. “Would you rather I go back to treating you badly?”
“So, you knew you were being awful to me?”
“I do now that I’ve been in your place.”
I shook my head. “You really haven’t, you just experienced some humbling and extreme boredom.”
“Anyway,” she began loudly, “I thank you and apologize, and you may stay on as a lady-in-waiting, not a maid.”
My brows rose as I smoothed the skirt of my sky-blue gown. “But I’m not a noblewoman.”
“You could be, after we marry you to one of Heinrich’s friends. Gustav, in particular, has taken a liking to you.”
It was more than I could have deserved as a maid who’d betrayed her mistress, but still, I didn’t feel elated by the offer.
My few days as a princess had certainly expanded my taste, as well as my desires, when before I couldn’t have dreamed of a lord wanting to marry me.
But the truth was it was the lord in question that was the issue.
I wondered when Roderick was arriving for the wedding.
“I’ll give it some thought,” I told her, offering a small smile.
The ceremony at the temple was simple yet beautiful, with the choir singing along to the music of the wedding march, and continuing to sing songs of love and devotion as the high priest wed the new King and Queen of Orcage.
All through, I kept looking away from the main event to search for the one person I wanted to see, but if he were here, he wouldn't be easy to spot.
My nervous anticipation soon turned to crushing disappointment. He hadn’t come.
On the way back, more despondent than I’d ever been in a life rife with misfortune, I rode with the princesses. They didn’t seem particularly torn up about losing their father. I supposed Heinrich’s relief at him being gone was shared by his sisters. I hadn’t been the only sufferer of his abuse.
Back at the palace, the true celebration began, with all the doors open and the curtains pulled apart. Cold sunlight poured in to shine on the wallpaper, chandeliers and the towers of crystal glasses all around the ballroom.
As the king and queen had their first dance, I stepped out onto the nearest balcony, needing to escape the festivities that only deepened my dejection.
Exhaling a warm vapor, I took in the visible section of the city.
It was cloudy now, but there didn’t seem to be any risk of rain or further snow than the amount that had fallen last night.
“Admiring the view?”
Roderick!
I whirled around, heart about to take flight with how hard it fluttered.
I found him leaning against the marble balustrade next to me, in a thick, woolen coat that matched my gown.
The missing elation from Gertrude’s announcement had resurfaced at his presence, and I couldn’t help being happy to see him. “Where have you been?”
“Seeing that the new law was being implemented,” he said, smiling knowingly.
“And you couldn’t spare an hour or two to attend the ceremony?”
He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at his polished shoes. “I actually debated coming. I didn’t think anyone would be that eager to see me.”
I wanted to rave and rant that he should have known I would be. That I wanted to see nothing but him. Instead I mumbled, “I thought you’d disappeared back into Faerie.”
“Odd assumption, considering you of all people know I don’t live there.”
“Your mother does, though. Don’t you visit her?”
“I do. But it’s too early in the year for me to visit, so, I’m here for now.”
I met his eyes, a little nervous. “Just for now?”
“Would you like me to stay longer?”
“I’d like you to stay for as long as you can.” I admitted.
His mouth softened, but his mesmerizing eyes still darkened with hesitation. “I was afraid you’d never want to see me again, considering no part of our deal has worked out for you.”
I checked behind us, at where the wedding that could have been mine was taking place. “That is partly my fault.”
He took another step closer, reaching out a gentle hand to sweep away the hair that now clung to my lashes. “Why did you do it?” he asked. “You could have been queen by now if you hadn’t told them the truth.”
Almost dizzy with how breathless his proximity made me, I tried to shrug. “It wasn’t what I deserved.”
“You deserve it more than Gertrude does,” he said firmly. “Far more than anyone I’d ever known."
This wasn’t flattery, he believed what he was saying to me, and that immutable fact brought out the breath I’d been holding in a tremulous trail of vapor.
I scooted closer so our hands were within reach of one another. “All right, how about I just didn’t want it anymore?”
His eyes searched my face. “Why is that?”
“It didn’t feel worth it, or right,” I said. “Besides, if I couldn’t handle the treatment I got as a princess, how could I handle being queen?”
His hand slipped beneath my chin, a finger raising it to meet his gaze. “How about being a baroness?”
It took an embarrassingly long time for me to process what he’d just offered. Just to soothe the overbearing anxiety I had been operating on since we’d last parted, I waited for him to add something that would prove my worries right.
Yet, there was nothing but conviction in his eyes now, and with it shone signs of hopefulness and the worry that could crush it. The offer hadn’t been a light, teasing joke, it had been sincere, and it was expressed with the fear that I could deny him.
“It’s a rank beneath what you aimed for, but you still get your own castle,” he said, as if trying to sell me on his bargain.
When I could speak again, I gasped, “Is that a proposal, Lord von Ravenstock?”
“It is.” His grin returned as he leaned in to whisper softly, wickedly, in my ear. “After all, you still owe me a firstborn.”
Tension finally melting off me like frost in the spring, I couldn’t help laughing.
Straightening with a relief, he held out his hand for mine and I quickly obliged, watching him thumb the bracelet that gave me the ability to turn all, including kings, into gold. “Is that a yes?”
Biting my lower lip, I nodded. “It is.”
“So, am I what you want after all?”
“You are proving to be everything I didn’t know I could want.”
Nervousness slowly left his growing smile, lingering in how he squeezed my hand. “And do you trust me?”
“I do.”
He stood back up, pulling me along back into the ballroom. “Then let’s celebrate with a dance.”
Inside, with my hand in his and his on my waist, we waltzed around the royal couple until I felt my feet leave the ground, and, before I knew it, we were spinning in the air to the awe and envy of all those beneath us.
Roderick leaned further in and I met him halfway in a kiss that filled me with a buzz no amount of sparkling wine or gold-making could have achieved. It was like lightning had struck overhead and electrified only the air we breathed, sealing our final deal.
THE END