Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Adeline tried to sit still as Jelsa tucked pearls into the braid still wound around her head. “This isn’t necessary. You’ll just have to take all these out in a few minutes.”
“Yes, Your Highness. But you deserve to feel pretty at your wedding. Even one such as this.” Jelsa continued positioning the pearls, setting them in such a way that the combination of braid and pearls formed a semblance of a crown. “It is too bad you can’t wear a tiara.”
By rights, Adeline was entitled to wear a tiara on her wedding day. But the royal tiaras were stored in the vault, and requesting one would mean going through her grandfather’s steward and the vault guards. Neither of those things would be good for keeping this wedding a secret.
Instead, she’d have to make do with the personal jewelry items she had in her own room.
“It’s all right, Jelsa.” Adeline smoothed her hands over the silk skirts of the pink dress she wore.
It wasn’t nearly as intricate as a royal wedding dress would have been, but it, too, would have to do.
She didn’t wish to take the time to change, and this particular dress was one of her favorites. “Thank you for being here tonight.”
“Of course, milady. Anything for you.” Jelsa adjusted a few strands of Adeline’s hair before she reached for the cosmetics.
Adeline held still as Jelsa dusted her face with powder, but she thankfully didn’t do more than that. Less to clean off in a handful of hours.
A knock sounded on the outer door a moment before it opened. Thaddeus’s voice called from the other room, “Your Highness, everything is ready.”
Adeline took one last look at herself in the mirror. The pearls glimmered in the lamplight where they were nestled against her dark brown hair while the powder emphasized the pallor of her porcelain complexion.
Everything might be ready, including her outward appearance. But inside, she was far from ready.
She had to be strong. This was what her kingdom needed. It was her best political move, despite the risk.
Pushing to her feet, Adeline smiled at Jelsa before she forced herself to totter on shaking legs from her dressing room, through her bedchamber, and into her sitting room.
Thaddeus stood before the door, and when his gaze landed on her, he dipped into a bow so low he should only have given it to his reigning sovereign. “My queen.”
“Not yet.” Adeline gestured for him to rise.
“But soon.” Thaddeus straightened and held out an arm. “We must hurry.”
Just the words that every girl wants to hear before her wedding.
Adeline took Thaddeus’s arm, and he led her into the corridor. Bustle and noise came from the intersection of the corridors where the king’s chambers lay. Likely his servants and guards preparing for his return. Many of the nobility would be descending soon, if they weren’t already.
After a glance around, Adeline and Thaddeus headed farther down the passageway in the other direction before taking the servants’ stairs down to the ground floor.
There, they stuck to the back corridors until they stepped through a side door into the assembly hall.
It wasn’t as large as the newer Great Hall, but it was the original grand hall of the castle and the traditional place where the monarchs of Kelverny were married.
It was also used as the place where the monarch met with the council.
In the rows before the dais stood a few of the guards, servants, and lords she trusted to be loyal to her.
Well, they were loyal to her late father and thus to her by default.
As she and Thaddeus strode down the center aisle, the guards and servants in the back rows bowed to her. She nodded to them, acknowledging their loyalty.
She halted by the front rows to greet the lords gathered there. There was only a handful of them, and sadly none of them had unmarried sons or grandsons over the age of eighteen, otherwise she would have married into one of their families in a heartbeat.
But those lords could be the difference between a coup and retaining her throne. Between death and actually surviving the next few years to bring peace.
Once the greetings were finished, she squared her shoulders and faced the dais.
There, the only court official she trusted stood beside a young man she only vaguely recognized as the same man she’d met only an hour ago in the dungeon.
He wore clean clothes, even if they were ill-fitting.
She could only guess where Thaddeus had gotten them.
The young man’s hair was smoothed down, his face mostly clean.
He was still somewhat bent over, one arm pressed over his ribs, as if he was struggling to remain standing.
Gripping her skirts, Adeline climbed the stairs and halted before her groom. Thaddeus remained at the base of the dais, stepping off to the side in the place of a servant rather than the father-figure he’d become in the past five years.
Adeline didn’t reach for her groom’s hands, nor did he offer them. The two of them simply stared at each other, two strangers only bound by their desire for peace between their kingdoms. And soon, bound together in marriage.
Lorne took in his bride’s pale cheeks, the trembling in her fingers that she tried to hide by clasping her hands demurely before her. She was terrified, and yet she was here, going through with this.
The sight twisted something inside him. He was alone here, but so was she.
This might be her kingdom, her castle, and her people, but she stood alone.
No family besides the dying grandfather.
No one loyal to her but the small gathering in this room.
If they didn’t succeed, she very well could find herself losing not just her throne but also her life.
Yet she was gambling on him. On an enemy.
He tried to straighten as much as he could as the court official began the ceremony.
Perhaps realizing that Lorne wouldn’t remain standing for long or maybe knowing their time was limited before someone sent for the princess, the officiant hurried through the formal ceremony, coming to the vows all too soon.
“Do you…” The officiant halted, staring at Lorne as if realizing for the first time that no one knew his name.
Lorne tried to calm his racing heart, to keep his face neutral, his voice level. “Lord Lorne of Chapend.”
He held his breath, waiting. Would they recognize the name? How much of the royal family’s name did the Kelvernese know?
His full name was Crown Prince Philip Alexander Lorne Chevalric of the Royal House of Dorrialle. But he always went by Lorne with his family and friends since his father’s name was also Philip. The Chapend title was one of his lesser titles.
But if he wanted this marriage to be legal and binding once he revealed the truth, then he needed to use enough of his real name for it to hold up. He didn’t want to risk his own gamble by giving her reason to annul the marriage the moment she learned the truth.
Neither the officiant nor the princess reacted to the name to give away any shock or recognition.
Instead, the officiant continued in the same tone, “Do you, Lord Lorne, take Princess Adeline Georgette Heraldron to be your wife?”
“I do.” He tried to put as much strength into the words as he could.
The officiant turned slightly toward Princess Adeline. “And do you, Princess Adeline, take Lord Lorne of Chapend to be your husband?”
“I do.” She lifted her chin, as if in defiance of something or someone. Of Lorne? Or perhaps her grandfather and all those who wished to continue this war?
With a few short words, the officiant wrapped up the ceremony and declared them married.
Thaddeus presented them with various paperwork they had to sign to make it official. Holding his breath, Lorne scrawled his real name, hoping his natural scribbling and the added shakiness from his weakness disguised the name enough that no one would realize just who he was.
No one scrutinized the paperwork that closely. Not even the various lords and witnesses that the court official called forward to also sign the paperwork to make it doubly official.
Almost as soon as they finished signing everything, the court official added his seal, as did Princess Adeline. Then he rolled up the paperwork, saying something about making sure it got filed and registered properly that night. He hurried off, even as some of the lords stepped forward.
Lorne tried to smile, tried to straighten, as the lords greeted him, their gazes sizing him up. These lords were committed to their princess and the goal of peace, but they weren’t yet convinced that this was the right course.
But the longer he stood there, the more black spots danced before his vision. Breathing was growing harder, his ribs stabbing more painfully, his legs growing shakier.
He didn’t even realize he was collapsing until Thaddeus was there, the old man propping him up. He barely registered Princess Adeline dismissing the others as Thaddeus and one of the guards began hauling him, staggering, from the dais.
He’d survived his wedding. Now to see if he would survive the consequences.
Adeline trailed after Thaddeus, the guard, and her new husband—Lord Lorne—through the back corridors to her room.
When they entered her sitting room, she hurried around the others, striding straight through her bedchamber and into the dressing room beyond.
She sank onto the chair before the mirror, releasing a long exhale as she did.
A shudder swept through, a shaking that started at her core and went outward into her hands, her knees, her legs, until she was hunched over her dressing table, gasping in quick breaths.
“Oh, milady.” Jelsa hurried across the room to her. Her hands fluttered for a moment, as if she didn’t know what to do.