Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Lorne marched in a circuit around the sitting room, the most exercise his ribs and his men would allow.
On the couch, Arne and Godwin were cleaning their daggers and swords, now that their weapons had been returned to them.
The others were lounging near the door in deceptively languid positions that belied the fact that they could jump to protect him in a heartbeat if an attack made it past the cordon of Kelvernese guards in the corridor.
Orvyn interlaced his hands behind his head, leaning farther back in the chair where he sat behind the door. “So, Highness, how is wooing your queen going?”
“You shouldn’t call me Highness.” Lorne shot him a glare, hoping the look hid any other emotion that might have strayed across his face.
“Why not? You’re a prince consort now. It’s your correct title.” Orvyn smirked, ignoring both Lorne’s glare and the looks the other guards were sending him.
“A little too correct.” Godwin inspected the edge on one of his daggers, deep grooves etched around his mouth.
“It would be more suspicious if we didn’t upgrade his title.” Orvyn shrugged. “But you didn’t answer my question.”
“That is none of your business.” Lorne gritted his teeth, annoyed that the words came out with a growl.
“Ooh. Touchy, touchy.” Orvyn smirked wider and wiggled, as if lounging deeper in the chair. “I must be on the right track.”
Lorne pressed his mouth shut rather than answering. His march around the room turned into more of a stalk as he pounded his annoyance into the plush rugs.
Emil coughed, adjusting his stance where he leaned against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed.
“Begging your pardon, but it is our business. Thanks to certain things, peace between Kelverny and Lalsacia is now linked to the harmony between you and your wife. Especially long-term relations between the kingdoms.”
Lorne tried not to let his steps falter. Because of his decision to marry Adeline and the fact that they were both the sole heirs of their kingdoms, he’d irrevocably linked Kelverny and Lalsacia. Any disharmony between him and Adeline would be disastrous for both kingdoms.
But he didn’t really want to talk about wooing his wife.
In the past week, he’d spent a portion of each day assisting where he could with the various reports and requests that crossed her desk.
And he slept beside her every night, becoming increasingly familiar with the soft sounds of her breathing.
He knew such intimate details about her, and yet he knew her so little. She was closed and guarded after years under her grandfather’s thumb.
Not that he blamed her. He hadn’t been exactly forthcoming with details about himself either, too fearful of slipping up and giving away that he was actually the crown prince of Lalsacia.
That was a truth he wanted to tell her eventually, but the situation in Kelverny was still too precarious for him to burden her with that knowledge just yet.
With a sigh, Lorne spun to face Orvyn. “What are you suggesting?”
“Romantic meal…walk under the stars…” Orvyn ticked off the items on his fingers.
“A meal that could be poisoned. A walk that would make both of us vulnerable.” Lorne crossed his arms, then had to adjust the gesture when it pressed on his ribs.
“We’d have to work with the queen’s clerk and maid to ensure everything was safe.” Orvyn flapped a hand, as if brushing off any concerns. “It’s what we’ve been doing for all of your regular meals.”
Lorne dropped his hands back to his sides, relieving the pressure on his ribs. He wasn’t sure why he was protesting so much. It wasn’t like he was opposed to a romantic dinner and moonlit walk with Adeline. “All right. If you’re offering to be my errand boy to arrange it, let’s get started.”
Adeline rubbed at her eyes, the numbers swimming before her. Her head pounded after spending most of the day meeting with the council.
Meeting was far too tame a word for it. Getting yelled at by most of the council was more like it.
While the number of lords satisfied with her decisions was growing, and she might even dare to count a few of them as now loyal to her, those who would happily see her fail, if not dethrone her entirely, were still the loud majority.
None of them had, so far, made their move. But they had to be planning something. She could see it in Lord Sarlon’s gaze.
A knock sounded on her door a moment before Thaddeus entered. “Your Majesty, it’s time for supper.”
“Have a tray delivered. I really should finish this.” She gestured to the piles of paperwork that never seemed to diminish.
“The paperwork will wait until tomorrow.” Thaddeus shook his head and opened the door wider. “Supper awaits in your room.”
Considering she could no longer focus on the dancing numbers, she might as well set this aside until tomorrow.
Rising, she rounded the desk, pulling out her key. She locked the door after herself, then swept down the corridor within the protective cordon of her guards and Thaddeus trailing after her.
When she reached her suite, a guard opened the door to her sitting room and stepped aside.
When Adeline strode inside, she halted at the savory smells and intriguing sight that greeted her.
Lord Lorne stood there, wearing finer clothes than she’d seen him in before. The deep blue of the fabric set off the dark browns in his eyes while his dark hair had been neatly combed with just a hint of tousling.
Beside him, a small table was draped in a white lace tablecloth and set for two in fine porcelain dishes. A gold candlestick provided a flickering, warm lighting.
Lorne held out a chair for her. “Supper will be served shortly.”
Adeline crept across the room and sank into the chair, entirely unprepared for the way her heart beat harder in her chest. “You arranged all of this?”
“Yes, with a lot of help from Thaddeus, Jelsa, and my men.” Lorne took the chair across from her.
As they did for every meal. One of her guards always oversaw the preparation of any food she or Lorne ate. While she was reasonably sure the cook and most of the staff were loyal to her, there was always a risk someone would slip something into her food.
“In the meantime, let’s get to know each other.” Lorne leaned forward, giving her a smile that held such warmth that Adeline’s cheeks flushed with a matching heat. “What’s your favorite color? Food? Sunsets or sunrises?”
Adeline clasped her hands in her lap. Those shouldn’t be hard questions. But they held meaning, when asked by him. And that made a nervous tumult twist her stomach.
Thanks to her grandfather, she knew the importance of guarding her words.
Answering even those mild questions made one vulnerable.
It gave the other person ammunition to use against one.
A favorite dress color could be forbidden unless she agreed to what he wanted.
A favorite food could be withheld or given as a “reward” for manipulated obedience.
His expression softened, and he stretched his hand out to her, resting it on the table between them in an offer without any presumption. “Perhaps you’d rather I went first?”
She managed a nod and, tentatively, reached with one hand to clasp his. The strength in his grip steadied her while knowing he’d speak first eased the nerves.
“To answer my own questions…” Lorne’s thumb rubbed over the top of her knuckles. “I can’t decide between sunsets and sunrises. They’re both beautiful. I love deep purple.”
“Lalsacian purple?” Adeline managed a hint of a smile at that.
“What can I say? I love my kingdom.” There was a note in his voice, an extra twinkle in his eyes at that.
She smiled in return. He had married her, after all, for the sake of his kingdom. “I’ll admit, I’m rather partial to Kelvernese yellow. And…” She couldn’t help the way her voice dropped along with her smile. “And pink. I like pink.”
She clamped her mouth shut around that admission.
She remembered all too well when she’d been fifteen and the maids had come in, ordered by her grandfather to take all her pink clothing.
It wasn’t a dignified color for a crown princess.
She’d been in mourning at the time, not even wearing any color but black.
She’d finally been able to commission the pink dress she wore for her wedding by being particularly obedient to one of her grandfather’s demands.
Even now that her grandfather was dead, she hesitated at the thought of commissioning another pink dress for herself.
Granted, she was stuck in blacks and grays for a while yet, but after that, it still felt like pink would be undignified for a queen.
“Pink is a lovely color.” Lorne squeezed her hand, still giving her that soft smile.
Before she could say anything else, the door behind her opened. She glanced over her shoulder, yanking her hand out of Lorne’s, as his guard Orvyn and her maid Jelsa entered, each carrying a tray piled with dishes covered with silver domes.
“Would you like us to stay and serve, Your Majesty?” Jelsa bobbed her knees, her hands too full for a true curtsy.
“Or we can set it on the sideboard if you’d rather have privacy.” Orvyn shot Lorne a look that held a hint of a smirk. Even in their short acquaintance, it wasn’t hard to see that Orvyn was the most prone to teasing and jokes among the diplomatic envoys.
Lorne looked at her, his gaze searching her face, before he gestured to the sideboard. “Put the trays there. I’ll serve us.”
“Yes, sir.” Orvyn somehow managed an elaborate bow before he spun on his heel and placed his laden tray on the buffet beside the door.
Jelsa, too, placed her tray there before the two of them retreated, leaving Adeline alone with Lorne once again.
Lorne stood, peeking under a few of the domes, before he picked up one of the plates, whipped the dome off, and presented the dish to her with a flourish. “Our first course. Leek and potato soup.”
Adeline found herself smiling as Lorne placed a bowl of soup before her. Perhaps a romantic dinner making small talk was exactly what she needed.
After a dinner where she found herself telling Lorne far more about herself than she meant to, she led him through the corridors until they stepped through a door into a small garden, the outer walls of the castle rising high above them against the starry dark of the night.
A breeze wafted over the walls, carrying with it the scents of the rolling hills that spread out as far as one could see from the castle’s windows. The seemingly endless farmland of Kelverny teemed with the herds of cattle and deer and the wild sylon cats that hunted them.
“What was it like, growing up in the dense forests of Lalsacia?” Adeline tipped her face toward the sky, trying to imagine a land where tall trees covered the sky and rain fell so frequently that the sun was rarely seen.
“I never saw so much sky until I visited the mountains the first time.” Lorne, too, turned his face upward.
The stars filled the sky in a glittering expanse, vast and unaffected by politics or wars. Lord Sarlon and his ilk could bluster and maneuver as much as they wanted, but no matter how much power they gained, they could never affect the stars.
Dragging her gaze back down, she meandered down her favorite path, the one that wound between peony bushes. At this time of early summer, the buds were just opening, filling the air with a thick, sweet scent.
“Are peonies your favorite flower?” Lorne must have seen something in the way she was lingering.
“Yes.” She halted, reached out, and traced a finger over one of the waxy petals.
“Not much of a surprise.” He leaned closer, his nearness making her heart pound. “They are your favorite color.”
Her cheeks burned, and she couldn’t quite meet his gaze. It was too warm, and this moment of sharing such a personal detail made her too vulnerable.
As if sensing her discomfort, Lorne took half a step back to put distance between them and drew in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “It smells different here. Warmer and sweet somehow. In Lalsacia, it always smells of damp earth and green trees.”
She’d love to experience that someday. Would their kingdoms ever be at peace securely enough for her to risk traveling to Lalsacia?
Had she stolen that from Lorne? Would he ever be able to return to that home that he spoke about with such longing, such love?
“One of my favorite things to do is walk through the woods behind my estate first thing in the morning.” Lorne’s fingers brushed hers, a light touch that asked for permission.
“At that time of day, the fleech dragons are waking up, skittering over the trees or flying through the shafts of sunlight. Sometimes I’ll spot an elk or a bear. It’s peaceful.”
Seeing a bear didn’t sound so peaceful to her. But then again, she’d grown up riding the hills and watching wild sylon cats stalk their prey, so perhaps that wasn’t so dissimilar.
She twined her fingers with Lorne’s. “That sounds really nice.”
“I hope to show you someday.” Lorne swung their clasped hands. When she glanced at him, she found he was already looking at her. His smile softened. “Perhaps that day might be sooner than we think, if we bring about peace between our kingdoms.”
“Perhaps.” She couldn’t bring herself to be as optimistic as he was. Even with peace, there was the problem that she was Kelverny’s sole heir. It would be a long time before Kelverny was comfortable with her disappearing into Lalsacia even for a short trip.
But tonight was an evening for letting herself dream, just a little bit.