Chapter Ten
THE WATER WAS so blue.
She didn’t know what she had expected Romania to look like, but in truth, she had imagined something dreary and grim.
A sort of Soviet blockade.
But this was all green mountains wreathed in mist, and the unfiltered light of the sun.
It was glorious. But she didn’t want to say that.
The plane landed at a small airport, and from there they were put in a helicopter, which carried them high over the mountains until they arrived at the top of one, and there, nestled in trees was what could only be described as a fortress.
It was made from natural gray stone, blending in with its surroundings.
Vines and roses climbed all over the walls, as though nature was trying to draw it back into itself.
She wondered how many years it had been since anyone had occupied this place.
“I had it prepared for you,” he said. “I hired people from down in the village to come and make sure that it was ready for habitation.”
Since he seemed to be reading her thoughts, his words going directly into her ears, the headphones she wore for the helicopter ride making that possible, she decided she might as well ask the question.
“How long has it been since anyone lived here?”
“Since we left for Basilia. Under cover of darkness. We did not take a helicopter. We hiked through the mountains. Swam through the rivers. Until we arrived at the sea.”
“Oh.”
She found herself feeling sympathy for him, even as she had been proclaimed his prisoner.
Perverse, perhaps.
Well, definitely.
The helicopter began to descend, and she found herself looking for something to hold on to. The most logical thing would have been Andrei, but she did not want to touch him now.
It seemed wrong.
The helicopter landed in a barren field, and she and Andrei got off.
Nobody got off with them. And once the helicopter lifted back up in the sky, the wind howling around them, they were the only ones there, shrouded in the wilderness, enveloped by trees.
She could still hear the helicopter rotors in the distance, but otherwise, it was all birds.
He was looking around, marveling at the place with just as much interest as she was.
“Have you been back here at all?”
“No. I was pleased to discover that it was still standing, though the condition will be an interesting thing to discover. I was sent photographs, but I had to act quickly. Now you see why I say you will not be found.”
“And you think that we can just stay here forever?”
“I think that we will stay here until I say otherwise. Don’t worry, I will contact Onyx.”
“I want to talk to him.”
“Not now.”
She felt a sort of hollow, cascading terror.
This was nothing she had ever expected. This was a side of Andrei that she had never seen.
But he was right. She had always seen him in a country that wasn’t his own.
She had always seen him next to her brother, to whom he had sworn a level of allegiance and loyalty.
But obviously there was a breaking point to that. She had found the breaking point.
He began to walk ahead of her, through the dense trees. And she hurried quickly after him. Whether she felt any symptoms from her pregnancy or not was difficult to say. She felt nauseous, that much was certain. But there were a lot of reasons for her to feel nausea right now.
The trail was overgrown, and even though he hadn’t been back here since he was a child, she was beginning to suspect that he might not know exactly where they were going. Until they came to an overgrown gate.
He looked up, and she was certain that there must be security cameras. “Andrei Ardelean is here to take his rightful place.”
The gates opened, and he went inside. He didn’t touch her. Of course he didn’t. Of course he didn’t.
She went after him and into the garden. It was like an enchanted space. It wasn’t only the walls that were overgrown. Here, ivy had taken over everything. It was glorious and wild. Utterly unexpected.
But then, none of this was expected.
They walked through the shaggy hedges, the untamed greenery, until they came to a small door. Not the main entrance of the house. It opened for them without him having to knock.
And there was a small woman standing there, her white hair captured in a bun. “Andrei,” she said. “I knew you would return home one day.”
His face shifted, shock on his features. “Rebecca?”
“Of course. We kept this place for you. We knew that you were alive. Word of your survival made it back here.”
“And why did Ricardo never come for me?”
“With your father dead, there was no point going after you. Particularly not when you were protected by the royal family and Basilia. I heard, as well, that the king there paid him in political favors to leave you alone.”
Her father had kept Andrei safe. All this time. Even in death. Emerald was shocked.
“I did not expect to find you here,” he said, his voice rough.
“I have nowhere else to go.”
“Weren’t you all at risk?”
She shook her head. “Your father’s death released us all. This place always remained secret outside the scope of the village. He was afraid that would change. But it didn’t.”
“We could’ve simply stayed here.”
She shook her head. “No. You would’ve been trapped here for all your days. Your father never could’ve lived like that. You know he enjoyed…”
“Attention,” Andrei said.
“If you wish to call it that.” Rebecca’s focus turned to Emerald. “And who is the lady?”
“Princess Emerald. Of Basilia. She is pregnant with my child.”
Rebecca did not evince a very big reaction to the news. “Babies are good luck,” she said.
Emerald wanted to tell her that it very much depended on the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy, but she didn’t. She had a feeling that she did not want to be at odds with this woman.
The room they were standing in was a small, cozy kitchen, and the smells were enticing.
This was the first time that Emerald had realized she was hungry.
But it had now been several hours since her disastrous wedding, and she realized that she was still cold from being thrown into the sea, and now ravenous.
“Take the princess to your quarters. I will serve you both dinner soon.”
She had never seen Andrei take orders outside a security capacity with quite such acquiescence.
“Who is she?” Emerald asked when they were out of earshot.
“She was… Our cook. A nanny of sorts. Like a grandmother. Who worked for us.”
“You love her,” Emerald said.
It came out more of an accusation than she had intended it to be.
“I’m not entirely sure what love is.”
His words were a dagger straight to her heart. Andrei should know what love was. Because she’d loved him all this time.
Except you didn’t show it to him, because you couldn’t. So now it’s all broken.
The house was like something out of a storybook.
The walls were gilded, with ornate wallpaper.
The stairs had luxe, patterned carpet. There were gold details everywhere, not like the palace in Alabria.
It was more quaint. But in an opulent way.
He pushed open the door and revealed a bedroom that was fitting for a fantasy princess, rather than for her.
Her own room at the palace in Basilia was quite modern. The one in Alabria had felt like a relic, but this was something else besides.
In the room was an ornately carved fourposter bed, with flowing swathes of fabric cascading down each post. An elegant canopy stretched over the top.
“This is lovely.”
“I’m glad they fixed it to my specifications.” His dark gaze flickered toward the back. “You will find that you have clothing there. If you wish to dress for dinner.”
“Are you going to?”
“It is my first night as master in this home. Yes. I will dress for dinner. And I will see you there.”
And with that, he walked away and left her, in this bedroom, in an unfamiliar home, in an unfamiliar country.
For the first time in her entire life, Princess Emerald felt stripped of everything. Her power, her status.
And perhaps worst of all, of any certainty in her relationship with the man that she had known for most of her life. The man she had always depended on. Trusted.
She was pregnant with his baby, and right now she had no idea what they were.
Or what would become of them.
Andrei knew he couldn’t avoid the phone call when it came through.
He wasn’t a coward. And when it came to this, he would face up to what he had done, even though it was going to destroy everything.
He had known that it would. From the moment he had taken hold of her and carried her away, he had known it would.
Hell, he had made that calculation when he had decided that taking her was the only thing that could be done.
After he’d had her in front of the vanity, a punishment for them both, he had decided that they would both end themselves over this.
But that was before.
And now, there was this conversation.
He answered the phone. “Hello?”
“That’s what you have to say to me? Hello. As if this is a call to discuss the weather, and not you taking my sister at the altar and causing an international incident.”
“Is it an incident? We are blessedly free from the news.”
“How nice for you. I am slowly boiling to death in the consequences. Lucian wants a war.”
“There is nothing I can do,” he said, realizing what he was saying. He did not think that Lucian would actually start a war over this. Perhaps a trade war. And he understood that there would be long-term consequences to that, but he had given up on the greater good.
There was only Emerald. Though his heart felt dark and scarred where she was concerned. Perhaps it had always been that way.
“Why did you do that?”
“I had to.”