Chapter Six
ALEXANDRE HAD THOUGHT he’d braced himself for seeing Ines again. He had expected to feel a spurt of rage over what she was keeping from him, but he’d also expected some time to prepare. He’d assumed Jonet would answer the door.
Not his wife.
Her hair was pulled back, but not in her usual slick, elegant way. It was messy, strands falling out of the band. She wore something baggy and soft—not quite pajamas, but certainly not the kind of outfit a queen should wear in public.
It did nothing to undercut this moment of seeing her in the flesh for the first time in months and realizing how much he’d missed her.
Looking at her across the dinner table. Listening to her chatter with Evelyne.
The way she’d felt like such a seamless partner when they’d go over their schedules and determined who would handle what.
So for the past four months, essentially, he’d been alone again. Like before their engagement. When he’d felt his entire life was trying to mitigate his father’s violent whims—toward Alis, toward Evelyne, toward Alexandre himself.
It had been quiet and empty, and he had never realized that his life was mostly made up of those two things—not until Ines had been there by his side for a year and then not at all.
He curled his hands into fists to keep from reaching out to touch her. Assuring himself she was real. That she was what he was missing.
Because he was missing nothing. He was a king. He had a kingdom to serve. His own wants mattered not at all. He was a king, not a husband. Not a man.
No matter what Ines made him feel sometimes.
He was missing nothing. Except a good night’s sleep and the ability to be home, handling the responsibilities of his kingdom. Because of her.
“Good morning, Your Majesty,” she said, with that old bland warmth that she’d trotted out before they were married. Sometimes even after. Like they were friends, but on a surface level. Acquaintances. Coworkers, maybe. She even gave a little curtsy.
He did not know what was wrong with him that it hit him like a bolt of lust. Luckily, anger swept in with it. That she could be so casual, with no sign of any kind of apology or even defiance.
Just Good morning, while everything inside of him raged and crashed around—emotion against bones. The only things keeping him from cracking apart were years of experience and the knowledge that emotional outbursts were the enemy.
Case. In. Point.
“So, to be clear, you disappear into thin air for nearly four months and you consider Good morning, Your Majesty the appropriate greeting?”
“Would you rather I be on my knees?”
He knew what she meant—begging forgiveness, but it was not the image in his head. No, that image was of his office and her on her knees for far different reasons.
She must have realized that, because her cheeks began to redden.
Which was dangerous. “We will return to the palace at once. Pack your bags.” He braced himself for the argument—the anger, the emotion, the push and pull. He would not give in to it like he had three months ago. He would be strong, calm and cold in response to it.
He would be the king he had to be, not the man underneath that he could not be.
Jonet stepped out from somewhere in this rustic little cabin, carrying a collection of bags, pulling a suitcase behind her. “They are already packed.”
Alexandre blinked. He looked from Jonet to Ines. Her expression was serene. For a moment, he had no words. She was just…agreeing with him? He thought there’d be refusals, arguments, shouts. Maybe even tears. She had stayed away all this time.
But she was just… She already had her bags packed.
He opened his mouth to say something, to question this, then thought better of it. Questioning could lead to an argument, and he wanted—needed—to avoid that.
He moved past Ines, doing everything he could not to touch her as he did, and approached Jonet.
She looked a little startled. “You don’t need to—”
Over her objections, he relieved her of all the bags except the one she was pulling. He then carried said bags outside to his car, putting them in the trunk, not looking at the two women. He was just going to move forward as if he’d known all along they would follow his every command.
He was their king after all.
He opened the back-seat door for Jonet. She did not look comfortable.
She shot Ines a questioning glance. Ines nodded her head regally, and Jonet slid inside the back seat.
Ines made a move to follow, but Alexandre closed the door before she could.
He moved to the passenger-side door, opened it and gestured her inside.
He watched the inner argument chase across her face. Be defiant, or go gently? He kept expecting defiance, but she simply slid into the passenger seat.
Since he did not know what to do with the ease at which this was going, he could only continue to move forward. He closed her door, then got into the driver’s seat.
Ines was frowning at him. “You’re driving?”
He glanced at her. “Yes.”
She looked away. “How modern,” she murmured.
Modern. He felt about as modern as a caveman at the moment. But he drove away from her little cabin, away from her betrayal, and back to the private airport Gabriel had arranged for him to fly in and out of without detection, something that could be done with Gabriel piloting the plane himself.
Gabriel must have been surprised at their quick arrival, though he did not say anything. He simply greeted Ines and Jonet and helped Alexandre load the bags onto the plane while the women settled themselves into their seats.
Everything continued to go easily. They flew back to Alis.
Gabriel drove them back to the palace. Gabriel took Ines’s and Jonet’s bags.
The staff knew they had been gone, but the more they handled this clandestinely, the more whatever stories Alexandre came up with to explain the past few months would be believable.
He dismissed Jonet to return to her own quarters. He said nothing to Ines. Ines said nothing to him. But they both walked through the palace to their residential wing.
As they began to approach her set of rooms, she walked in front of him. Down the hall toward her door. As though she was just going to go inside, go back to their old lives, without a peep.
He should rejoice at that. In fact, the entire trip back he’d conceived a plan to let it all go. Let it play out. See what she did. See how she handled all this. He’d determined it was the best course of action to simply let things be.
She reached her door, lifted a hand to the doorknob, but he couldn’t keep the words inside. All his plans fell to ash around him, just like always seemed to happen when it came to her.
“When were you planning on telling me?”
She stopped, her hand frozen on the doorknob. For a moment, she said nothing, keeping her back to him. Stiff. Caught. But she did not give in right away. “Telling you what?”
“That you are pregnant.”
Ines stood there in the hall, her back to Alexandre, heart beating hard against her ribs.
He knew. How did he know? How could he have found that out? Certainly not by looking at her. Perhaps she was heavier than she had been, her curves a bit more pronounced, but she wore clothes that hid that, she was almost certain.
“Unless you are sick, and that is the reason for these monthly doctor’s appointments, but you certainly do not look ill.”
She inhaled, trying to work through that. So he didn’t know for sure, but he knew a doctor had been to see her… And suddenly it all made sense. It wasn’t that he hadn’t found her for months and now suddenly had.
He’d known where she was. Known everything.
He simply hadn’t collected her for all these months.
She closed her eyes, surprised at how much that realization hurt.
Almost as bad as his never looking for her in the first place.
He knew, and he hadn’t come to fetch her, fight for her or even let her go. He’d just…kept watch.
“You were just…keeping tabs on me all this time?” Why did she sound so winded? How could she be so hurt? She knew him. Of course he had been doing just that. Why had she expected different?
“I could hardly let my queen gallivant off unprotected.”
“Gallivant?” She laughed bitterly, turning to face him. She leaned against the door behind her and studied him. “I ran away from you, Alexandre.”
If he had any reaction to this, it was hidden behind that forbidding expression. “You did not do a very good job,” he said flatly. Just standing there, somehow looking regal in his casual attire. Looking disapproving and detached.
Because he’d known for all this time where she’d been. He hadn’t come to fetch her until he’d heard there was a doctor involved. A child involved.
“Answer the question, Ines,” he ordered, as he always did, with complete certainty his order would be followed.
It was funny how even now it didn’t prompt her to want to be contrary for the sake of it.
His demand for the truth was a fair-enough one, and she didn’t have energy for anything other than the truth.
“When was I planning on telling you? I don’t know. I promised myself I would after the three-month appointment. And then I gave myself another month to feel more…to be stronger. Physically. Being pregnant is not for the faint of heart.”
She saw a flicker of worry cross his face. Watched as he took a few steps toward her and then stopped as if remembering himself.
How could these two polarities exist inside him? Worry and kindness and warmth versus that cold, demanding detachment.
King and real man underneath? Mask and truth? It didn’t feel that easy. There was something messier at play, and she wanted to dive in and not fix it—there was no fixing the complications of humanity—she simply wanted to understand. To make sense of him.
“But you are well,” he said, his voice a little rough. He phrased this like a statement, like she had to be well because he said so.