Chapter Eleven
ALEXANDRE SAT AT his desk, trying to focus on his ever-growing to-do list. Instead, he kept thinking about Ines.
And a princess. A daughter. His. To protect.
He had protected Evelyne. Not perfectly, but from the worst of things. He still counted it as a partial failure, but this would be different. It had to be. He could protect his princess.
Your daughter.
He was an adult now. The king. He did not have to try to stop the whims of someone else, so she would be… She would be fine.
Names. Ines wanted him to have a say in a name, and he could barely wrap his mind around a baby. A girl. His.
All the ways he’d failed Evelyne felt bigger in his head now. Alex would never lay a hand on his daughter as Enzo had, but that didn’t mean he would be good at this. He was a king, not a father. Didn’t being a good father require him to be more than a title? He couldn’t be.
He was a protector—of all in his kingdom, not someone to think of names and futures and…
A daughter. What was he supposed to do with this?
It felt like a terrible unfurling in his chest, painful with claws.
It was hard to breathe. Impossible to think of anything beyond that staticky picture on the screen.
It hadn’t looked like much more than a blob to Alexandre, but the technician had confidently seen something.
A girl. His daughter.
Gabriel strode in unannounced, but Alex heard his assistant huffing and puffing from behind him. “We have a problem,” Gabriel said seriously, ignoring the flustered assistant.
Alexandre wanted to rap his head on the desk. He had more problems than he could begin to count. Instead, he waved his assistant away. “Hold my calls until we’re done,” he told him.
The assistant frowned at Gabriel but did as he was told, leaving and closing the door behind him as he did.
“General Vinyes is up to something,” Gabriel said once the door was closed.
Alexandre wanted to shout—something he rarely felt toward Gabriel, but he didn’t have time for this nonsense. He had to figure out what to do with a daughter.
And a wife…who’d looked at him like he’d slapped her when he’d told her he trusted her to handle the names. He winced at the memory. Sometimes he behaved in ways he didn’t understand how they hurt people—but he’d known this would hurt her.
He’d hurt her on purpose. And what did that make him? Not the man he claimed to be, certainly. Fists weren’t the only way to hurt someone.
Still, he held his temper at Gabriel’s interruption. By a thread. “This is hardly news. General Vinyes is always up to something. Do you have proof of said wrongdoing?”
“Not exactly. But I’m hearing whispers and—”
Alexandre pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to pinch away the lick of temper with it. “I have told you there’s nothing I can do about rumors, Gabriel. I need something real to be able to get rid of him for good without causing more problems than his existence does.”
“It is a big something, Alexandre,” Gabriel said seriously. “And it sounds credible enough I’m considering sending Evelyne and Gabri off to Italy and my parents until we sort out what the threat is and how we can stop it.”
This poked through some of Alexandre’s frustration. That was big. Gabriel might have no love lost for the general, but if he was worried enough to send Evelyne and Gabri away… “You think it is that dangerous?”
“There have been whispers of revolution. I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of them yet. But everything I know points to Vinyes, and if he is at the source, it’s more than possible. And it’s more than dangerous.”
“I need proof, Gabriel.”
“Then I’ll need your permission to do more than listen.”
Alexandre knew how protective Gabriel was of Evelyne and Gabri, but he was not a man prone to exaggeration.
If he thought it was this serious, it was.
And as much as they might not see eye to eye on how to handle Vinyes, Alexandre trusted Gabriel.
He would not behave outside of what Alexandre wished.
“You have my permission to get to the bottom of things, but all action must go through me.”
Gabriel nodded. “Of course. You might consider sending Ines with Evelyne and Gabri as well.”
“Why?”
“Revolutions have the tendency to get…bloody if not handled correctly.”
Revolution. God, he hated that word. “Why…why would anyone revolt now?” There had been attempts against King Enzo here and there over the years, but Vinyes had ruthlessly stopped every one.
Those Alexandre had understood. Perhaps even rooted for from time to time, even if he himself would have ended up on one of their pikes. He couldn’t blame those who hated his father’s reign.
But him? He’d done everything to solve the problems his father had created. Maybe it was taking longer than some people liked. Maybe it wasn’t perfect. But to revolt now when there was actually progress being made?
“Sometimes people love a cage, Alexandre,” Gabriel said quietly.
“Vinyes certainly knows how to make them believe they aren’t in one.
Most of the people are behind you. You know this, but it only takes a well-connected few to threaten that.
A general is pretty damn well connected.
A bloodthirsty one? Well, he doesn’t need the will of the people.
He only needs the might of a few, and access to a king. ”
It made more sense, honestly, that Vinyes was pretending to be a dutiful general who listened to his king while secretly planning some kind of revolution rather than just trying to keep his job, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear.
What would Alexandre do if the general used his own army against him? Surely not all the soldiers would heed Vinyes’s commands. Vinyes was no loved leader, but Gabriel was right. People loved a cage that felt like safety. And people would do a lot of things out of fear.
Fear. Ines. His daughter. Safety.
Here in this palace while someone planned revolution. No, that could not be. He had to protect them. Always.
“I cannot imagine Ines would want to go, but…” Well, she wasn’t happy with him, was she? She didn’t even want to see him. All the things on her list, all her determinations they should try to be a couple wiped away earlier.
She wanted nothing to do with him right now. Kings, she’d said. As though it was different. A person. A king. As though she was disappointed in him being a king when she’d known all along what she’d signed up for.
You do not have to be anyone but yourself with me.
But he himself could only be a king. The protector. The brick wall between chaos and pettiness and whims and personal vendettas and the right thing for the good of the people.
There were not two people inside of him—no matter what she thought. And maybe she’d finally realized it. She didn’t want to be around him tonight. She understood. He was only a king.
An idea that he had held as a talisman that had gotten him through the worst. That should continue to but…
He shook that thought away and the discomfort with it. He should be happy he’d finally gotten through to her.
Why couldn’t he feel anything but another weight around his heart?
“I will ensure she heads to safety as well,” Alexandre managed. He would order it. Command it. And it didn’t matter if she went willingly or with an argument. It would be done.
“Will she put up a fight? I’m preparing for your sister to. Evelyne will not want to go if we are planning on staying behind,” Gabriel said.
“I am the king. I can hardly leave my kingdom.”
“Yes, I know. And I will not leave you. I have connections with some of the soldiers. We will work to nip this in the bud before anything happens, but we do not want to risk anything. It will take some doing, but I don’t think Evelyne could stand to be away from Gabri long enough to send just him to safety.
I don’t particularly love the idea, but… ”
“But we must keep them safe. When is this to come to a head? Do you know?”
Gabriel shook his head. “Soon, I am led to believe. I will need to dig deeper to get a better idea, but I’d like Evelyne and Gabri off palace property by tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. So soon.
Ines didn’t want to see him right now. Maybe that would help their case. “It might go better if you or Evelyne discusses this with Ines.”
Alexandre could not meet Gabriel’s gaze. It would see too much. So he focused on some papers on his desk.
“What exactly is going on with you, Alex?”
Alex. A distinction this question was friend to friend, not lord to king.
“Nothing is going on. I am dealing with…impending revolutions and an impending child. It is a lot.”
“It is, but these are not unexpected things. You’ve been preparing for both for months now, haven’t you?”
Yes. He had known revolution was a possibility at the transfer of power, at the changes he’d instituted—though, he’d gotten a little complacent in thinking that dangerous between-time had passed.
And yes, the plan had originally been for Ines to have his child, but…
Not like this. “Ines has…developed ideas.”
“Ideas?” Gabriel returned equitably. “Or feelings?”
Alex scraped a palm over his jaw. “She is simply confused. Perhaps…hormonal.” He winced a little bit at that, because he knew both Ines and Evelyne would take great offense at that suggestion, and they’d be right to.
But he needed a reason that Ines claiming she loved him was something temporary. Something he could fix. Her loving him would only end in pain and suffering. That was what love did, in his experience.
Gabriel sighed gustily. “It’s beneath even you to blame feelings on hormones, Alexandre. Ines has been a wonderful queen to you and—”
“And I am a king. I have an entire country’s fate resting on what I choose. How I handle this revolution. I cannot be concerned about feelings. Hers. Mine. Anyone’s.”
Our child will be loved. And I will love you. It is what we all deserve.
A princess. A daughter.
Names.
“You are more than a king, Alex.”