Chapter Twelve
ALEXANDRE HAD TROUBLE concentrating on what still must be done because his mind was focused on revolution, on protection.
But there were still the day-to-day responsibilities of running a kingdom, and Gabriel thought it best as if they went on like they weren’t aware of any whispers, so Alexandre had to be in his office, acting normal.
Alexandre agreed with this plan, but it didn’t make his day easy. Particularly when only a few hours after Gabriel had swept into his office unannounced and, against his assistant’s wishes, Evelyne did the same.
“You and your husband seem to think my office is yours to enter and exit as you please,” Alex said, waving his assistant off, because he would not kick Evelyne out no matter how much he wanted to.
That was the purview of his father, and Alexandre was a better man—even when his sister was being ridiculous.
Evelyne rolled her eyes. “You must go talk to Ines.”
He turned away from her to the papers on his desk. It was not a shock Evelyne would stick her nose where it didn’t belong, but he had no time or patience for it. “Why would I do that?”
“She’s on the fence about leaving with me and Gabri. You need to talk to her, convince her she should.”
“On the fence?” Of course. Why would Ines just make things easy? He couldn’t understand what had happened to her. Nearly a year of obedience and—
He went a little cold at the word. Obedience felt…
ugly. He didn’t want her to be obedient necessarily.
Just…easy. Just… She should understand his bidding and do it without it feeling like orders against her will, because he was doing the right thing.
They should go back to the way things were when she always agreed with him, always understood he made good decisions.
Which was clearly a lie. He frowned at that realization. It wasn’t that she’d changed. She’d just stopped pretending. Why had she pretended in the first place, though? Evelyne never did.
Because Evelyne knows she’s safe with you, no matter what, and Ines had to learn that.
He didn’t know where that thought came from. He wanted to reject it. But the conversation with Ines about when they’d first met, about how she’d come to believe he was good, was all too close to wave it away as easily as he might have.
He looked up at his sister, bowled over by the thought that…he had always tried to protect her and felt he’d always failed, because it hadn’t been enough. She’d been abused anyway.
But was the simple act of trying enough?
Ridiculous.
“I am busy, Evelyne.” And in a terrible, knotted pain that made it hard to get a full breath. But he kept his voice devoid of that. Detached. Cold. “Tell her to be reasonable.”
“If there’s anyone I shall tell to be reasonable, brother, it is you.”
He glared at his sister, but he recognized that look in her eye. Stubborn. Period. He was in no mood for the stubborn whims of his little sister. Particularly if just her existence brought on startling realizations he didn’t want.
“I have a revolution to stop, if you haven’t heard. Perhaps the two of you could concern yourselves with that.”
“You have a wife who loves you. I cannot begin to fathom how you’ve made a problem out of that.”
Alexandre stiffened in spite of himself. What had Ines told her? Why was she bringing other people into it? “That is not your concern.”
“My God, Alex. Be a man.”
He straightened, temper stirring when he almost never let it stir with Evelyne because it was too much like Enzo. But this was a step too far, even for her. “I am a king,” he reminded her. “Your king.”
There was no room for a man in that equation. He’d learned that as a child. How had she not?
She looked wholly unimpressed by that. “You’re an ass.”
He stared at her in shock. Not that she was never rude to him, but it had been quite some time, and usually she wasn’t taking someone else’s side when she did it.
“An ass,” she continued, using that offensive word once again, “who must ask his wife and the mother of his future child himself if he wishes her to leave him so he can fight a revolution alone,” she continued, clearly not backing down.
Alexandre could blame Ines for this too, that Evelyne would stick her nose in this. Because if there was no Ines, Evelyne and Gabri would just be on their way to safety.
“I will not be fighting anything alone.”
“No, my husband and the father of my child will stand beside you. Something Gabriel and I discussed. Together. Because we both love you and each other.”
He did not have time for this. He did not have to do this. He was the king. Only his command mattered.
His breath caught when he realized…that way lay the way of his father.
But that did not mean he couldn’t find—wouldn’t find—his own way. He looked his sister in the eye and asked her very plainly, “Evelyne, what do you want from me?”
Evelyne’s expression softened a little—a very little—but her words did not.
“I want you to go talk to your wife. Really talk to her. I thought I knew you so well, or that Gabriel and I did, but I don’t understand. She loves you. Why would you run away from that? You’re the best man any of us know. There’s no reason not to enjoy love when it’s offered.”
Best. But it was a constant battle. Did no one understand how hard that was? To be better than his father, best—for his country and his family. And Ines…she was a threat to all of that. Love or not. Maybe especially with love involved.
If I loved you less…
Love was a weapon. A bludgeon. It was pain and suffering and selfish. Love destroyed. He could not be those things and save his country. Hell, he could not even be those things and somehow save his wife from the revolution that now threatened.
And people expected him to talk to her. Face-to-face. When all that ever did was end in…confusion. He had no time or space for that, but what else was new?
“I will talk to her,” Alexandre agreed because it would get Evelyne to leave and stop talking about…whatever this was.
It would be easy enough to go to Ines and tell her she must leave for her own safety. And the safety of the baby.
Girl. Princess.
Alexandre squeezed his eyes shut as Evelyne came over and gave him a hug.
“I know you care for her too, Alex. I know you could love her if you let yourself. I may not be able to understand why you won’t or can’t, but I know what it is like to be in love and be loved.
It can be scary and hard, but it is hardly an enemy. ”
Alexandre awkwardly patted his sister’s shoulder until she released him. He said nothing because there was nothing to say.
He wasn’t concerned about love being scary or hard, he was concerned about it being used as some kind of bludgeon. Not against him.
Against Ines.
Against their daughter.
He had seen one lifeless, bloody body in his life, and he would not witness another—literally or figuratively.
Love was the root of too many mistakes. The kind Evelyne and Gabriel did not have to worry about because an entire country didn’t rest on their shoulders.
And good for them. They should enjoy that. They should have all they’d built. But he could not.
He could not.
He held himself very still until Evelyne left, then finally allowed himself to sink into his chair. One minute, just one minute, to pull himself together. He raked his fingers through his hair as his breath seemed to clog in his lungs.
Had he condemned Ines to this fate when he’d married her? He supposed he had, and for the first time he realized how unfair that had been—because she did not understand. She did not see the world as he did.
Maybe when this was all over, revolution thwarted, he could explain it to her in a way that would make sense. In a way that could turn something to good for her.
For your daughter.
He didn’t know why that kept poking at him. Any child of Ines’s would be well cared for and loved, and perhaps she would be a princess, but not an heir with that kind of responsibility.
No, that would fall to Gabri.
Pressure tightened in Alexandre’s chest. He did not wish this on his nephew. He did not wish this on…anyone. He had only ever been concerned with his role, but he would not live forever. Someday, this all would be someone else’s mantle to bear.
That little baby.
Who will be loved by Gabriel and Evelyne, and it will be different. You will make it different.
But if he could make it different for Gabri…
He shook that fear, that concern, that possibility away. Everything would have to wait until this trouble was solved. Even that.
So he went in search of Ines, because that was a tangible. He would find her, tell her she must go. She must be safe. The end.
He found her in her bedroom. There was a suitcase on her bed, open but full. Alexandre frowned at it, then her. “You’ve packed.”
“Yes,” she agreed, putting a little bag on top of the neatly folded clothes. She didn’t look at him.
“Then I don’t… Why am I here if you’ve already agreed to go?” Had Evelyne misunderstood something? What a waste of—
“I haven’t agreed, exactly,” Ines returned equitably. “I thought it best to discuss it with you first.”
Frustrated and not at all understanding her, he fell back on icy detachment. “You know my thoughts.”
“You wish to send me away, yes, but I wanted to be certain it was for my safety, not for your convenience.” She sat on the edge of the bed, all regal elegance, and met his gaze with a direct one of her own.
Convenience. Temper licked, but he could not let it win. Not today. Not with all this love talk in the air.
“Ideally, there is no violence,” he said, a bit through gritted teeth but clearly nonetheless. “I think Gabriel and I can stop this before it becomes something, but on the off chance there is some kind of skirmish, the children should not be anywhere near it.”
Would Gabri face this when he was king? No, Alexandre would solve all these problems before he had to pass them along. That was the purview of a good king, and he would be that—revolutions or no.