Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
“Me?” Alina said, startled. “Why would you want me to help?”
“You’re a local,” Xavier said. “You know the town and the people. You’re well liked, so people will speak to you.
You lived in the forest as well, so you have connections outside this town.
And you have skill with magic, which is always useful, and doubly so when we’re investigating supposed kidnappings of people skilled in the craft. ”
Alina listened skeptically to this smooth speech, but the last part drove the rest temporarily from her mind.
“Why do you call them supposed kidnappings?”
“I believe that’s the term for something not yet proved.” Xavier shrugged.
“You don’t even believe there’s foul play, do you?” Alina said, frustration rising. “I should have known the crown still wasn’t taking this seriously when they sent you.”
An expression crossed the prince’s face, one she’d seen before on another occasion she’d spoken too harshly.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” she amended quickly. “But the threat is real, and we need to do something.”
“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be hesitating to help when asked.”
Xavier’s voice was smooth again, but with a lingering coolness. Alina regretted her words doubly. Injured Xavier was much more unsettling for her heart than the charming prince.
“I just don’t see how I can be any great help,” she said. “I don’t know more than anyone else, and I don’t know why you think people will talk to me.”
“Alina, if you can’t tell how well liked you are, you’re not paying attention,” Xavier told her. “You should really learn to read people better. It’s incredibly useful.”
“You seem to consider yourself an expert, Your Highness, but I doubt I want to know how you acquired the skill,” Alina said.
The last of Xavier’s stiffness fell away, a rakish smile spreading across his face. “I doubt it as well,” he told her.
Alina shook her head, but she didn’t try to hide her smile.
She was relieved that she’d restored his good mood.
She’d come to a decision the day before, after she’d recovered from the shock of his arrival.
She wasn’t going to wallow in the awkwardness of it all.
And she wasn’t going to avoid him at all costs, either.
Those approaches only made sense if she was ashamed of their history, or perhaps of the choices she’d made.
But she wasn’t. She was content with her lot.
The tedium of her days was the only thing that was sometimes a struggle, and a whirlwind visit from the famously outrageous prince would be just the thing to liven it up.
“So can we count on you for the investigation?” Xavier prompted, when she failed to say anything further.
Alina hesitated. Her determination to enjoy the prince’s foolishness by receiving it in the light-hearted way it was intended was all well and good. But signing on to trail him around every day as he conducted his investigation was maybe taking things a little far.
“I can’t, Your Highness,” she said.
“Can’t, or won’t?” the prince demanded.
Alina frowned. “I can’t afford to,” she clarified.
“You’ll be paid for your efforts, of course,” the prince assured her.
“I appreciate the offer,” Alina replied. “But it doesn’t change the answer. The investigation could go for weeks for all I know. My regular jobs won’t wait for me that long. I can’t afford to have no employment after the investigation finishes. There are people depending on me.”
He frowned, giving Alina the impression he couldn’t decide which of his questions to voice first.
“How much would you need to be paid in order for it to be worth it?” he asked calmly.
Alina let out a small sigh. She shouldn’t be surprised he was being persistent. Of course he was used to getting what he wanted. She cast around for a number, giving him a sum that was too absurdly exaggerated for him to approve, without being high enough to sound like a joke.
“Done,” said Xavier promptly. “How convenient—it turns out that was the exact figure I was going to offer you.”
Alina’s eyes widened. She knew his claim wasn’t true, of course, but he did seem to be genuine in the offer.
“Surely the team won’t approve such a high fee for my assistance,” she said.
“The team?” Xavier repeated, amused. “I am the team, Alina. It’s my investigation, and my decision. Consider it approved.”
Alina bit her lip. It was a difficult sum of money to turn down.
It would replace her foolish expense on the green dress, many times over.
She’d be halfway to affording to get Benji and Lilah to the capital, and paying for him to take the entrance test to see if he could qualify for a scholarship with the Craftsman’s Guild.
“And all you want is a local guide for the team?” she asked carefully.
A satisfied smile spread over Xavier’s face.
He clearly knew he’d won the battle. The expression should have made him look smug and arrogant, but instead it was maddeningly appealing.
Alina felt a flicker of annoyance which she pushed down, laughing at her own fickleness.
Hadn’t she just been reminding herself, moments ago, that she was determined to enjoy his outrageousness rather than be offended by it?
“When do you want me to start?” Alina asked.
“Immediately.” Xavier’s reply was prompt. “We’re going to be following up on some information around town today. You should come with us. And soon we’ll go into Alton to ask some questions there, as well. We’ll want you to accompany us, of course.”
“To Alton?” Alina considered it, not against the idea of a change of scenery. “All right. I could save the crown costs by staying with my aunt’s family in the nearby city.”
“There’s no need to save the crown costs,” Xavier said. “We’ll put you up in the inn with the rest of the group.”
Alina was about to protest, but then she remembered the relief her aunt had tried to hide on her last visit, when she’d said she wasn’t staying. She winced. Perhaps it was better to burden the crown than her family. She looked up to find Xavier watching her too closely.
“This is the aunt you mentioned?” the prince asked, his gaze keen under the air of languor he’d mastered so well in the years since she’d known him. “The one you lived with after your parents died?”
“Yes,” Alina said, smoothing her green skirt. “My father’s sister.” Not eager to discuss personal things, she folded her hands. “You said you want me immediately?”
The prince’s eyebrows shot up in a scandalized expression Alina knew better than to believe.
“I’m sure I didn’t say anything so forward, Alina.” His tone was as outrageous as his expression. “I don’t win women over by showing my hand so plainly from the outset.”
“I meant that you want me for the investigation,” Alina said, refusing to be baited.
Did he think she was a green teenager, quick to blush? He would learn his mistake. She was made of tougher stuff than she had been all those years ago, and she wouldn’t be easy either to shock with his flirtation or to overwhelm with his charm.
“And while we’re speaking of the investigation, Your Highness,” she went on, “I’m sure we’ll have more success with it if you don’t try to distract yourself with fruitless attempts to get a reaction from me.”
Her reply seemed to delight the perverse man before her. “I see you’re not so easily impressed,” he said, his eyes dancing. “Clearly you want me to work hard. Which is a great shame, because I have a deeply held distaste for hard work.”
“I do want you to work hard,” Alina retorted. “On the investigation.”
“Always so focused,” Xavier sighed, gesturing for her to walk.
As they turned back toward the center of the town, he added, “We’ll join Captain Mitchell and the others at the inn.
He’s the real leader of the investigation.
Naturally my role is merely ceremonial, given my previously mentioned inability to work hard. ”
“No one said inability,” Alina retorted, keeping pace with him. “You just said you hate it.”
“Very true,” the prince agreed, something in his tone that made Alina look sideways at him. He was harder to read than she’d expected, underneath all the playacting. “Captain Mitchell will be delighted that you’re determined to make me work hard, I’m sure.”
“This isn’t a joke, Your Highness,” Alina reminded him yet again. “Whoever is behind these disappearances needs to be tracked down, and quickly.”
“You haven’t changed at all,” Xavier said in a tone of complaint. “You’re still determined to doom me to tracking down someone who doesn’t want to be found.”
This time it was a little harder for Alina to keep her poise. His casual references to the childish but passionate attachment they’d once shared were the only weapon of his that could truly unsettle her.
She suspected she’d be wise not to let him figure that out. Attempting to hide her discomposure, she made a small scoffing noise.
“You want me to believe that you—with your stated hatred of hard work—tried diligently to track me down?”
“I did,” Xavier said with unexpected seriousness. “For at least three years I went regularly to the Craftsman’s Guild, sure you’d turn up among the new apprentices eventually.”
Alina’s eyes widened, the information stealing her voice. Xavier’s sudden earnestness fell away as he studied her face, a languid smile taking its place.
“That was years ago, of course,” he said. “I’m far too sensible now to waste time on women who want nothing to do with me. Why would I when there are so many who are so eager for my attention?”
“Why indeed?” Alina responded with crushing civility.
If she’d been focused on the prince instead of the investigation, the entire rest of the day would have seemed designed to prove the prince’s obnoxious claim.
They spent hour after hour interviewing residents of the town, and Alina couldn’t tell if they got nowhere because no one knew anything, or because half the people interviewed—the female half—were too distracted by the prince to give much attention to the questions he was asking.