25. Night God
Night God
T he door closed behind applicant number four.
I turned to Allain . “ What did you think?”
“She won’t be my aide,” he replied.
This was number four of the refrains of these exact two sentences.
“Okay, yes, she’ll be my aide,” I said. “ She and I will be a team. But I’m also a team with Aleksei , and you’re on Aleksei’s team, so we’ll all be a team.
Since Aleksei is Aleksei , and he’ll want whoever I want, I need you to weigh in so I know you feel comfortable working with whoever is chosen. ”
Given permission, Allain didn’t hesitate to share.
“I think she’s stuck in her ways. She has a good deal of experience, but she and I will butt heads, because she’s older than me, and even though I’ve been in this role with the prince for six years, and she has not ever been a royal aide, she’s the type of female who thinks she knows everything, and always will. ”
I got the same impression.
“So, she’s out,” I muttered.
“And the first one was more interested in meeting the prince, or any of the princes, than she’s interested in working for you. Her CV was exceptional, but the entire interview, she kept looking at the door, as if his royal highness would walk through it at any second, and she couldn’t wait.”
I’d noticed that.
“She’s out too,” I said.
“The second one would work, I suppose. There was just something…”
“Not right about her,” I finished for him.
“Indeed. And the third?—”
He didn’t finish because the door flew open, Germaine barged in, and the door slammed closed.
By the by, in these hallowed halls, the doors were so old, they weren’t automated. You had to open and close them yourself. They didn’t sense you and had no audio commands. The entire compound had historical designation, and as such, these modernizations were illegal to make.
It was kind of mega.
Especially coupled with the fact the administration area was done up in genteel good taste with a massive dose of expensive.
If the admin area looked like this, I was excited to see the Palace (and Aleksei was coming to pick me up when we were done, and he said he’d take me on a tour before we left— I couldn’t wait).
Allain straightened, and I did too, as Germaine bore down on the seating arrangement Allain had set up with rather comfortable, plush side chairs with tables positioned to rest drinks and digi-pads.
“Have you lost your mind?” she demanded of me.
“Excuse me,” Allain huffed.
“Shut it,” she snapped at him, his whole body jerked in affront, and she came back to me. “ You went to Naylyn Biggerstaff’s ritual? With the prince ?”
“I—”
She threw up both her hands in exasperation. “ It’s flooding social media. It’s a nightmare. A disaster . The next king and his mate attending the passing ritual of the female who plotted to kill said future king .”
“She didn’t plot to kill the future king,” I bit out.
“ I know that. You know that.” She flung an arm out. “ They don’t know that.”
“You’ll remember who you’re speaking to,” Allain snapped.
“I’m speaking to the female who will be queen who made my job a whole fuckuva lot harder today,” Germaine returned. “ And what she did reflects on the entire Palace .”
Allain stood and, surprising the dickens out of me, dropped his effete manner and clipped in full male, “ Female , handle yourself.”
Germaine opened her mouth.
But I spoke first.
“She’s right. We should have given her a heads-up.”
Both of them turned to me.
I looked to Germaine . “ I’d like to say I’m new to this, but that isn’t a good excuse.
Aleksei and I discussed the fallout, and we should have brought you into our decision.
This won’t help, but I decided this morning, Aleksei agreed to come with me, and this happened forty-five minutes before the ritual began.
We still should have told you, and you have my apologies we didn’t.
I’ll do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again. ”
Germaine stared at me, stunned.
Allain sat down on a huff.
She whipped out a tablet. “ I’ve written a statement. You need to approve it.”
“The prince should—” Allain began.
She reared on him. “ The prince is unavailable to me at this time. I’ve commed him repeatedly.” She jerked a thumb at me. “ She’s ready to roll in her royal duties by making public appearances? Okay . But she stepped in it, so she has to help me wash off some of the mud,” Germaine declared.
She was right about that too.
I took the tablet and read the statement.
Today, His Royal Highness , the True Heir , Prince Aleksei , and his mate, Mistress Laura Makepeace , attended the passing ritual of the victim in the recent assassination plot against the prince, Naylyn Biggerstaff .
They did this with heavy hearts that a beloved daughter, granddaughter, sister and friend lost her life to trust betrayed.
The prince and his mate ask the people of Night’s Fall to bend their heads to the grief of Ms . Biggerstaff’s family, mournful that such a young soul, full of hope and with a bright future, paid such a steep price for giving her heart to a male unworthy of it.
I thought of the family I’d met several hours earlier.
The haggard face of a father. The lost expression of the mother.
The swollen eyes of one grandmother, anger and shock in the fixed stare of the other.
The defeated slump of the shoulders of a grandfather, and the etched grief of the other.
And last, the abject, uncontrolled weeping of a younger sister.
It had felt unbearable, but standing at Aleksei’s side, I bore up.
They’d been stunned at our arrival, and I didn’t know if they knew it, but their curtsies to Aleksei were fit for the king.
He’d been marvelous, taking the mother’s hand, lifting her up from her genuflection, and holding her hand between both of his while he murmured words of condolence.
I’d hugged her, and the sister, and touched cheeks with the father, thinking it sad and sweet he blushed.
They invited us to sit with them as the congregation slid into the curved pews circled around the ritual altar in order to watch the red flames consume Naylyn’s swathed mortal remains in their glass enclosure.
And what did you say, even if you didn’t want a front row seat to that?
We sat with them.
Aleksei had a meeting, and I had the interviews, so we didn’t linger.
But with the family’s response to us, the tearful but warm gazes of Naylan’s other family and many friends that followed our every move, no matter what the chatter on the social tapes or news displays said, I knew we’d done the right thing.
“This statement is excellent,” I said to Germaine .
“Allow me,” Allain sniffed.
I handed the tablet to him.
“I have your approval to release it?” Germaine asked.
“If Allain is good with it, yes,” I answered.
“Fine. Now we’ll talk about Nata Livingston sitting out in the antechamber, awaiting to interview as your aide,” she kept me.
Oh heck.
And yes, Allain went to the Catalogues to ask if she was interested in the position.
Obviously, she said she was.
But unsurprising news, it seemed Germaine had her finger on the pulse of everything at the Palace .
“I—”
“It cannot happen,” Germaine decreed.
Allain’s head came up.
My neck tensed.
“I believe we all know this is a sensitive issue for Prince Errol ,” she stated.
“She isn’t interviewing to be Prince Errol’s aide,” I replied.
“He lives in this house,” Germaine retorted.
“There are eight hundred and fifteen rooms in this house ,” Allain pointed out.
“He has his own aide,” Germaine said to Allain . “ And he meets with him in this wing. Where she will have an office.”
“Then it’s good they’re both adults,” I stated. “ And should she be selected for the job, they can behave like adults. But as she’ll be dealing with me, and Allain , the prince really needs to have nothing to do with her, except be courteous to her if he should pass her in the hall.”
Germaine laid it all out.
“The king forbids it.”
I gasped.
Allain did too.
She took her tablet from Allain .
“I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to tell her the position has been filled,” Germaine concluded.
I didn’t like candidate number three, so even if Allain did, right now, Nata was the only one who might have a shot before we had to go back to the drawing board.
“Comm his highness,” Allain said.
I turned to him and saw his eyes on me.
“Me?” I asked.
“You,” Allain replied. “ Comm him and share this with him.”
This was between a king and a prince.
A son and his father.
I felt strongly about what I was doing with Nata , but I wasn’t sure I felt strongly enough, I was willing to cause (more) family discord for my mate.
“I don’t think?—”
“Trust me, Mistress Laura .”
I studied his face, and even though I didn’t think Aleksei would want to be disturbed with something like this, and what I read in Allain’s expression didn’t make me all fired up to do it, it still made me do it.
I reached in my bag, nabbed my Palm , got up and walked to the long windows behind the desk in Allain’s office.
I pulled up his name and hit audio only.
I stared unseeing at the massive, formal courtyard garden situated in the middle of the Palace square and put the Palm to my ear.
Germaine might not be able to get through, but the tone sounded once before I heard, “ Hello , love.”
“Uh, hi. We have a little bit of a situation here,” I told him.
The warmth had swept out of his tone, replaced with wary, when he asked, “ What’s that?”
“News got around about Nata . Germaine is here, and we’ll talk about the response to Naylyn’s ritual later.”
“Bloody hell,” he murmured.
“But…the king has forbidden me to interview Nata .”
Silence from Aleksei .
No.
Such utter silence, I worried I’d never hear sound again.
Then he growled, “ Interview her.”
“Honey—”
“And if you like her, hire her.”
“I don’t?—”
“I’m leaving shortly to meet you. I’ll see you soon.”
With that, he disconnected.
Oh boy.
I turned to Allain and Germaine . “ He says to interview her.”