19. 19
19
Hettie
W e spend half an hour with the king, with him giving Tema most of his attention. Even when Duncan, Spencer’s father and the right hand of the king, shows up to tell King Magnus of his next meeting, we don’t leave.
Duncan postpones the meeting for an hour and stays with us, talking to me and Bo as the king plays a game of Tema-checkers with my daughter.
Tema made up the game last year while I was doing my best to teach her how to play chess. It’s a combination of the two, and she made up so many rules that it’s impossible to figure it out, but the king does his best.
There’s a lot of laughter.
But finally, the king—he told me to call him Magnus—stands and announces that he really needs to get some work done.
“But you’re the king,” Tema points out. “No one should tell you to go to work.”
“I work for the people, like your mom. Like Lord Laz here, and Bo. They might not always tell me to get back to work when I’m goofing off, but I have a responsibility to them.”
“Do you like to goof off?” she asks .
He winks at her. “It’s my favourite thing to do. And I’d really like you to come back tomorrow and teach me more of that game. Does that sound like fun?”
“Yes.” And then Tema leaps into the arms of the king of Laandia.
I clutch Bo’s wrist so tight that he must feel the imprint of my nails. But the king only folds Tema into his arms and hangs on tight for a long moment.
With a sigh, he finally sets her down. “Will you do me a big favour?” he asks her.
“Of course.”
“Will you go with your—with Bo there, and go to the kitchen and see if you can convince the cook to make me a sandwich?”
“I can make you one!”
“I’d like that a lot, but the cook might not. You can him tell what to put in it, though.”
“I’ll do that.” Tema runs to Bo and grabs his hand. “Let’s go, Bo Daddy.”
I think Bo’s heart melts at her words, at the ease of her touch. I know I do. Seeing them together…
And then there’s that guilt.
“Hettie, if you wouldn’t mind hanging back for a moment,” the king says in a low voice.
“Of course, Your Majesty.” I watch, wide-eyed, as Tema pulls Bo from the room. Duncan nods and follows them, leaving me alone with the king.
Magnus smiles at me as he leans against his desk. “Magnus,” he reminds me. “I am still your father-in-law.”
I laugh nervously .
“She’s a little firecracker,” he adds. “We haven’t had that kind of energy in here for a long time.”
“She is. But she’s a good girl. Smart and funny…”
“You’ve done a great job with her. On your own.” There might be a hint of reproach in his voice, or I may be imagining it.
“About that…” I begin.
“Bo said you had your reasons.”
“I did. For leaving, and for not telling him.”
I would have never imagined the king of a country to look so sympathetic. “I expect you were afraid we’d take her from you,” he says in a gentle voice.
My mouth literally drops open. “I—I did think that,” I admit.
“Understandable. I am a king, after all.”
“You’re not that kind of king,” I point out.
“Thank you for thinking so highly of me.”
I flush. “She’s everything to me. I couldn’t take the risk.”
“She’s a special little girl. Why did you leave in the first place? If you don’t mind me asking.”
It’s not like I’m being questioned by a king. Or even interrogated by my husband’s father. King Magnus seems like he really wants to know about me.
Or he’s very good at pretending.
“We were very young,” I begin. “And maybe we shouldn’t have taken that big of a step and gotten married, but we were in love.”
“I don’t question that. I’m surprised that I didn’t hear anything about it. I like to think I’m close to my children.”
“He told Queen Selene.”
The king clears his throat. “He did? I never heard—”
“Just before the accident. The same day. I didn’t know this until Bo told me yesterday, but it explains a lot of things.”
The king sits down behind his desk. There’s a heaviness to his shoulders that wasn’t there a moment before. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”
I take the seat opposite him, tucking my hands between my legs. I don’t think King Magnus is the type of king I need to be careful of what I say in front of but there’s always been a wariness when I talk about Bo to anyone.
“Bo thinks he was the cause of the queen’s accident,” I say simply.
Magnus sucks in his breath. “There’s no way he could have been. There was a storm, the bridge was icy…”
“You need to tell Bo that,” I urge, leaning forward. “He’s convinced that the queen was so upset to find out about our wedding that she shouldn’t have been driving, and it caused her to lose control of the car.”
Magnus covers his mouth with his hand. “No.”
“I told him it wasn’t his fault, but Bo has spent the last eight years thinking it is. And once he told me, it explained everything. The days after the accident, he shut down. He wouldn’t talk to me. He didn’t want to see me. For four days, I didn’t know where he was. I was frantic. I couldn’t get hold of Spencer and no one else knew about us—”
Even after so long, my eyes are damp just thinking about those days. How worried I had been about Bo. The entire country was in mourning, but all I cared about was one man who seemed to have disappeared .
“They went out on a boat,” Magnus says quietly. “Bo, and Spencer, Kalle and Gunnar. They were gone for three days. I thought it was a good idea, but I didn’t know. Odin stayed with me, and Lyra…” He takes another deep breath. “It wasn’t a good time for any of us.”
“I can only imagine.”
“But he came back.” He gestures for me to continue.
“He was different. It was like he was frozen. He wouldn’t talk to me, didn’t want to see me. I couldn’t… I couldn’t.” I bite my lip. “Finally, he called, wanted to talk to me. We met at the high school, and he said—”
I don’t want to repeat what Bo said. The words have been burned into my mind, but it still hurts too much to say them out loud. “He said we made a mistake. That we never should have gotten married.”
Magnus makes a noise in his throat I take as sympathy, so I continue. “I didn’t know how to get through to him. He was a wall.”
“He is very wall-like.”
“I was hurt. I was twenty years old and newly married to a man who wanted nothing to do with me. I left because it hurt too much to be around him. And I thought it would be easier for him.”
“I saw my son at that time, and nothing was easy for him. You certainly went far enough. Why British Columbia?”
“My grandfather was there. He took us in, helped us out.”
“I’m happy to hear that.”
“I didn’t feel like I had a choice, but looking back, I shouldn’t have run.”
“What did your family say about it all? ”
I choke back a laugh. “They don’t know anything about it. You know my family. They’re not the sort you want as in-laws. I’m sure they would have been over the moon to hear I married a real-life prince. And had his baby.” I shake my head. “My mother might have come back for that.”
“When is the last time you saw her?”
“I was seven.”
Magnus nods as he stands, moves out from behind his desk. “Hettie, I can’t pretend to be happy about just finding out about all of this now. The press…” He chuckles. “It’s going to be fun. Not.”
“Do we have to tell anyone?” I ask cautiously.
“I guess that’s up to you, and what you plan to do. You haven’t figured that out yet?”
“I need to talk to Bo.”
“I suggest you do that. But, Hettie, you need to know that I consider you part of my family now. You not only married my son, as unorthodox and unexpected hearing about that is, but you made him smile. It’s like he woke up from a very long nap.”
My eyes start to sting a bit hearing that.
He motions me to stand up. “And not only that, but you brought us that little girl. I think that’s a pretty big deal. I understand there’s some conflicted feelings about your own family, but do know that we’re your family now.”
I’ve never felt unconditional acceptance from anyone before and I blink before the sting in my eyes becomes embarrassing. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Magnus,” he reminds me. And then he reaches out and the king of Laandia hugs me.