Chapter Thirty-Four
Roberta told herself she would never get used to people bowing and curtsying to her.
For the past few days, she had been treated with such reverence.
It felt peculiar. And certainly undeserved.
At first, she had startled whenever it happened, which must have looked strange, but she had quickly learned to respond with a nod of her head or a polite smile.
The staff in the castle did not smile back, she had learned that too, and she wondered why.
Was it forbidden? Life here seemed very different from what she was used to.
Ernest laughed at her when she told him how uncomfortable it made her feel. “You are very strange,” he said with a shake of his head. “Most people love the attention. I do not mind it myself, although I know they whisper nasty things about me after I pass. But I tell myself they are just jealous.”
“I am not most people.”
He eyed her sideways. “No, you are not. I think Niki did a good thing marrying you rather than one of those boring ladies Francis wanted for him.”
She had learned that Chamberlain Francis was once a military commander.
He was considered old-fashioned by the modern Holtswiggers, but he obviously loved his country.
He and Niki were close, and Roberta could already see how much Niki relied on the elderly man when it came to decisions of state.
According to Ernest, they had fallen out over his marriage, but maybe that was a good thing.
It meant Niki was willing to step away from his council’s advice if he felt strongly enough about something. About her.
In the days after Roberta arrived, she had been introduced to all the important people in her new country, and although she struggled to remember their names, she remembered their faces.
She was always good with faces. For instance, the old man with the red nose and wild white whiskers, who kissed her hand and left a damp mark on her glove. He was a distant cousin by marriage.
Niki was by her side during the introductions, and when she’d whispered in his ear about the glove, he had laughed. Everybody had stopped their conversations and stared, as if him laughing was so rare and strange they weren’t sure what to make of it.
To test her theory, she had told him something else she had been saving up for a moment when he needed cheering up.
He had laughed again, and the same thing had happened to the room full of people.
They’d frozen and stared and shared glances as if asking each other what was wrong with their solemn prince.
After that, Roberta had been determined to make him laugh every day, and to smile too. She would make him so happy that it would no longer be a cause for amazement but a normal everyday occurrence.
Then, at last, Niki told her to prepare to go riding with him. Arrow must be desperate for a gallop, he’d said with a sparkle in his eyes. I know Leopold is.
Arrow certainly was. Roberta had visited her beloved horse several times since her arrival, making sure he was well cared for and spending time with him. She’d whispered her secrets and her doubts to him and had felt better for voicing them out loud.
Now she dressed eagerly for her ride with Niki.
It was chilly here, and she wore a fur-lined coat and fur-lined boots.
Like the beautiful emerald, the clothing had appeared in her room and was not part of the collection she had brought with her.
Antonia asked one of the servants about the items and was told they were a bridal gift from Niki.
Roberta was planning to thank him as she made her way to the forecourt of the castle, where the horses and Niki were waiting.
She could tell he was pleased to see her.
His face lit up, and he waved the groom away so that he himself could lift her up onto Arrow’s saddle.
Then they trotted out through the gate and down the driveway.
They weren’t alone, of course. Freddie had sent some of the men he had brought with him to accompany them, but Niki’s personal bodyguards were also there.
Unfortunately, that meant there was a competition between the two groups as to who was the best at protecting their prince.
It also meant it was difficult to find any privacy when there were far too many riders surrounding them.
Niki led the way toward the forest that hemmed in the castle and the town on the west side.
The track here led into steeper and more mountainous country.
This was very different from what Roberta was used to—the coastal stretches of home, and the chalk hills covered in green swathes.
She found it fascinating, and when she turned to Niki and saw the look on his face…
her heart sang. It was as if all his cares had been wiped away and he was revitalized. Made whole again.
They rode along pathways, over a carpet of pine needles, and Roberta breathed deeply of the scent of the forest. Then they began to climb, and the bodyguards were forced to drop behind on the narrow track.
They finally came to a stop upon a flat-topped bluff jutting out over a valley with an amazing view back toward the castle, with its colorful flags waving from its towers and the town clustered before it.
The countryside was beautiful, and Roberta stared at her new home.
“I come up here often,” Niki said beside her. “It is one of my favorite places. When I was a child, I would come with Karl. You cannot see it, but there is a narrow place just below us. You can walk your horse along it.”
“That sounds dangerous! Did you really do that? I can’t imagine you being so reckless.”
Her assessment of his personality seemed to sting him.
“I was not always so cautious,” he said.
“But you are right; it is dangerous. The pathway follows the bluff we are standing on, then descends toward the forest. There is a small gap you have to jump to rejoin the track we used to climb up here. Not many people know of it. Karl told me Lichtenbergs had been risking their lives on it for generations. We call it the High Wire.”
Roberta’s eyes lit up. “Like in a circus? I used to tell people I was going to run away and join a circus.” She leaned over a little, looked at the valley far below, and gave a shudder.
“It may not even be passable now,” he said.
“How do you get down to it?”
He frowned but nodded toward the other side of their vantage point. “Roberta…” he began.
She laughed. “Don’t worry, I have not the least intention of walking the High Wire.” Then, deciding it was time to change the subject, “You have been busy.”
“Far too busy,” he replied gravely. “I had hoped for more time.” His voice grew apologetic. “It will not always be like this. There were trade negotiations in play before I left, and now I need to finalize them. When that is all done, I will have time to show you more of my country.”
“Our country now,” she said brightly, but there was a hint of uncertainty in the declaration.
He reached to take her hand in his and then leaned in to kiss her cheek. At least, it was meant to be her cheek, but she turned at the same time, and he kissed her lips instead.
She gasped. The sensation of his flesh on hers, the warmth of his breath, his body so close.
It was intoxicating. She wanted him. She had been dreaming of their wedding night and longing for another night in his arms. Now his soft groan made her think he wanted her too.
Their kiss intensified before he reluctantly pulled back.
“I wish…” he began.
But Roberta wasn’t ready to stop yet. She wrapped her arms about his neck and leaned in again, leaving little kisses on his cheeks and chin, nuzzling against his skin and breathing him in.
He closed his arms around her, holding her tight, and his breathing was ragged as he searched for her mouth with his.
“I want you,” she said boldly. “Can’t you sneak up to my bed?”
“And risk getting caught?” He kissed her again, deeper this time. “I want to, God, I want to, but if we were seen…” He rested his brow against hers. “It wouldn’t be a good way to begin our marriage. For your sake, I don’t want to risk it.”
“In case your people hate me more than they do already.”
He looked surprised. “They don’t hate you.”
Roberta was sorry she had said it. He had enough on his mind without worrying about her jitters. But she knew she was the subject of gossip—she had overheard whispers, and been the recipient of stares, and she would not have called them friendly.
“Once the wedding is over, can we go away together? Just the two of us?”
“Go away?” He looked surprised and a little shocked.
There was a rustle in the shrubs behind them and the stamping of hooves, and the bodyguards burst out of the forest. In a moment, their private spot was teeming with men and horses.
“At the moment, we need to remain at the castle,” Niki reminded her quietly. “It is the safest place.”
Roberta cursed herself again for saying the wrong thing. Niki’s life was in danger; of course they could not disappear off on some romantic tryst.
He took her hand and led her back to Arrow, leaning in to whisper, “One day, I will take you to Italy. Or Greece. Somewhere warm where we can bathe in the sea and lie in the sun.”
Roberta was delighted and let herself imagine soaking up the warmth as they rode through the dark forest back to the castle.
It was as they reached the forecourt that it happened.
A woman ran from among the crowd that had gathered to watch their return.
Shocked, Roberta felt the woman’s hands grasping at her boots and tugging at her skirt as if to drag her off her saddle.
When she looked down, the woman’s face was pale and tear-streaked.
Desperate. When some of the guards tried to drag her away, she clung even harder.
“Please, please,” she wailed. “I am Countess Becker. My husband…they are saying dreadful things. It is a lie! He is a good man. He loves the prince, he would never…”
Finally, her grip on Roberta was broken. Arrow reared but she controlled him, sliding out of the saddle as Niki came to her.
“Wait!” he ordered, as the guards began to bundle the woman away.
Even as they turned to obey him, Chamberlain Francis was hurrying toward them, stern-faced, his robes swirling around him. “I will question her,” he said. “There is no need for you to concern yourself, sir.”
Niki’s expression was just as stern. “I think there is, Francis.” He looked at Roberta. “Are you hurt?”
“No, no, but that poor woman—”
“She is not poor. She is a traitor’s wife,” Francis interrupted.
“I will explain to you when I am done,” Niki assured her, ignoring the chamberlain.
There was nothing Roberta could do but agree and allow herself to be led into the castle. Once in her room, her hands shook as she began to unbutton her riding habit, only to have her sister take over.
“What is it?” Antonia sounded breathless—she had probably run up here. “I heard that someone attacked you. Roberta, are you all right?”
“Yes. I don’t think she attacked me…At least…”
“What was it then? Did Niki know her?”
“Yes. And Francis said she is a traitor’s wife. What are they talking about? Do you know?”
Antonia’s fingers stilled, and she gave Roberta a long look. “No, I don’t. I think they are keeping secrets from you. How disappointing.”
Roberta blinked. “Disappointing?”
“Unless…” Antonia resumed her work on the buttons. “Unless you prefer to be the sort of wife who buries her head in the sand.”
After her sister had gone, Roberta sat and waited for Niki to come and explain to her what was going on.
She knew that Antonia was right, and that he wasn’t telling her everything.
And she knew she did not want to be the sort of wife who chose to avoid acknowledging matters that may be difficult or awkward. She needed to tell him that.
When, after an hour, he did not come, Roberta went to find him.