CHAPTER 14
Axel
P rince Axel! You look so handsome today!” Lady Ilse gushed as she held a silk-gloved hand out for the prince to take.
Smiling politely, he accepted the offered hand and bowed his head over it, foregoing the optional application of his lips to her knuckles. “My lady. Your hair glitters like the stars, and your dress outdoes the sun.”
It did. He didn’t understand why the glaring orange color had come into fashion, nor why the ladies insisted on covering their garish dresses with small glass gems that reflected the light and attempted to blind him.
“You’re too kind, Your Highness,” she giggled, fluttering her eyelashes at him. “I’m looking forward to your birthday next week.”
“As am I,” he replied lightly. “At the ripe old age of twenty-three, I shall be nearing my dotage, but I intend to take it with all the grace I possess.”
She placed a daring hand on his upper arm. “And still without a wife!” Drawing the hand back, she flipped open the fan in her other hand and covered the lower half of her face. “You do recall I’m eighteen now?”
“If you recall, he was at your birthday party last month,” a sour voice cut in. “I doubt he’s forgotten.”
“Tobias! Welcome to my mother’s little party,” Axel greeted. A bit of genuine pleasure widened his smile as he turned to slap his friend on the back. “It is always a delight. Your contributions to the conversation are like a ray of sunshine.”
Tobias raised a single eyebrow as he held his drink out to the side to offset the impact of Axel’s hand and prevent a spill. “If you say so.”
“Lord Tobias.” Lady Ilse’s smile turned a little brittle. “How…perfectly wonderful of you to join us.”
“Isn’t it?” Axel grinned, pretending not to notice her annoyance. “He would make a wonderful catch, you know. It is truly amazing that charm such as his has not already brought him the lady of his dreams.”
Taking a slow sip of his drink, Tobias took a half step toward the prince. “It’s only because you hog the limelight. Lady Ilse finds me acceptable in your absence.”
She gasped at this statement, but Axel knew it was put on. He’d witnessed her attempting to throw herself on his friend plenty of times…when Axel was occupied elsewhere. Not that she was the only one who behaved that way.
“Alas, she shall have to content herself with you while in my presence, I am afraid,” Axel sighed, pressing a hand to his chest. “For have you not heard, my lady, that I am likely to be spoken for on the morrow?”
Lady Ilse jolted a little. “What?” She laughed, but the tinkling sound she usually used was closer to the clanging of pots this time. “I didn’t realize someone suitable had caught your eye.”
Tobias’s eyes slid sideways to Axel, but he only took another sip of his drink.
“Yes, my father has promised a certain young lady that she and I will wed if she meets the three challenges set before her. As she has already completed two and the third is of similar difficulty, I deem it likely that she will succeed tonight as well.” He paused to lift his eyes to the ceiling and sigh wistfully. “Ah, that such courage, such sweetness, should be—”
“Excuse me,” Lady Ilse interrupted, looking slightly green. “I believe my father is motioning me over.”
“I thought you didn’t know anything about the girl,” Tobias commented calmly once she was out of earshot.
“I don’t,” Axel replied cheerfully. “Father hasn’t even told me her name. But it was effective, wasn’t it?”
His friend smirked into his glass. “I’ve never seen her flee so quickly.”
After a quick glance around, Axel began to edge toward the doors. He’d been at the party long enough; it was about time to make a subtle exit and escape to the gardens again.
“You’ve resigned yourself to the match, then?”
He looked over at his friend, who was casually swirling his glass. “Why do you ask that?”
“The way you told Lady Ilse of it,” Tobias shrugged.
“That was simply to chase her off,” he answered with a careless wave of his hand. “As my mother has told me that the young lady does not wish to marry me, the barest hope resides in my breast that together, she and I may be able to change Father’s mind.”
Tobias snorted. “You’d do better at changing the tides.”
“Yes, I know,” the prince sighed. “That is why it is the barest hope.”
“You would really go through with it?” His friend stopped and watched him through narrowed eyes. “If she succeeds and the king won’t bend, you’ll marry her? Even though neither of you want it?”
Looking away, Axel said, “What choice do I have? He’s the king.”
“Even though you’ll have to give up on Heidi.”
Axel breathed into his jaw muscles to loosen them. “I have resigned myself to the fact that she never was, nor will she ever be, mine. Our brief relationship was doomed from the start.” Throwing on a smile, he nudged his friend’s arm. “Come, fill your glass once more, and let us be off before another beautiful young vulture comes seeking what she hopes will be easy prey.”
~
“You are serious?”
Lotti’s low voice seethed with anger, though Axel couldn’t guess why. As long as he continued to come and sing with her, what difference did it make what he did when not at the theater?
Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he paced about the small room they were in. He hadn’t felt like sitting around the castle while the poor, unnamed village girl was attempting to spin straw into gold, so he’d dragged Otto to the theater for an evening session. The cast was preparing for their next production, so meeting on the stage was out of the question this late.
“I admit to being surprised by his willingness to offer her the deal, regardless of how impossible he thought it was. And I am frustrated by him not asking for my approval before offering it.” He stared up at the low ceiling. “I must marry someday, and my father was likely to choose for me if I failed to choose for myself. However…” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “If he was willing to risk me marrying a penniless peasant girl, I wish he would have let me pick her out myself.”
“Yes. The girl you met opening night.” The irritation in her voice increased. “You said you were never going to see her again. But she came back.”
He shrugged. “Can I help it if she is delightfully unpredictable?”
“Yet you will marry another.”
“I wish everyone would quit saying that,” he grumbled. “As if I can refuse an order from the king. ”
“Yet you are here.”
Axel shifted uncomfortably. Lessons with Lotti were a grey area that primarily continued because he’d kept them secret from his father.
“There are some areas in which I can find more flexibility than in others,” Axel mumbled. Scowling, he scuffled his way to the other side of the room and whirled to face the direction from which Lotti’s voice came. “I am weary of discussing this subject. Are we not going to sing?”
He heard the rustle of Lotti’s cloak and caught a brief flash of the lamplight reflecting off her flute before its sweet sound filled the air. She had chosen a militant song of action this time, rather than one of the love songs at which he excelled, but he didn’t mind. This song would challenge him more; hopefully, it would also prove more successful in freeing his mind from his troubles and thoughts of the poor village girl, alone and probably scared, sitting in a room someplace in his castle while attempting to spin a room full of straw into the finest gold.
~
The streets were dark as Axel and Otto made their way back to the castle an hour later. The street lamps were lit, but not many people were out. A sliver of moon hung in the sky and helped the street lamps in their work, but Axel could not properly appreciate the atmosphere with his current companion.
Glancing at his guard, he noticed that the man appeared less focused than usual for their walks through the city. Between the lack of light and Otto’s concern over the stranger, he would have expected his guard to be on high alert.
“Something bothering you?” he asked lightly.
He was surprised to notice a slight start in reaction to his comment. “Why do you ask, Your Highness?” Otto warily replied.
Letting his eyes drift to the other side of the road, Axel casually shrugged. “You appear to lack your normal all-seeing observational powers this fine evening,” he replied.
The guard sighed, closed his eyes briefly, and opened his mouth before closing it again. Axel raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. At last, Otto admitted, “I was wondering how your potential bride is getting along.”
“My what? Ah, yes, I recall Bertram mentioning that you went to visit her yesterday.” He put on a teasing air. “Quite thoughtful of you to see to her comfort for me. Unless you are attempting to steal her from under my nose?”
Otto shook his head, one side of his mouth pulling up in a begrudging smile. “No, Your Highness, nothing like that. I was simply concerned about her and wanted to ensure she was all right.”
“It is very kind of you, Otto, to attend to the well-being of strangers.”
“She’s from my hometown,” the guard quietly said.
Axel’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? Then you know her?” A grin spread across his face. “I do hope you are not about to tell me that my father has managed to bring your sweetheart to the castle with the intention of placing her in my arms instead of yours.”
The guard gave him a wry grin. “I already told you that wasn’t the case. Besides, I’ve been living in the capital for six years, Your Highness. Do you really think if I’d had a girl at home that she would still be my girl?”
“Hmm, I suppose that’s true,” Axel mused, tapping a finger against his chin. “You would have either married her by now, or she would have sent you packing for not having done so.”
Otto chuckled. “Just so, Your Highness. ”
“Aren’t you going to tell me about her?” Axel prodded. “As yet, I know nothing about her except that she is from a small village and that her father owes mine a great debt.”
For some reason, his guard hesitated. Did he not know how to describe her, or was he deciding which bits would be of greatest interest to his prince?
Or did he not want to tell him about her?
“She has a lot of spirit, and she hates dishonesty,” he finally answered.
“She does not sound too terrible at this point,” Axel murmured. His eyes lost focus as his thoughts wandered.
“What about Heidi?” his guard slowly asked.
“What about her?” Axel responded, surprised. Then he remembered his earlier conversation with Otto. A heavy weight settled around his shoulders. “Much as I would like to have her as part of my future, I am afraid that I must bring myself to accept—” He stopped to fight down an unexpected swell of emotion. Once he was certain that he had himself under control, he continued, “Considering both of our situations, I believe that she is not an option for my future, and I must resign myself to this truth.”
They walked in silence after that. Axel couldn’t decide if his guard was pleased or displeased by his response. Otto pursed his lips, and his jaw pushed out a little, but his eyes began roving the street ahead of them again.
They had reentered the castle grounds and were about to part ways when Otto finally spoke again. “You never know what tomorrow might bring, Your Highness,” he said quietly, staring at an upper floor of the castle. Then he walked off toward the barracks, leaving Axel standing with his head slightly tilted, watching him go and wondering what that comment was supposed to mean.