Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
CYPRIEN
Lydia and I waited behind the dividers, the soft melody of a violin striking up throughout the room. Our men had already gone to stand at the end of the aisle while the Queen adjusted our jewels and crowns.
“Okay, let us do this. Remember” I go out ahead of you with the rings then you follow me out precisely fifteen beats later, arm in arm.” The queen smiled, then stepped out from behind the temporary walls.
I squeezed Lydia’s hand, and we both verbally counted down, barely containing our excitement. When we got to fifteen, we stepped out and made our way down the aisle toward the men we were going to spend forever with.
The tension in both of us was palpable and I could feel that Lydia wanted to race down that aisle just as badly as I did, each of us the only thing holding the other back.
I focused on the back of the Queen’s dress, because I knew that if I looked at Alaric, I would run to him without a second thought.
At the end of the aisle, I was forced to lift my gaze from the floor.
My eyes briefly flickered to Travis, who looked great, but he wasn’t who I was there for.
Alaric smiled down on me, practically glowing in the candlelight.
He looked regal in his crown, playing the part, but his eyes were all for me.
They burned through me with the heat of a thousand suns, and it was all I could do to not sprint toward him.
Lydia and I dropped each other’s arms at the same time and practically ran to our own beloved.
The Magus chuckled, then began the ceremony. “Dearest faithful congregation, we are here tonight to join each of these couples in marriage. Anyone with any objections is asked to keep them to themselves.”
Travis laughed nervously, and I caught Lydia elbowing him from the corner of my eye.
I almost laughed myself, panic threatening to choke me.
The holy man glared at the other couple before returning to his speech.
“First I will be joining Alaric and Cyprien in the blissful bonds of matrimony. The River Maiden has seen fit to bless this couple with one another–a fated bond. Gentlemen, please join hands and repeat after me.”
Alaric extracted me from under his arm, and we turned to face one another.
His eyes filled with unshed tears, but his smile was the happiest I had ever witnessed.
With his hands in mine, we waited for the Magus to continue.
The room around us ceased to be and it felt as though our souls were speaking when we gave our vows.
There was no differentiating between our voices, we spoke as one.
“I swear, by the grace of the River Maiden, that I will strive daily to be everything you could need of me. With these hands, I will love, comfort, and protect you. Everything I do will be done in your honor. My heart is yours now and forever. I shall invoke this bond with an unbroken band of gold and seal it with a holy kiss.”
Those vows, though standard, were no less impactful.
I could feel the presence of the River Maiden in each word.
Tears welled in my eyes as we exchanged rings, hands trembling so badly I nearly dropped it–twice.
Alaric’s patient smile steadied me, and I slid the ring onto his finger on the third try.
Words couldn’t even begin to describe the kiss we shared in that library, sealing our eternal bond.
It was perfection and yet, that word doesn’t even bear enough weight to touch it.
I was so wrapped up in my new husband that Travis and Lydia’s vow exchange was a complete blur. The clapping of the audience at the end of their ceremony brought me back to the moment at hand.
Then came the legal part. The king walked over with our marriage certificates, and each of us signed on the indicated lines.
“I have more paperwork for you, Cyprien. About your status as heir to the duke.” The king pulled another document from his robe. “Please, take your time to read over it and sign.”
The queen walked up and snatched it from his hands. “I’ll look over that first, if you don’t mind.” She unrolled it and scanned the words on the paper. I stood waiting, all of my muscles stiff, thinking that the king was trying to pull something over on me.
The king sputtered. “I can assure you it is a standard designation of heir, Wife. The Duke left it with me in the event that I found him an appropriate heir.”
“Mm, I’m sure that’s the case, Husband,” the queen quipped. “I simply want to make sure that there isn’t anything in here that might be misconstrued.” After a few moments she handed the document back to me and smiled. “Everything is in order.”
I skimmed the page, getting the idea of what I was being asked to sign.
Then I read it more thoroughly, asking the queen to clarify a few spots before signing it and handing it back to the king for his signature.
He signed it with a flourish, then added his seal, as he had done with the marriage documents.
“Perfect, now we can go sentence that horrid stepfamily of yours. We will come into the throne room from behind the thrones in pairs. First the queen and I, then our children. Then once we’ve got those bastards where we want them, we will drop the hammer down by bringing out Cyprien and Travis.
And simply because I wish to be entertained, the servants, Jeb and Antonia, will join Cyprien. Any questions?”
Met with silence, the king led the way from the library through a narrow doorway.
The hall was dimly lit and undecorated, but it took us directly past the drawing room and the king’s office, right to the throne room–ah, it was a service corridor.
My father’s house had similar ones that I often played in as a child.
We organized ourselves in a line, and the king and queen exited first. After a few beats, Alaric and Lydia followed suit.
We kept the door open, listening as the charges against my stepfamily were read out.
Before the king was even finished, the twisted men began to declare them lies, begging the king for mercy.
“It is not I whom you need to beg for mercy, Octavius.” said the king.
That was our cue.
The shock on Octavius’s face when I appeared next to the prince–next to my husband–was something that would be etched into my memory for the rest of my life He still attempted to sputter out a lame excuse, but his sons had the sense to have fallen to the floor
“Octavius,” My voice boomed against the walls of the chamber, startling me.
“You now stand before me, awaiting a sentence that I was granted permission to give by my dear father-in-law, King William himself. What could you possibly have to say to me to redeem yourself or your sons for the treatment I received at your hands? Or the lies you told the crown about my very existence?”
He had the wisdom to drop to the floor then. “There is nothing I could ever say that would redeem us from our actions. Just know, I truly loved your mother and was devastated when she died. I didn’t know how to raise you, nor did I have the means.”
“Stop there, I will hear no more.” I raised my hand against the words that were coming out of him. “You’ve just used my mother in your defense, the very thing that could make your sentence worse.”
At that point, Antonia and Jeb emerged from behind the curtain to stand at the bottom of the stairs. Seeing them gentled me some, and I turned back to my former “family” with less hatred in my heart.
“A favor! The steward promised us a royal favor!” Octavius insisted.
Without missing a beat, the king responded to that. “He will be tried for his crimes come morning. Any unauthorized favors he may have offered in my name are null and void.” he then addressed me. “What sentence will you hand down, dear boy?”
There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in my voice. “Octavius is to be sent to the Outer Kingdoms with nothing but the clothes on his back and his favorite flintlock pistol. As for Stefan and Sebastian, they shall be sent to Gladiola’s to service the dockworkers as whores.”
Everyone in the room gasped, as none of them had known what my sentence would be. I knew I was being harsh, but Alaric had insisted they would get what they deserved. “You understand the severity of this sentence and what it will mean for each of them, correct?” His Majesty questioned.
“Yes, I do. They deserve nothing more than what they used to keep me as a slave to their whims.”
Octavius looked up at me, pure hatred in his eyes. I blinked once at him then turned my face to kiss the hand that my husband offered.
“So it shall be,” the king declared. “We shall put them in the dungeons under heavy security and send them to their fates on the morrow.” The guards surrounded my former family and forcefully removed them from the room, the three men protesting the entire way.
The moment the doors shut behind them Alaric launched out of his seat and hauled me into his arms. “I don’t dare to even imagine what they must have done to deserve such a sentence,” he whispered against my cheek, and I leaned into his touch.
“Well done, my boy!” the king bellowed then clapped me on the back, “You will make an excellent Duke.”
I pulled away from Alaric and smiled. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
He waved his hand dismissively at me, “No, no. There is to be none of that. We are family now. You can call me ‘Father’ or even ‘Father-in-law’. The honorifics will be saved for formal events. Now.” He clapped his hands together “Let us go and have our first family meal. I had the cook set us up a little something in the salon.”
ALARIC
I was suspicious of my father’s behavior.
He was being far too accepting, even encouraging of the new situation in which we found ourselves.
It was as though he’d transformed into another person entirely.
Perhaps I was being paranoid. It was possible that a talk with our religious leader had been enough to cow him into submission or make him change his mind.
It was also possible that my mother’s outburst earlier had him plotting against us all.
Regardless of the reason for his change in demeanor, I planned to keep an eye on him. The man couldn’t be trusted.
We made our way to the salon, Cyprien’s hand in mine, and stolen glances showed the pure bliss he was feeling.
There was a contentness in my soul that I couldn’t describe, and one I never knew could exist. It settled into me as soon as we finished saying our vows, deepening further when we sealed our union with a kiss.
We had a connection that I could not deny, something I never would have believed in before.
It was beautiful and intense. I silently thanked the River Maiden again for choosing someone as unworthy as myself to receive the gift of a soulmate.
We entered the salon and I guided Cyprien to my favorite couch, perfectly sized for two.
Once we were all seated, the servants began bringing in the meal.
I snagged a couple of teacakes from one servant and some pear brandy from another, offering one of each to Cyprien.
He sipped the thick, syrupy drink and his eyes widened.
“What is this?” he whispered. “It’s delicious. Is it alcohol?”
I smiled and took a sip of my own. “It’s pear brandy and yes, it’s a very high proof.”
He looked at the snifter in his hand then back at me. “Is it stronger than wine?”
I chuckled softly. “Very much so. I would say that you’d have to drink two large glasses of wine to equal just one little glass of this brandy.”
“Oh, my. I don’t want to be drunk at my first meal with your family. Remind me to take it slow. I don’t drink much.”
“Then you certainly do not need more brandy than what you have now. I could grab you a non-alcoholic beverage. Lemonade, perhaps?”
Cyprien scrunched his nose in the most adorable way. “A drink made out of lemons? Certainly it would be bitter.”
A giggle escaped me and I was shocked for a moment, I recovered quickly and said, “Yes, it has freshly squeezed lemon, water, and sugar in it. It really is delightfully refreshing. You’ll want to drink it with something savory though.”
The rest of our very casual meal was spent in much the same way.
I would find new food and drink for Cyprien to try and enjoy his reaction to it.
My father tried to lord over the entire engagement, but my husband and I sat in a little bubble of solitude, far removed from the rest of the conversation.
It wasn’t until Antonia and Jeb approached that I even remembered that other people were with us.
“We apologize for the interruption, your Highness, but it’s getting really late and we need to get back home. There will be much to do tomorrow to prepare the house for new owners.” Antonia said with a frown.
“Even if you are the new owners?”
“What do you mean? We have no money to buy that farm,” Jeb grumbled.
“It would be a gift from the crown. Yours, tax free, if you want it.”
Cyprien interrupted me then. “Actually, if possible, I would like to repurchase my parent’s estate in the cliffs near the castle so we could use it as a vacation house. We can pay Jeb and Antonia to manage it.”
My father interjected. “The Bellegrave estate was put into a trust for you by your uncle when your mother had to sell it. It already belongs to you, Cyprien, to do with as you wish. Your uncle also owns your father’s business, kept safe for you to take over when the time was right.”
Tears welled in Cyprien’s eyes, but he rushed to wipe them away.
And I finally knew what my father was doing, he was kicking us out of the castle.
My husband was a future duke with a family home and a business conveniently waiting for him–and I was being subtly passed over for the crown.
He watched me realize what he was doing, and I’m sure he was hoping that I would be furious, but I wasn’t.
I didn’t need the crown–I only needed my husband. And Cyprien needed me at that moment. He was overwhelmed, I could see it in the tears he rushed to conceal and feel it in the way he squeezed my hand.
“Thank you, Father. This is wondrous news, indeed. If you will excuse us, I believe my husband and I will retire for the night.” I snagged a bottle each of brandy and wine from a nearby table then I led Cyprien from the room, his arm in mine.