CHAPTER 2
Katy
S
he’d forgotten to ask him about the theater.
Pulling a report off the stack, Katy stared sightlessly at it, her swirling thoughts making it impossible to focus.
The letter hidden in her ledger taunted her, but she couldn’t pull it out until Axel left for his next meeting.
His chair may have stopped squeaking, and his fingers might have stopped tapping restlessly against his desk, but it wasn’t worth the risk.
If he was less focused than he seemed, he might notice the letter. And while he hadn’t pressed earlier, if she pulled it out, he would want to see it.
She couldn’t let him see it.
The time crawled by while Katy pretended to work. Paper rustled as her husband slid another sheet of paper to the side, evidence of his absorption. She had other loose papers; maybe she could take a peek.
Just as she began to slide the letter free, Axel started humming. Katy froze, waiting for him to notice her, but he settled his cheek on his hand and kept reading.
That was too close.
Sliding her reports over the ledger, Katy wiggled the letter out of its hiding spot. The black wax seal stared up at her, its three-circle imprint filling her with a mix of anger and fear.
“Who is it from?”
Katy jumped. “What?” Looking up, she found Axel staring out the window. “I’m—I would have to check. The reports aren’t always signed.”
“You have ever lacked the ability to lie well, my love.” His lip curved up before he turned to face her. “And that doesn’t look like correspondence regarding the wool trade.”
“No, it’s—it’s—” She couldn’t tell him, so she avoided the topic instead. “Nothing to worry about. How was the theater?”
His eyes warned that he didn’t believe her, but he let the subject drop.
“A mess, but less so than I feared. The foreman assured me they would be finished within two months.” Drawing his eyebrows together in a show of distress, he added, “Alas, the stage where first you glimpsed the actor Gunther is yet in shambles, though the dressing rooms where I met Heidi are undamaged. While we may rejoice for the latter, ’tis unfortunate that we must suffer the former. ”
He might put on the emotion to hide the fact that it was real, but Katy could see it in his eyes even as he teased. The state of the theater pained him.
“I thought you met Heidi in a hallway.” Forcing a smile, Katy glanced at the door to make sure it was closed. She lowered her voice anyway, not wanting Bertram to hear. “Isn’t that what you told Tobias and your parents to explain why you weren’t in your seat on opening night?”
“Perhaps, but you know the truth.” A whimsical smile drifted across his face. “After all, I also told them that I met her before the show began. But she didn’t seek me out until after she heard me sing.”
His right hand reached for hers. Grasping it, Katy softly replied, “I had no reason to before then. But you reminded me so much of my old friend, I couldn’t help it.”
The faint echo of a youthful baritone sounded through her mind, but the words were indecipherable. It didn’t matter; the noble boy had left her behind twelve years ago. His memory had led her to Gunther, who had turned out to be Axel, but he had no further place in her life.
Before Axel could reply, a sharp rap at the door drew their attention. “Your Highness, are you coming?” Bertram called out. “Your meeting starts in ten minutes.”
“It does?” Axel rubbed the back of his neck and turned toward Katy. “May I stay here? I would rather finish my reports than attend to the myriad complaints of my guild leaders.”
Glancing at the clock, Katy said, “They’ll complain even more if the meeting is rescheduled. Or if you’re late. I recommend a speedy departure.”
“’Tis sad, but true. Toddlers are better behaved than the guilds.” Axel grabbed his waistcoat from a nearby chair before shoving out of his own and kissing the top of Katy’s head. “I must away, my love, and imperil myself with the fierce combat of negotiations. Wait for me?”
“I’ll be here when you return from slaying the guild dragons. Do try to come back in one piece,” she joked, smiling up at him.
Pressing a hand to his chest, he raised his eyes briefly to the sky before letting them drop to hers with a world-weary expression.
“It will be difficult, but I shall do my best as a Dracovich, dragon warrior.” He blinked twice, then cocked his head as he shrugged into his waistcoat.
“How do you suppose my family came by that name?”
“By fighting dragons,” Katy suggested flippantly. “You have tapestries all over the castle of such acts.”
Axel waved an impatient hand. “Yes, and I grew up on the stories to go with them. But if you choose to believe that dragons truly exist, then you must also accept the existence of fae, magic, and all the rest.”
“If they aren’t real, then where did the stories come from?”
Axel wrinkled his nose at her as he fastened his buttons. “From someone’s imagination. The same as the rest of the fiction in the library.”
“But how do you know that they aren’t real?” Katy pressed, the letter swirling in the background of her mind. She leaned forward. “All those tales of what lies north of the Rio Azul—”
“The lands north of the river are barren and treacherous. Worse than our northern deserts,” Axel replied carelessly.
“The people who adventured there and managed to come home would have manufactured terrifying tales to explain their hesitance to return. Combine that with well-meaning elders wishing to prevent further loss of life in pursuit of adventure, and you have the perfect breeding ground for such fantastical ideas.”
Why was he so determined to stick his head in the sand?
Axel glanced at the clock, then straightened his shoulders and assumed an expression of solemn confidence. He gazed over her shoulder, eyes just shy of fully open, mouth at ease. “We must table our discussion for now. How do I look?”
“Like a prince,” Katy replied simply. Shoving the letter from her mind, she stood and ran a hand down his arm, meeting his eyes. “As you always do.”
He shook his head at her, letting his perfect smile turn crooked. “We both know that’s not true, but thank you anyway, my love.” After dropping one last kiss on her nose, he strode out the door with a slight swagger that he didn’t have when he was just being himself.
Why couldn’t he see what she did?
He joked about his unsuitability for his role, but Katy knew that he could perform it well.
It wasn’t fair to compare himself to his too-serious friend, Prince Michael of Daraigh, who in Katy’s opinion could stand to give his duties a little less weight.
Nor should he reprimand himself as his father once had – and sometimes still did – for his love of the stage.
When the door closed behind him, Katy waited another few moments before letting herself return to the letter on her desk.
She wanted to ignore it. To pretend that it didn’t exist, or at least that she had never seen it.
But it did, and she had, and now that she was alone again, it was time to take care of it.
She lifted it, carefully breaking the three-circle seal that such letters always had. Inside the unsigned message was the same strong, confident handwriting that she had come to expect and loathe.
My dearest Princess Katrin,
I do not wish to be indelicate, but I must remind you yet again that payment is due. Long past due. You may delay the inevitable, but time will not make the debt invalid, any more than it invalidated the deal that you struck with me fifteen years ago.
Just as with any debt, it reflects poorly on the debtor to postpone repayment. I realize that my options are not the same as those of a normal creditor. However, I feel certain that you do not wish for me to explore the ones that I do have.
I look forward to seeing you again.
The red-haired stranger’s letters were always like that. Katy had come to face her anniversary with something like dread, knowing that another of these reminders would make an appearance.
But now, it was time for this one to make a disappearance.
Hoping Axel wouldn’t ask after it again, she carried the letter to the cold fireplace, lit a candle, and held the letter to the tiny flame.
Once the paper caught, she tossed it into the fireplace, watching the edges brown and curl in on themselves until it was nothing more than a pile of ash.
Katy stared at it for a moment, then used her foot to spread it out; it was summer, and she didn’t want Axel to notice.
He had been so sincere in his sorrow for her. He thought that she was wrong to think that she didn’t deserve his love, but she knew better.
Despite the pressure from his parents and the court, despite her longing for a child of her own, Katy was secretly relieved to still be waiting.
Because she’d made a mistake. The king had set the stage when he required her to spin gold to save her family’s livelihood, but Katy had made the choice to accept the red-haired stranger’s assistance.
Even after he told her about the deal she’d made when she was eleven, she had continued to spin, trusting to time and determination to free herself.
But it had been five years, and she was no closer to an answer than she had been that night. And once she had a child, she would no longer be able to keep the truth from her husband.
Not when the stranger had named her firstborn as his price.
Katy’s spine stiffened when she pictured Axel’s eyes dimming as he looked at her. Five years of searching the castle library had yet to uncover the information she needed, but maybe she hadn’t found the right books. There had to be something useful about magic somewhere.
Leaving the trade records open on her desk, she stormed off to the library to look again. Even if she could bear the loss of Axel’s respect, the loss of his child was unthinkable. And if she could find the answer, she could keep her secret forever.
She hated dishonesty, but she treasured her husband’s love too much to lose it to a rash decision when she was eleven. Until he knew, she could keep him.
The library door flew open under the influence of her palm. It might be hopeless.
But she would put off her devastation for as long as she could.