Chapter 17 #2
“I started as a runner. It was good money, and my parents were barely able to feed all of us. They’re both good architects and make decent salaries, but seven children with all the education and weddings eats up money.
I chose to start working earlier because I wanted to attend university and there wasn’t enough money to cover tuition.
Because of my parents, I had an education growing up, which turned the tide in my favor when I applied here.
Once the palace realized I was completely literate, I was shuffled into a different position.
Then allowed to attend university, worked part-time here until graduation, promoted a few times until I came into the secretarial pool. ”
“Smart,” Prince James said with a warm smile. “I’m not surprised your intelligence landed you this position.”
I flushed and couldn’t meet his eyes. Why?
Why did he have this effect on me? Every time he paid me even the slightest compliment, I found myself wanting to bask in the praise.
Not to mention read things into it that weren’t even there.
I mean, he flirted—only a blind man wouldn’t notice—but he also acted as if I was somehow everything to him, which was ridiculous.
He didn’t know me well enough to entertain that idea.
I’d become a hopeless case for this man if I didn’t keep my wistfulness in check.
“Did you volunteer to be on my staff?”
“Voluntold,” I admitted wryly and forced myself to meet his eyes levelly. “No one knew anything about you. It was hard to judge if I’d want to work for you or not. Now that I’m here, I don’t regret it.”
“Aren’t I a good boss?”
He was, but I wasn’t feeding his ego. “You’re weird as hell.”
Prince James threw his head back on a laugh. “Ouch, Edwin, you wound me!”
Bullshit. He loved it when I poked at him. “Yes, I can see you bleeding. Seriously, though, I’d rather work for you than any of your siblings. Why won’t you even consider being king? It would take very little work on your part to gather up support.”
Prince James stopped laughing, his expression somehow pained even though his lips still curved upward. “No. You have no idea the disaster that will invite. I’m not taking the risk. Helena will be a decent queen once she’s trained. I’m happy to do the training and support her during her reign.”
“What about the crown prince?”
“Now, he needs to be removed from his position. Sooner rather than later. I have an idea or three on how to start undermining his power base. It’s shaky already and really shouldn’t take much more to topple it over.”
Of course he had a plan. Why wasn’t I surprised? I was beginning to suspect he knew one of his Tasks, which was why he so adamantly refused to take the throne. He’d alluded to it before, knowing a second Task, but of course I didn’t have the right to pry. Although I was dying to pry.
“All right, let’s hear about this plan for Prince Victor. Does it have anything to do with Aurora?”
Prince James put head into hand, elbow propped on his desk, and gave me a warm look, which made me tingly and a little shy all at once.
He’d released his hair from its tie, so the platinum locks fell softly around his shoulders, softening the chiseled features of his face.
“One of the things I like best about you is how quick you are on the uptake.”
I cleared my throat and reached for my tea to avoid his eyes without making it obvious. “I hardly think that’s a stretch. You’ve been looking into Aurora for weeks now.”
“Doesn’t the name just sound like a gambling hall?”
“Well, yes, but it’s a legit business.” I weighed his expression as I spoke. “Or is it?”
“Hmm…technically?”
“Gods, goddesses, and little demons.” I sighed before taking my sip of tea. “What do you know that I don’t?”
“Well, Aurora is a legit business, but it’s shoddily run.
I think it was meant to be more of a paper company to hide Victor’s dealings, debts, and such, and his cronies are taking advantage of it.
From what I’ve seen, the embezzlement going on is insane.
Only the income from royal coffers is keeping Aurora flush enough to operate on a surface level. ”
I startled so badly I almost sloshed tea all over my hand. “It’s that bad?”
“Could be worse. This is only what I know from what little information I can pull together. They’re being very secretive with the books.
For good reason, apparently.” Prince James made a face, nose scrunching up.
“We’ll need to pull the royal funds out immediately before they really do go bankrupt and take all our money with them.
Which Victor won’t be happy about, but I don’t give two fucks about his opinion. ”
This reinforced my opinion all over again: Prince James had what it took to be a king.
He knew how to ask the right questions, look over the reports given to him, and see the overall picture.
Not every mind could do that, and he had the talent.
I truly wanted to somehow convince him to go for it.
I wondered if he’d learned this skill set from his previous life?
If he’d battled the Demon King, he must have been in the upper nobility then, too.
“Then let’s get this proposal in before we piss him off.” Not to mention I wanted to go home at some point tonight. Before it became tomorrow. “I need more tea if I’m to focus.”
Prince James immediately popped up and went to the sideboard.
Seeing him doing this for the umpteenth time, I had to challenge the action. “Did you not have servants growing up?”
“Well…I did. But not like here.” Prince James spoke as he went about making a cup of tea.
“My mother, as you likely know, was a courtesan, and while she had a nice settlement from my father, it wasn’t on the same level as what an actual prince would have.
So we had a cook, a maid, a gardener, and that was it.
My mother wasn’t a hands-on type of woman, either, so really, the staff raised me.
Them and my grandparents. I spent a good portion of my formative years in the kitchen helping our cook.
I feel more comfortable seeing to my own needs. ”
Now his behavior made more sense. I hadn’t known his precise upbringing, just that he was a bastard child.
He seemed perfectly at ease with his background and not at all apologetic or embarrassed by it.
Strangely, he once again seemed very human to me.
Moments like this made me almost forget to address him as my boss.
A loud clatter sounded, then Prince James swore and jumped back a foot.
I came out of my chair automatically. “Did you burn yourself?”
“No, no, just spilled some of the tea. Sit down, I’ve got it.”
In the next second, he cast about, found a cloth, then reached for the vial of blessed water from the small altar near the door. The vial that was supposed to be there symbolically, not actually used.
“Your Highness. You’re not supposed to use holy water to clean!”
He shot me that mischievous grin over his shoulder, the one I couldn’t take at all seriously. “But it cleans the hell out of shit.”
Gods above and below, he had not. Shidteus’s balls, he had. I groaned and slumped in my chair for a second. “You are utterly impossible.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” he rebutted cheerfully before finally collecting the cup and returning to the desk. “It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s all to a good use. I had to clean the tea up before it stained everything.”
“Uh-huh.”
“There’s this tone, this note of disbelief in your voice—”
“Yes, can’t imagine why it’s there.”
Prince James cackled like the little basket case he was before plopping into the chair. This time without spilling my tea.
After a month of working with this man, I maintained that he was weird.
But he was also starting to feel like a friend.
Every time I tried to keep professional distance between us, he either slipped right past my defenses, or I somehow succumbed to his easygoing charm.
I really should be stricter with myself when it came to him.
I just didn’t know how to maintain alertness twelve hours a day.
I was in trouble, wasn’t I?