Chapter 58
Fifty-eight
James
I spent the rest of the day hiding from work, which was just as well; it took a second nap for my brain to function once more. Letting me anywhere near paperwork or people would have resulted in a disaster. Edwin handled matters while I slept, and I arose feeling more human if not more refreshed.
Protocol said that when a visiting dignitary arrived, we had to have some kind of formal dinner welcoming them, especially if said person was royalty. With the fiasco of how Valentina came in, my parents chose to do said dinner in a more private setting. Meaning family only.
Which meant I had to go.
Edwin walked with me, even though he wasn’t attending, and I suspected it was to make sure I actually made it there. We stopped outside the dining room doors.
“Edwin, I can’t go to the dinner. I’m allergic.”
“To any specific foods…?” He asked this like he knew I was looking for an excuse.
“No, to Valentina.”
“James, just go in there and get this over with.”
Dammit. All right, fine.
Normally, I handled such situations with cordiality, if nothing else. Tonight?
Fuck ’em.
I sat as far away from Valentina as I could.
Unfortunately, the table wasn’t that big; with the entire family here, we filled it.
Helena sat at my right side, Royce on the other, leaving Valentina and Victor facing us.
Not ideal, but with the parents at either end of the table, there wasn’t much I could do about the seating arrangements.
The first course of a light butternut squash soup was served. Quite delicious, and I tried very hard to focus on it and nothing else.
Valentina made that virtually impossible.
She batted her dark eyes at me while cooing, “My, Victor, you could have mentioned how handsome your brother is.”
I just threw up in my soul.
Helena intervened smoothly. “Yes, I’m fortunate in that all of my brothers are handsome. It must be our mother’s beauty shining through.”
Beatrice tittered and smiled at her daughter. “You’re so sweet. I trust you’re comfortable in your rooms, Valentina?”
They made polite chitchat and I eyed the door longingly. I felt relatively sure I could make the hallway before anyone caught me. Dignity could go hang.
It was fine. If she started something, there was a very good carving knife right there in front of me on the meat platter. I could snatch it up and stab her in the heart. My blood tingled with anticipation, fingers twitching. Just a little stabbing, to make her pay for what she’d done to me.
Try as I might to resist, I did steal a few glances at her.
Valentina had always favored black, which was in high contrast to her fiery red hair, but apparently her penchant for wearing black had started out younger than I’d realized.
No cruel laugh lines had formed around her mouth yet, her skin too young for that.
Her oval-shaped face still had hints of baby fat in the cheeks, which her makeup did nothing to disguise.
Strange, how she looked so young but not innocent.
Or was it my own history with her coloring my perceptions?
I felt a poke in my ribs and blinked at Helena. “What?”
“Our father is speaking, pay attention.”
Why? Disassociating seemed a much safer tactic. Resigned, I turned to look at Patrick. “I’m sorry, say again?”
He frowned at me. “Is there something on your mind? You’re strangely distracted tonight.”
I was mentally plotting my exit strategy, so sorry. Either that or murder. Couldn’t decide. “Yes, well, I have a lot on my plate. Was there something…?”
“I thought it would be nice if you perhaps took Princess Valentina on a tour of the city, showed her the projects you’ve been working on.”
Such a blatant showing of his hand. I looked him dead in the eye. “No. I will not entertain her in any capacity. She’s not my guest but Victor’s.”
“Don’t be like that.” Valentina gave me that sickly, honey-sweet smile I loathed. She lifted her napkin to delicately dab at bloodred lips, her kohl-lined eyes batting coquettishly. “I’d love to get to know you better.”
The flirtation was so blatant even Victor frowned. Then he leaned in and hissed something in her ear. She didn’t do more than flick her eyes in his direction before resuming her smile at me.
I suspected someone had spilled the beans and she knew very well Victor wouldn’t get her the throne. Perhaps she’d overheard as Patrick and Beatrice laid into Victor and gotten the score then and had now switched tactics. Unfortunately for her, I had no intention of playing along.
For some reason, I’d believed many of her behaviors at twenty-one years old were something she’d cultivated as a young adult.
This was an erroneous assumption on my part, as she was doing the exact same methods of flirtation, with the same poise, at fifteen.
Where had she learned how to act this way?
Valentina was not dissuaded. “I understand you were instrumental in rescuing people and putting the city back to rights after the seawall failed. It’s very impressive considering how new you are to being a prince.”
Victor gave her another glare. “All he did was get the council’s approval.”
“Odd for you to say, considering you failed to do even that in five years,” Helena snapped back. “Also, we all were hands-on with the rescue effort, Royce included.”
“You don’t need to throw that in my face!”
“I certainly will when your negligence damn near got us and thousands of other people killed! Not to mention the loss in property damage.”
Valentina appeared annoyed by the sibling argument and refocused on me, upping her eye action in a coy manner.
She peeked up through her lashes, the look triggering so many memories in return, I almost snatched up the knife.
She’d always looked at me like that when she was about to do something incredibly stupid and troublesome. A shudder of horror went through me.
My balls shriveled up into my body in pure self-defense.
“James, however did you get it through the council so quickly? You must be very commanding when speaking.”
I’d finally had enough of this double-talk and put my spoon down. “Listen. I’ll be blunt. I’m gay. You’re fifteen. Stop it. I find your flirtations utterly revolting and will always find the flirtations of a child to be so.”
She gaped at me, her mask of interest falling off in shock. Victor, at least, looked pleased I was putting her in her place.
I directed my next words to both parents. “There’s a rumor you’re thinking of transferring the engagement from Victor to me. The staff has been abuzz with it. Do something about it before it spreads any further.”
Victor slammed both hands against the table, almost half out of his seat as his temper abruptly snapped. “Why are they saying that? Valentina is my fiancée, not anyone else’s! I’m the one who went and courted her!”
I loved how he spoke like he should be applauded for his achievement in seducing an underage child. Victor didn’t seem to realize he had climbed to the very top of the Shitty Life Decisions Tree and was hitting every branch on the way down. Really, these two were a match made in hell.
Patrick winced, a weather eye on his son as he admitted, “It’s not a rumor.”
Victor exploded.
No other word for it. He started ranting at the top of his lungs about how no one in this family took him seriously, how he’d never met their expectations and clearly he never would because here he was engaged to a princess and they were still trying to take his achievement from him.
How he was trying to turn his life around with this engagement and no one was supporting him.
The disconnect from reality was alarming.
He really hadn’t thought of the ramifications of almost eloping with a teenage princess, without parental approval.
People had gone to war over less. The more I listened to him, the more appalled I became.
I’d known he was stupid and had the same political sense as a wrung-out kitchen sponge, but…
I might have to apologize to kitchen sponges everywhere.
Even Valentina looked annoyed, rolling her eyes off to the side. She really had chosen the wrong horse to back in this race. I had no sympathy for her.
Patrick got tired of this and slammed his hand on the table, cutting off Victor’s tirade.
“Enough! Victor, sit down and shut your mouth. You did not do anything praiseworthy. You didn’t achieve anything.
You put us on dangerously thin ice with our allies and risked a friendship with Ascor that has been in place for almost three hundred years! ”
“How did I do that? Huh? How!”
Beatrice cut in, her tone icy as she stared her eldest child down.
“You disregarded protocol on approaching a foreign family, you ignored international laws by engaging yourself to a minor, and you brought her here without prior notice or consent. Royal engagements are a process, you blithering idiot. It’s not like you can just swing by, pick a girl up, and take her home.
You especially can’t do so as you’re no longer a prince! Or have you forgotten even that?”
Victor stared at his mother, aghast. “Did you just call me an idiot?”
“I’ve called you worse, Victor. Honestly, I regret giving birth to you. If I had known you were going to be like this, I would have tossed you into the sea.”
Why couldn’t we just do that now…?
I knew he was supposed to get himself killed next year anyway, but so many other things had happened early or out of order. Couldn’t this be one more? I didn’t see an issue with it. I was sure Edwin had a budget for an assassin. He was thorough that way.
Actually, why couldn’t we just send them back to Ascor? I opened my mouth to ask the question but missed the timing.
Patrick cut in. “Also, you’re mistaken on another point. Getting engaged to a princess isn’t going to save you. You will never take the throne.”
Victor stared at his father, and he actually looked hurt.
He really thought he was achieving something.
That for once, he could get what he wanted without a parent screaming at him.
The problem was, Victor was too dumb to learn from his mistakes.
He was also a genius at making new mistakes. It was a really bad mix.
“I am your eldest,” he gritted out between clenched teeth. “I will be king—”
“You’re supposed to be in exile!” Patrick roared back at him.
Yes, why hadn’t he been thrown out already? Their inconsistency with punishments like this ensured Victor never actually faced consequences. Also why he thought he could somehow spin this situation back into his favor, since he’d done it before.
Only this wasn’t like before and Victor was the only one who couldn’t see it.
Victor usually would start screaming back, but unexpectedly, he turned very cold, his tone harsh as he stared his sire down.
“You will honor my engagement. Valentina’s parents expect her to be queen, and you cannot upset them or you risk war.
I also will not agree to let her marry James. That is the end of this.”
He snapped his fingers at Valentina like she was a dog. “Up! We’re leaving.”
She glared at him, furious. Victor, impatient, grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the chair before dragging her from the room altogether.
I watched them go, shaking my head. Lost causes, both of them. Still, something Victor said made me wonder. Had he somehow gotten permission from Valentina’s parents before bringing her here? Or had he just promised the moon, as he was sometimes wont to do, and then absconded with her?
Personally, my money was on the latter.
We still had no confirmation her parents even knew where she was. Honestly speaking, I wasn’t sure why that was taking so long. Was there some problem in Valentina’s family? It could explain how she’d made it up here without any retinue.
The second the door slammed behind them, Patrick locked eyes with me and pleaded, “We absolutely can’t offend our allies, so you must marry Valentina. We must undo Victor’s actions before they throw us into a war! We can make it a long engagement and wait until she’s more of age—”
I cut him off brutally, standing as I did so. “No. The answer is no, no matter your argument. Good evening.”
Then I escaped out the same door before anyone could stop me.
This wasn’t over with my refusal, of course, which meant I needed a plan. And I needed to concoct one quickly.