CHAPTER 11
Keenan
He needed to leave for his sanity as much as for Liesl’s safety.
Keeping his face smooth, Keenan escorted the princess through the halls and down to the garden. His experience reading the body language of customers and market attendees in Daraigh was clearly useless in Ryuni. At least where princesses were concerned.
But why in the heavens was Queen Arisa trying to push them together if Princess Sakura wanted nothing to do with him? He was nobody special.
He knew it. The princess knew it.
He needed to remember that she wasn’t on his arm by choice. No matter what her light hand told him.
Princess Sakura’s maid, Kasumi, trailed behind them as they wandered the paths.
She was unobtrusive, but her presence increased the stifling silence between them.
The princess’s lips were tight, and Keenan worried anything he said might make it back to the queen.
And if she took offense and decided to withdraw her help in the search for his friends—
He tried to distract himself with the sweet song of a few birds that had braved the late-season snow.
The familiar call of a song sparrow drifted through the trees.
It mixed with melodies and chirps that he didn’t recognize, reminding him that he was in a foreign land.
A land to which he’d only come because he wanted to protect a naive young shepherdess.
But he’d managed to lose both her and the trained guard who had accompanied them.
He was failing miserably at his task, and there was nothing he could do about it. Just like with Mama.
The depressing thoughts ate at him until he could barely stand it. It didn’t matter what Kasumi might tell the queen – he needed something to keep his mind from dwelling on his feelings of helplessness.
“I was surprised to learn you have so little company,” he blurted out. “Shouldn’t you have friends, or at least guests, to entertain you? Or did you chase them all off?”
She sniffed. “This is the winter castle. The guests we had during the winter months have already left.”
“Then why are you still here?” His eyebrows pulled together. “Shouldn’t you and the queen be in the capital doing…whatever it is that royals do?”
Her lips pressed together. “My reasons are my own, weapon-smith. I don’t need to explain them to you.”
Maybe he should have stuck to his worries. “My apologies, ma’am,” he replied sarcastically. “I didn’t mean to intrude on your princess-y secrets.”
Scowling, she bit out, “I am not a ma’am. If you must address me, you will use my title.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a mocking bow. “I mean, Your Highness.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you making fun of me?”
“No, ma’am, I would never. Your Highness.”
“Insolent peasant,” she muttered. “If my mother weren’t insisting that I spend time with you—”
“Then you would have nothing to do with me, I know.” Keenan ground his teeth together and looked away. “I might infect you with my commonness.”
“That’s—” She cut herself off. “A princess should not consort with those beneath her station. It is inadvisable and unhealthy for both parties.”
Unhealthy? “So you’re claiming this is for my benefit?” he scoffed. “I didn’t realize you could be so magnanimous, Princess.”
Her back straightened a little more. “It is what my mother taught me.”
“And yet it is your mother that sent us on this walk together,” he retorted.
“A fact which has not escaped me,” she replied stiffly. Turning her sharp black eyes on him, she added, “And the reason behind which, I plan to discover.”
Why was she glaring at him when she said it? He was just as baffled as she was.
“Perhaps we should call it a day,” Keenan suggested, trying to calm his voice like he did with difficult customers. “Surely we’ve been out here long enough to satisfy the queen.”
“And I thought your head was full of ore.” The princess pointed her face toward the castle. “I think that would be wise.”
Turning his steps that way, Keenan fought to keep his frustration from bubbling over.
He had subdued his anger for thirteen years.
Geoffrey sometimes took him to the edge, but he wasn’t going to lose control in a foreign kingdom with a princess on his arm.
He refused to lose his temper near a woman. Especially with one.
He would not be his father.
“Could you stop that?” he snapped.
Princess Sakura turned to him with a tiny crease in her brow. “Pardon me?”
He nodded toward his arm. “Your hand.” They were almost back to the castle, but she was driving him crazy. “Maybe it means something different here, but in Daraigh, caressing a man’s arm doesn’t say ‘I hate your guts.’ So since you do, could you just…stop? Please?”
Her fingers stilled. “Your comfort is my highest priority.” They walked a few more steps before she jerked free of him. “I can find my way back from here. Your assistance is no longer required.”
Holding her head high, she swept away with those perfect mincing steps of hers. Keenan watched her go, feeling no need to follow since she was clearly tired of him.
His eyes drifted toward the forge. Maybe he could talk Mori into sneaking him in again, just to handle the tools and pretend he was allowed to use them.
“Please don’t be too hard on her; she hasn’t always been like this.”
Surprised, Keenan spun to find the maid still behind him. “What?”
Kasumi gestured to Princess Sakura’s retreating back. “The princess. I know she can be difficult sometimes.” She gave him a sad smile. “But she used to talk to me.”
“I’m not sure that would be an improvement,” he snorted.
“Don’t assume you know someone just because you’ve spent an hour in their company,” the maid replied tartly. Clasping her hands, she lifted her chin in a move worthy of the princess. “She wasn’t as frosty before—”
“Before…?” Keenan prompted.
She looked away. “That’s not my story to tell. Perhaps if you try to be the friend she needs, she’ll tell you herself someday.”
Was everyone in this castle crazy?
“Princess Sakura doesn’t want a weapon-smith for a friend.” He rolled his eyes. “If she’s so lonely, why doesn’t she return to the capital?”
The maid opened her mouth, then closed it again. “Since she didn’t tell you, I don’t think I should, either.”
Keenan sighed. “Fine. Keep all her dark secrets that can’t be trusted to the weapon-smith that the queen is throwing at her daughter. I really don’t care.”
He strode away into the castle grounds. It didn’t matter; he wouldn’t be there long enough to be a friend to anyone.
“There’s more than one way to protect someone,” Kasumi called after him. “If you truly care about protecting women, maybe you should consider more than just chasing off bandits.”
Ha. Princesses didn’t need protection from random weapon-smiths; they had guards for that. Fully trained ones who could actually fight off assassins, bandits, and the like.
And Princess Sakura didn’t want help from him anyway.