Chapter 5
Cats and Promises
“What should I wear?” Dahlia asks as she pulls open an ornate armoire and flips through hangars.
“Uh…” I laugh as I lay sprawled on her big bed in a mound of monochromatic toss pillows. “You know I don’t know how to wear anything other than jeans and old college sweatshirts unless Maeve finds it and tells me how to wear it.”
She stares at me with a wicked twinkle in her eyes. “You are kind of hopeless, aren’t you?”
“Thanks, brat!” I toss back with no heat as I launch an embossed velvet pillow at her head.
“I’m just saying,” she says. “You’re lucky to have me as a bestie. I’ll keep you on the fashion straight and narrow.”
“I think it’ll take more than one person… Maybe I even need a superhero of clothes.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” she replies. “Just think. Before you know it, we’ll be going on girls’ trips to fashion week in Paris, Milan, and New York.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” I laugh. “I would definitely embarrass you there. I’m not ready.”
“You will be soon enough,” she says as she pulls a sleek, winter white dress and matching coat dress out of her closet and holds them up for my inspection before replacing them and pulling the same dress out, only this time in a soft gray-green.
“Where are you going this time anyway?” I ask. While I had only been on a very limited number of royal engagements before the accident, Dahlia has been doing these kinds of visits her whole life.
“I’m going to meet the Chief Admiral of the Royal Navy,” she says with a heavy sigh. “He’s probably some stuffy, old goat who would be happier fawning all over my mum.”
“Nonsense,” I tell her, speaking a truth that I can say only to Dahlia. “She’s absolutely awful. Who would want her when they could have you?”
“Yes, because a twenty-two year old alcoholic is so much fun to be around,” she says drolly.
“You are fun to be around. More so since you stopped coming home with throw up in your hair,” I kid.
“Funny.” She rolls her eyes.
“Too soon?” I ask, worrying that I’ve hurt her feelings.
I’m the only person she can be real with as well.
My accident scared the shit out of her enough that she decided to completely dry out while I was in the hospital.
The spin being that Harris had indulged with his early supper and my wish to leave the property had caught him off guard.
Not wanting to displease me, he drove us while under the influence.
Only Leo and I are left witness to the truth but neither of us have spoken otherwise.
By the time I came home, Dahlia and I were both lonely and drowning in our respective miseries.
As far as I know, Leo is back at Rhys’s side, business as usual.
“No,” she says. “I’m just burned out on these assignments. I don’t know how much more I can be around—” she stops speaking suddenly, cutting off her words mid-sentence.
“You can’t be around what? Who? Should I go through all of the question words?” I ask, playing the fool.
“No, you arse,” she says with a smile. “It’s of no consequence.”
I’m just about to tell her that anything that bothers her or makes her uncomfortable is important to me, and should be to the rest of her family, when there is a knock at the door.
The look that passes over her face is relieved when I can’t take hold of one of my favorite topics: how her family should have been supporting her emotionally the entire time.
I was lucky to have spent so much time with my uncles, whether actual relatives or not, because they showed me what healthy relationships should look like.
“Come in,” Dahlia calls out. And all of a sudden, she’s the Princess Royal, catapulting us into the zone of members of the Royal Family and not just friends hanging out and goofing around, no matter how casual we may be dressed or my black eye at the moment.
I roll over so I’m no longer flopped on my belly but sitting up to recline regally on her ridiculous stack of pillows.
Ailsa, one of the household staff, pokes her head in.
“His Majesty is looking for you,” she says to me, her brogue thicker than just about anyone else here.
She’s young and full of life, and I’m pretty sure she has a screaming crush on both Taylor and Leo.
I let out a sigh, not just because Rhys wants more of my attention after this morning but because her not-so-hidden feelings for Leo put her at odds with Dahlia and I hate that.
I also hate that I’m fairly sure Rhys is preventing Leo from ever being with Dahlia in any sense.
“Maybe you should tell him that I don’t come when called like a puppy,” I tell her.
“No!” Dahlia shouts. “Don’t do that. Good heavens, Stella, you’ll get the poor girl killed,” she says even though Ailsa’s probably the same age as us.
“Normally, I’d agree with you,” Ailsa says cheekily. “We can’t let the men think we’re at their beck and call, but this you’ll want to see. I promise.”
I have to admit, her joyful grin has me smiling back even though I’m still not sure what in my life there is to smile about. I sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed.
“Looks like the party’s over,” Dahlia says in a sigh.
“Hush.”
“Woof woof,” she teases me as I follow Ailsa out the door.
I check to make sure no one is watching before I bend at the waist and tuck my hands up on my head like floppy ears and wiggle my imaginary tale.
The intent works and I hear Dahlia’s boisterous laugh, her real laugh, just before the door shuts behind me.
I follow Ailsa through the residential wing of the castle and in toward the offices.
Rhys must be in his office today. I have to admit, I don’t really come down here because it intimidates me.
And if I’m being honest, I’ve kind of been avoiding him, not that it seems to be working anymore, if it ever did.
I can still feel him inside of me. If I’d thought that Rhys would have been gentle and loving with me the first time after my accident, I would have been wrong.
She knocks on the heavy wooden door, and I hold my breath. I’ve never been one to like surprises and since I’ve been in this country, surprises have not ever been the good kind. I’m actually dreading whatever reason Rhys was looking for me.
“Enter!” he calls out, and Ailsa turns the handle, pushing the door open. I step inside and she follows me in.
“Anything else, Your Majesty?” she asks.
“No Ailsa, that will be all,” he says, joy woven through his tone of voice. Before I even see him, I know that he’s smiling.
“Thank you,” she says as she bobs a curtsey and backs away, leaving me all alone like a lamb at slaughter.
Rhys rolls his eyes. “Stop looking like you’re headed for the fucking gallows, Stella.”
My eyes go wide at being called out in front of Craig, his personal secretary, and Stuart, the national security advisor. I tip my head as I stare at him in an are-you-kidding-me? kind of a way.
He smiles the cocky smile that always ends with me on my back and him deep inside of me, and says in a gentle voice, “Come closer, hen.”
“I’m not sure that I want to,” I admit. “Am I in trouble?”
“No,” he chuckles. “If you’d relax, you’d only see that your present is here waiting for you.”
“My present?” I ask and then look around.
“Aye.”
I gasp when I see him. I can’t believe that I missed him. Curled up on the corner of Rhys’s desk is a fat, fluffy orange and white cat. “He’s mine?”
“Aye, love, he’s yours,” he says. “I believe you said you’d like a cat, and I agreed to get you one as an engagement present, didn’t I?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I believe you did.”
“Come here, hen.”
“Okay.” I make my way around the desk and barely hear the quiet snick of the door as Craig and Stuart see themselves out.
Where they go, I have no idea. I can only look at the big, powerful man sitting behind his baronial desk with a fluffy kitten sleeping peacefully beside him.
He’s such a complex mix of a man that I never know which way is up with him.
And on days like this, I don’t want to try.
I’m happy to let him sink me down into the deep with him and never come back up for air.
This is why I have to keep my wits about me. Losing my head to him is not smart nor is it safe.
He pulls me into his lap, his arms wrapped securely around me, and holds me close before asking, “Do you like him?”
“Yes. I love him.”
“Already?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“And what about me, hen? Do you love me?”
I could lie and tell him no. I could say something mean to make him mad, to make him want to leave me alone, and I still might sometime soon, but not today.
Today he’s given me a beautiful gift, one I cherish more than big emerald and diamond rings, more than fancy designer dresses, and more than old, cliffside castles.
Today my feelings are too close to the surface to hold them back.
“Yes,” I whisper.
“You have to know that I’ll treat you well,” he says.
“It’s not that,” I tell him.
“Then what is it?”
“I’m scared.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he promises.
“They already killed one person. You won’t be able to stop it, Rhys.”
“I can damn well try,” he roars, waking the kitten who lifts his furry head with a soft mew.
I lift him up into my arms. “Please don’t fight with me,” I beg. “Not today. Today is the first good day in a long time. Let’s not spoil it.”
“All right, hen,” he says gently.
“Thank you for the kitten.”
“You don’t have to thank me. You have to know I’ll give you anything.”
“I don’t want anything and everything,” I tell him. “I just… I don’t know. It’s been a lot to take in and I feel like every time I get my feet underneath me, I get knocked over again. I just want…”
“What?”
“To be loved, to be safe. To see my family again.”
“Do you know what I want?”
“No, what?”
“I want you to know that you are safe, as safe as you’ve ever been.
The blindfold has been ripped off and you see dangers that were always there, you just didn’t know it, and for that I am sorry.
I want you to realize how much I love you and that I will give you a good life.
” He runs a frustrated hand through his hair and lets out a heavy breath. “Dammit, hen. I will make you happy.”
I open my mouth to reply but before I can get the words out, Rhys spears his fingers through the hair at the back of my head and crushes his mouth to mine. By the time he pulls back, I’m panting.
“What shall you name him?” he asks.
“Leonidas.”
“I’m sure Leo will be overjoyed to learn that he has a namesake when he returns to his post,” Rhys snarks, making me laugh.
“He’ll love it.”
“Aye, hen, he will,” he says, before pointing to a large shopping bag on the leather sofa on the other side of his office. “Now, would you like to see all of the toys and bits and bobs Ailsa and Craig’s husband picked out for you to play with your new kitten?”
“Yes.” I smile.
“Then off you go,” he says.
My shoulders slump at being dismissed. Only Rhys could make me big promises and then shove me out the door.
I hold little Leo in one arm and scoop up the bag with the other before heading to the door. He looks up from whatever had stolen his attention and snaps, “Where the bloody hell are you going now? Are you so determined to punish me?”
My breath catches in my throat. “You want me to stay?”
“Of course I want you to fucking stay,” he snarls. “I fucking love you and want you near me always.”
“I thought you were telling me to go,” I whisper.
He blinks slowly before clenching his eyes tight and shaking his head rapidly, then he looks at me again.
“I had thought you might want to stay here with me for the afternoon,” he says after a moment.
“I would… uh… like that.” I quickly upend the shopping bag over the sofa and watch Leo’s eyes go wide as he sees the feather and ribbon toys.
His nose twitches at the scent of catnip, making Rhys smile and me laugh.
“What should we try first, Leo?” I ask the cat before we settle on the floor to open all of our new presents.
I play with my kitten for hours before we both curl up with a soft throw blanket on the sofa and drift off to sleep, neither of us noticing that Rhys stopped what he was doing many times to watch us and thank God for bringing me into his life.
I also didn’t hear him vow once again that he would give me a happy life because in that moment I am happy. And Rhys made that so.