Chapter Ten
Which Reintroduces a Former Acquaintance
Tasia would recognize that thundering expulsion of air anywhere.
Despite being Diomland royalty, Prince Frank never hid behind social niceties and flowery words.
What you saw was what you got. And that forthrightness extended to his sneezes.
He hadn’t mastered the art of stifling his oversized sneezes and didn’t seem inclined to put in the effort for such a silly thing.
Without thinking, she turned in the direction she thought was correct and would have dashed off if Mitch hadn’t stopped her with a gentle hand.
“That’s Prince Frank,” she appealed to him. “I know it is!”
Mitch paused his scrutiny of the area to look at her. “And you trust him?”
“Yes!” Her heart beat faster in anticipation of a friendly face from her old life.
A twitch in his left eyelid distracted her for a second; then he rubbed at it with his free hand and spoke in the gruff tone she hadn’t heard in a while. “We still need to be careful. He may not be alone, and we just learned that there is an inside man in town.”
Cold realization dribbled down her back, making her grimace. “Caution is good,” she agreed with vigorous head-nodding.
Following Mitch’s lead, the pair moved ahead in the last of the daylight.
Unless the trees and buildings had bounced the sound oddly, the sneeze had come from the direction of the inn.
The growing chill aided their stealth; nobody was willing to leave their fireplaces without a very good reason.
A lone male figure stood in the inn yard, tucking a large handkerchief into a pocket. It had to be the prince!
Again, Mitch’s grasp of her hand prevented Tasia from running out to greet the royal.
Still on alert, with constantly roving eyes and ears that were humanly round yet seemed to perk like a wolf’s, he directed her to a shadowy spot on the edge of the yard.
There he dropped her hand and told her to call the prince over.
“Prince Frank!” Tasia called as quietly as she thought she could while getting his attention.
The tall man whirled around, looking shocked. He hesitantly walked closer, then grinned when she pulled down her hood and stepped into the light. He continued forward even after Mitch pulled her back into the shadows.
“Miss Stone.” The accompanying bow was polite and friendly. “I have been looking for you.”
Tasia grinned back. “You found me!”
She felt a rumble at her back and glanced up at Mitch. Her companion was scanning the yard and had retreated behind his public mask. She knew it was mostly an act, but it did remind her that they needed to be circumspect.
She lowered her voice. “How did you get here?”
The prince mimicked her tone. “I have been looking for you since I discovered your sister had you banished.”
Tasia wrinkled her nose. “I wasn’t really banished, exactly. I’m living with relatives.”
Mitch snorted behind her, and Prince Frank raised one eyebrow.
“‘Relatives’ would be pushing it.” The prince shook his head when she opened her mouth to protest, and she subsided, relieved because she didn’t have a real argument.
A thick hat covered his brown hair, but she could see the outline of his nose—and the bump from a past break—when he shifted to eye the rest of the yard.
“People aren’t very friendly here, are they?” he remarked.
Mitch remained a statue at her back, but Tasia huffed a quiet laugh and rolled her eyes. “It’s because you aren’t ‘village,’” she told him. “Boschivo is not fond of outsiders.”
A light of understanding brightened his eyes. “Ah. An outsider trying to hunt down another outsider was probably a lost cause.”
“I’m surprised they weren’t willing to help a prince, though,” she mused. “I would have expected them to be respectful to royalty, even if you are foreign.”
“I didn’t tell them; they don’t need to know,” Prince Frank explained with his usual candor.
Mitch cleared his throat. “Are you staying here?”
The other man nodded. When Mitch continued to stare at him, Prince Frank added the room number and general location.
Mitch checked their surroundings, then led the others to a back door around the corner.
He refused to let Tasia enter until he had confirmed that the way was clear.
She and Prince Frank followed him up a dark, cramped stairway to a tiny room with a narrow bed, a rickety chair, and a miniscule window that didn’t look large enough to let in light. At least it was clean.
Mitch took up a post by the door while the prince offered Tasia the chair. It wobbled, but held. Prince Frank winced when he sat on the bed.
After lighting the room’s single candle, he took her hand and gave it a pat. When Mitch shifted his weight, the prince pulled back.
“I must apologize, Miss Stone. I didn’t intend to leave you out here this long.”
“There’s no need to apologize!” Tasia remembered to keep her voice down, though she was finding it difficult to temper her joy at seeing him.
Cindy had monopolized most of his time, but he had always been nice to Tasia and was a far better conversationalist than the villagers who still wouldn’t acknowledge her.
He shook his head. “I feel like I’ve failed you. I expected Cyn—your stepsister not to help me, but I didn’t expect it to take this long. And there were a number of royal duties that I couldn’t shirk.”
“You aren’t Charming, after all,” Tasia teased.
“I am not.” He flashed her a smile.
From the faint confusion that crossed Mitch’s face, she realized she was being inadvertently rude.
“Where are my manners? Prince Frank, this is Mitch Arany.” She gestured from one man to the other. “Mitch, this is Prince Frank of Diomland. If you didn’t know, his older brother’s name is Charming, and he is somewhat famous for getting out of work.”
“Notorious, really,” the brother said.
Nothing definable changed in Mitch’s demeanor, but Tasia could tell that his discomfort was softened by that bit of understanding.
With the formalities out of the way, she turned back to the prince. “But why are you here? No, wait! How are you here? You said you didn’t tell anyone who you are. How are you traveling without guards?”
“I am here unofficially.” He patted his pocket. “I have a charm that allows me to move around without being recognized. It doesn’t work on people who know me very well, like my family, but it keeps everyone else in the dark. It works even better out here, where no one is expecting to see me.”
Tasia felt Mitch stiffen, but she was rolling that information around in her mind. “Oh! So if I hadn’t heard you sneeze, I wouldn’t have been able to recognize you?”
Something that might have been a sigh eased Mitch’s shoulders as the prince laughed. “I do have a distinctive sneeze, don’t I?”
“You do,” Tasia agreed. “Now that I understand how, I want to know why you are here. After you found out where I was, you could have sent a letter if you needed something.”
“A letter doesn’t tell me if you are safe and happy. Are you safe?”
“I have a warm roof over my head and enough to eat.”
For some reason, he looked at Mitch as if to confirm her answer. After the man’s reluctant nod, Prince Frank turned back to her and narrowed his eyes. “And are you happy?”
Reluctant to share the details of her arrangement, Tasia chirped, “I’m fine!” She would be, anyway.
Her faithful guide and bodyguard grunted low in his throat. She wasn’t sure if she felt it or heard it.
The royal sitting across from her eyed her thoughtfully for a long moment. She was scrambling for a way to switch the topic when he spoke.
“Regardless of your current circumstances, I need to ensure that you will remain safe.” He raised both eyebrows. “And happy.”
“Um—”
Prince Frank gestured to his luggage in the far corner. “You now have enough to restart your life on your own terms.” A broad smile erupted, emphasized by teasing eyebrows. “Plenty for a decent dowry.”
Warmth that seemed to be a mix of appreciation and embarrassment flooded Tasia, reminding her that she was still wrapped in all her layers.
Without the wind, her cloak was becoming too much.
She glanced at the window and stood up with a start when only the reflection of the flickering candle was visible.
“Oh no! It’s getting late. I need to get back before they ask questions.”
The prince also rose. “Who? What kinds of questions?” His words were brusque, but Tasia could hear the protectiveness in them.
“The Galanises know how long it takes to walk through the woods. I can’t blame all of my lateness on the ice—” Mitch’s large hand covered her own, and she realized she had been wringing them.
She turned to face him as the rest of the day’s discoveries demanded to be remembered. “Prince Frank needs to know about everything. He can help!”
Mitch’s single nod of reassurance settled her. “You go; I’ll talk.”
The prince said goodbye to Tasia, and she slipped through the door behind her scruffy protector. He escorted her to their original separation spot and made arrangements to meet the next day.
Upon arriving at the Galanis home, she discovered that their only concern about her tardiness was that dinner had been delayed.
No one seemed inclined to investigate further and left her to her own thoughts.
While she was grateful not to fend off prying questions, the relative silence allowed for too much buzzing in her own mind.
Worries about Grandmother’s evil plans collided with her happiness about Prince Frank’s thoughtfulness, which in turn pinged off her concerns for how Mitch was handling that much one-on-one time with a stranger.
By the time she collapsed into bed next to the rabidly cuddly Chara, Tasia was sick of thinking. Her body ached in strange ways thanks to the unusual manner in which she had moved trying to maintain her balance on the slick path. But that was nothing to the ache in her heart and mind.
Mitch watched Tasia slip into the gloom, her red cloak quickly swallowed by the dark.
He had promised to tell the prince everything relevant, but he wasn’t looking forward to it.
His initial thoughts about the other man hadn’t been flattering, to say the least, but by the time Tasia’s financial support was brought up, he had started warming to the prince.
Being confident that the royal had no romantic designs on Tasia didn’t mean Mitch was comfortable sharing so much with a stranger, however.
The information wasn’t the problem—it was how many words it was going to take to get it all out.
Pleased that Tasia had gotten away safely (she did not need to be seen talking to two unrelated men alone), Mitch ghosted back to the inn and into the prince’s room.
Whatever disguise trinket the man carried had to be working, because it was the worst room in the inn.
Even Mitch, who was viewed as “less than” due to his outsider status, had a bigger room with substantial furniture and a decent window.
He also had one of the faery-made glow lights instead of the single candle the prince had.
The only thing going for the prince’s room was that it was located over the kitchen and enjoyed the residual heat.
Prince Frank was peering out the window when Mitch returned. Or trying to. There wasn’t much to see in the dark, nor was there space to look out. He waited for Mitch to shut the door.
“She is safe?” The prince sought assurance.
Mitch could offer a bit of that. “Physically safe. The family treats her like an unpaid servant, but they don’t harm her.”
Prince Frank flexed his jaw.
“She has been saving up to move out,” Mitch added. “She might have enough by now.”
“What’s stopping her?” The prince gave Mitch a hard look.
“As soon as she says the word, I’m getting her out of there.”
“Good.” Prince Frank unfolded his arms. “Now what’s the big issue that Miss Stone seems to think I should know about?”
Mitch took a deep breath. “I don’t know the woman’s real name, but around here, she’s known as Grandmother.”
By the time Mitch had finished telling the prince about Tasia’s deliveries, what they contained, and how Granny planned to use them, both men had settled enough in the other’s presence to sit down.
Prince Frank listened without interruption, then asked a few clarifying questions.
His willingness to consider the word of a commoner gratified Mitch.
It was a pleasant change from the treatment he usually received from authority.
The royal had a partial recollection of filemu being tested in the royal hospital.
He didn’t have many details, but he was able to grasp the seriousness and nuance of the situation.
Unsurprisingly, due to his geographic position much farther south, he was completely unfamiliar with Olev Rebane, Pozik, and Estutu, who tended to operate in northern Bavenpier and the mountains beyond.
Prince Frank also admitted that until now, he had believed the slave trade to be abolished.
Diomland had had laws against the practice for centuries.
That such a thing flourished to the point of needing a full village’s worth of people to help with demand sickened him.
He swore to investigate with his full power as a royal upon his return.
Despite his growing respect for the man, Mitch’s fuel for socializing had been exhausted long before the prince was ready to call it quits.
Frank seemed happy to discuss the matter all night long, if need be.
Mitch used the audible growling of his stomach to escape the situation with some of his dignity intact.
He scarfed his dinner with unseemly haste in the nearly empty dining room, then hid in his room.
He had kept his promise to Tasia and survived the experience. Tomorrow, he would have to play nice again. Fortunately, Mitch could count on the buffer of her presence to make a huge difference.