Chapter 4 #3
“My father has been dead for eight years, Your Highness,” she said calmly. “My mother as well. And even before that, we were far from wealthy. My circumstances have changed significantly since the time you knew me.”
“But how is this?” he demanded, his voice softer but the same intensity in his eyes. “What happened?”
“A carriage accident,” Alina told him.
“And you have no other family?” he pressed.
She shrugged. “I lived with my aunt and her family until I reached majority. They’re not far, in the city just inside the forest. But I’m grown now, and able to provide for myself.”
“You consider it providing for yourself to work as a tavern wench?”
Alina winced, unable to help it. She saw something flicker across Xavier’s face, but he didn’t take back his words. Defensiveness rose for a moment inside her, and she was tempted to make a quip about how he hadn’t seemed to mind tavern wenches the night before.
But she held the words back, knowing they weren’t fair.
She was the one who’d turned him down, and it had been so long ago.
Even if it had gone the other way, he was the crown prince.
He owed her nothing. She had no reason to be annoyed with him—it wasn’t by design that he’d inserted himself back into her life, bringing complicated and painful memories with him.
She’d been ridiculous and dramatic since the moment she heard him mentioned, and it wasn’t like her.
She would choose to be positive about the whole strange circumstance. After all, it was interesting to see in person how the prince was now, and the anzu situation was certainly fascinating. There was no cause to mope.
“I’m not a tavern wench,” she said calmly. “I work shifts at the tavern sometimes, but it’s only one of several roles. And it’s actually a perfectly respectable source of income. In spite of reputation, we’re not all loose and unprincipled. I’m sure most, like myself, just want an honest job.”
“Oh, I’m very familiar with the tenuous relationship between reputation and truth,” Xavier informed her. “But you can’t tell me the treatment such workers endure is just rumor, because I witnessed it myself last night.”
Alina shrugged. What was there to say?
The prince studied her face for a moment, and when he spoke, his voice was brusque.
“Why did you make such a point of hiding your face from me last night?”
Alina sighed. “I suppose I was being prideful, Your Highness. I didn’t know if you’d remember me from when we were younger, but in case you did, I didn’t like you to see me as a tavern wench, as you put it. But that was silly, of course. I was just caught off guard.”
He stared at her throughout this speech, his expression increasingly suggesting he thought she’d lost her mind.
“You didn’t know if I’d remember you? Was it all so easy to forget?”
“Not for me,” Alina said, a little smile tugging up the corner of her lips. “But I assume you have more of interest happening in your life than I do.”
“Then you’ve forgotten everything I ever told you of royal life,” he said shortly. “Defending your honor last night was the most excitement I’ve had in months.”
Alina’s cheeks went pink at his choice of words. Rattled, this time her retort slipped out before she could check it.
“That’s not what I hear.”
The prince’s expression was harder to read this time, but his eyes were shrewd as they once again searched her features.
“I assume you’re referring to Zuzu here,” he said at last, his tone smooth and charming. “She has brought a certain activity to my life, although caring for a newborn creature is less exciting than tedious, if truth be told.”
Alina acknowledged the redirection meekly, her cheeks burning with awareness of her blunder. She had absolutely no standing to criticize the prince.
“Your Highness?”
The voice came from behind Xavier, where a guard had appeared around the corner. Alina jumped slightly, but the prince didn’t seem to share her feeling of being caught out. His eyes remained on her face, and his voice was unconcerned as he called back.
“Yes, I’m here.”
“I’ve kept you too long, Your Highness.” Alina dipped into another curtsy, turning away.
“Wait.” The command in the prince’s voice was irresistible, and Alina’s feet stilled of their own accord. “You really live in this town? You’ll be around, and available for…questioning?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
A shadow of irritation crossed his face, but he said no more as she once again turned away.
Alina hurried around the next corner, not even sure of her destination.
She knew it was going to be very uncomfortable to have the prince so nearby.
She also knew it was temporary, and the vivid reminder of her past life would make her current one harder to take with cheerfulness once the investigation team returned to the capital.
For the first time in a very long time, she had no idea what the coming days would bring. The mundane pattern of the life she’d settled into had been broken with a shattering crash.
Underneath the discomfort and uncertainty, it was a little exhilarating.