Chapter 17 #3
Xavier was very poor company when the team ate dinner in the tavern below their inn.
He was surly and withdrawn, barely seeing or hearing the people around him.
Mitchell’s words made him deeply uneasy.
It wasn’t that he doubted Alina—he was confident that she didn’t know why her family had left the capital.
She didn’t even know the details of her father’s business failures.
In fact, her ignorance in itself was unusual enough to raise questions. It was no wonder Xavier didn’t feel sociable, with his mind going endlessly over the details of a period he usually took care not to think about.
After he’d called Alina a coward and she’d stormed away, he hadn’t been idle.
He’d told her he at least was willing to fight to keep her with him, and he’d meant it.
He’d gone to his father to plead his case.
He’d never before spoken to his parents or siblings about Alina, and as far as he knew none of them had any idea how much she meant to him.
She was one of many other young people in the vibrant social life he enjoyed with the youth of the court and the upper merchant class.
With his mind full of Alina’s warnings that no one would take them seriously, he’d strategically left her out of it.
He’d told his father he’d heard one of the city’s wealthier merchants was taking his business elsewhere.
He’d prodded the king to make contact with Alina’s father, to try to address the source of his dissatisfaction with the capital.
King Madoc had been very taken aback by Xavier involving himself, which wasn’t surprising.
The prince hadn’t been in the habit of trying to inform himself about such matters as local trade and commerce.
At the time, Xavier had thought his father was a little angry at being instructed by his young son on what he should do.
Now he wondered if there was more to that flash of anger.
He distinctly remembered his father asking if the merchant had approached him and put him up to saying something.
Xavier had said, truthfully, that he’d barely spoken to the merchant in his life. He’d started to explain that it was the daughter he was close to, but he hadn’t even been allowed to finish the thought.
“I should have known this had to do with something as childish as a silly flirtation.” Xavier could still hear his father’s dismissive words.
“Now you mention it, I remember seeing you making a fool of yourself at your mother’s gala, laughing and carrying on with a girl during the introductions.
If that was her, then I’ll count it as a blessing to have her removed from your reach.
She’s not an appropriate companion for you, Xavier, and you’d do well to remember it. ”
The king had cut off Xavier’s hot protest.
“I’m sure you’ll find another girl to pander to your pride within the week.
Xavier, when will you take your position seriously?
You’re too old to be carousing around so recklessly, contributing nothing and creating scandals.
The fact that you want me to interfere with business decisions of an influential merchant to suit your current flirtation shows just how far you are from displaying the responsibility I expect of my heir. ”
It had been years, but Xavier could still feel the anger that had coursed through him at his father’s harsh words.
And he hadn’t hidden it, either. He’d responded to the criticism with some strong words of his own, resulting in an ugly fight that drove away any chance of convincing his father to intervene with Alina’s situation.
What the king would never have suspected was that there had been as much hurt as anger in Xavier’s response.
His father’s lack of faith in him had been salt in the still-bleeding wound of Alina telling him he wasn’t responsible enough for her to trust with her future.
His father thought he was an empty-headed flirt, hopping from girl to girl each week.
If he’d paid attention to his son, he would have noticed that only one girl had absorbed his full focus for many months past. True, he’d been flirting outrageously every chance he got, and in a more general sense, he’d incurred plenty of censure with his unsanctioned absences and undignified escapades.
But all of that had been with her. Without her, what would have been the point?
He’d thought Alina at least would understand that, but even she had thought no better of him. She’d told him he would change his mind about her by the end of a month.
The king’s words had been as much a motivator as Alina’s rejection in the questionable way Xavier had dealt with his heartbreak.
It was hard now to recapture the intensity of the defiance that had taken hold of him at the time.
But he easily remembered the rebellious victory he’d felt when he’d convinced the supposedly un-winnable baron’s daughter to kiss him, knowing perfectly well they were positioned to be seen by the fiercest rivals for her attention.
He’d known she was only swayed by his rank, but he hadn’t cared.
He’d told himself that the stolen kiss with that now-forgotten girl had erased the bitter memory of the one he’d shared with Alina.
The kiss that had so elated him in the moment, but that had been met with the girl of his dreams telling him he was too young and unreliable to be taken seriously.