CHAPTER 5
Katy
I
n her mind’s eye, Katy saw it again: the little wooden dragon, swirled with red and white grain, perched on her hand as if preparing to take flight.
It was beautiful, an impressive piece. But while she held it, she had felt the sensation of something trying to wiggle its way into her mind as the hair along her scalp stood up.
Since she wasn’t shuffling across carpet in stocking feet, she could think of only one thing that would give her that sensation. Magic.
What was taking Axel so long?
She glanced distractedly at the door before forcing her eyes back to the ledger in front of her. The reports needed to be reviewed.
She could hand it off to someone else. But she had requested the job because she wasn’t good at sitting around doing nothing. She refused to give it up simply because she didn’t feel like it today.
Besides, she preferred to keep frustrating the expectations of the nobility, just as she had since she first arrived at the castle.
Blatantly speaking her mind, pretending to kiss Axel at a party to scandalize an annoying courtier, replacing the traditional opening dance at balls…
and that was before she married their prince.
She shot another look toward the open door. She could see Otto just past the doorway, but still no sign of her husband.
Even though she tried to focus on her work, the patterns of drifting shadows distracted her. Her gaze traveled to the window and the sculpted gardens beyond.
“Otto, care for a walk?” Katy called, attempting a light tone as she crossed to the study door.
Her cousin spared her a brief look before resuming his perusal of the hallway. “Are you all right, Kat?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” She closed and locked the door, then dropped the key inside one of her pockets. She’d had to fight for pockets five years ago, but by now, it was simply a matter of course that her dresses came with them.
“You’ve never been good at hiding your feelings.” Otto gave his head a slight shake as he fell in next to her. “It’s painfully obvious when you try.”
So much for that.
Katy held her peace until they reached the garden paths, not wanting to be overheard by a servant. The vegetation in this area was short enough to provide ample notice if anyone wandered too close.
“It’s that dragon,” she sighed. Folding her arms across her chest, she dug her fingers into her biceps to relieve some of her tension.
“The one you begged your husband not to touch?” Otto raised an eyebrow at her. “That seemed a little excessive.”
Katy hesitated, not sure how to explain it to him. “Do you remember when we went to Reineggburg in the spring? With Michael and Ella?” He nodded. “Did you notice anything…strange about it? About the way the air felt when we arrived?”
The corners of his mouth turned down as he stared into the distance ahead of them. He ran a hand through his short blonde hair, pausing at the back of his head. “I do. Riding to the castle, I had a strong urge to draw my sword against some unknown danger. When we arrived…”
They walked in silence for about a minute before Katy prodded, “Yes?”
“I felt…slimy.” Otto’s mouth twisted. “Riding through the gate is fuzzy, but after Prince Michael asked his guard for our status, I felt relieved, like I’d been washed clean of pond scum. I’m trusting it won’t still feel like that when I’m there next week.”
“Huh.” Did it feel different to each person? “Well, what I felt at Reineggburg, I felt when I was holding that dragon.”
He shuddered. “I can understand why you didn’t want Axel touching it, then.”
Katy almost added that she had felt the same thing when the stranger spun the gold for her, but Otto didn’t know about that. And she wasn’t ready to tell him.
“I noticed you were rather quick to step in,” she commented, changing the subject. “Did I look that stressed?”
“You did. Plus, your husband was visibly angry, which rarely happens. Add my lack of trust for Lord Ulrich, and I decided that he needed to be removed from the situation.”
His observation drew her mind back to the confrontation. She had noted at the time that Axel had lacked his usual grace while conversing with the nobleman. It was why she had attempted to balance him out until she had a reason to be blunt.
Could it have anything to do with whatever Axel and Tobias had refused to tell her?
“Wait. You don’t trust Lord Ulrich?” she blurted out when the rest of his comment caught up.
“Do you?”
Katy frowned. “He’s not my favorite person, but I’ve never thought of him as a threat.”
Her cousin shook his head, settling his left hand on the pommel of his sword. “He was much too delighted when you completed the king’s challenge.”
“Yes, I remember thinking that at the time,” Katy answered, chewing her bottom lip as she watched him. “But why is that enough to distrust him?”
Otto’s eyes darted around their surroundings before he lowered his voice and leaned in. “Did you also know that he was the one who suggested it to the king?”
“Suggested what? Spinning gold?”
He nodded. “He proposed it as an impossible task that would let the crown look generous, but he was delighted when you miraculously succeeded. That doesn’t sit right with me.”
Her gaze drifted off to the trees of the distant arboretum. “You’re right, that is suspicious. I’m surprised you never mentioned it before.”
“It never came up.” Shrugging, he added, “I’m not a gossip. The situation gives me an uneasy feeling in my gut, but I have no proof. And everything shows on your face, Kat.” He pointed a finger at her. “If I’d told you, everyone would have known he made you uncomfortable.”
“I suppose.” The gravel of the pathway crunched under their feet as they meandered past a line of bloom-less lilacs. “But then why tell me now? If you don’t want him to know, why step in the moment he upset us?”
“Something has changed.” He stared down the path. “I don’t know what, but you should be on your guard.”
“Because he acted suspiciously five years ago?”
“Because I don’t think he’s working alone.” Otto spoke haltingly. She noticed that his hand had gone from resting on his pommel to gripping it tightly. “Just before you were brought to the castle, I saw him meeting with a dangerous individual.”
“And you didn’t arrest him?” she said disbelievingly.
“That would require proof.” The corners of his mouth turned down, and his jaw clenched. “I have none.”
“Then why—”
Stopping, Otto turned to face her. His brows were lowered as he whispered, “Because he terrified me, Kat. When I first saw him, I was with Axel. The sight of that man walking down the street toward us stirred some memory, and I was terrified.”
Katy could only stare at him with her mouth open. Nothing scared her strong, capable cousin.
“But I have nothing actionable, because all I can remember is his walk, his red hair, and a suffocating feeling.”
Red hair?
Struggling to keep her breathing even, she said, “And this man was talking to Lord Ulrich?”
He nodded.
It had all been a setup, hadn’t it? Lord Ulrich had convinced the king to set the challenge because he knew his red-haired friend could help Katy meet it. Then the unscrupulous magic-user had swept in to rescue her, conveniently fulfilling his deal at the same time.
“Does Axel know?” she asked, a slight tremble in her voice.
“I don’t know if he saw Lord Ulrich’s reaction to your success, but he knows the rest.” Otto watched her with concern. “Is everything all right, Kat?”
He’d asked her that question several times in the last hour.
“Good,” she said weakly. She mustered up an unconvincing smile. “I’m glad he knows.”
But neither of them knew the other half of the story. And Katy’s stomach turned with the realization that the man with a claim on her future child terrified her cousin.
The light breeze suddenly picked up, gathering a bit of loose dirt from under the bushes and tossing it in their faces. They both stepped back, throwing up a hand to protect their eyes.
After the short burst died down, Otto grimaced at her. “Now you know why I was worried. I’m glad that you two aren’t keeping his little gift.”
Her head shot up. Lord Ulrich had conspired with a dangerous magic-user before. He had given her an item that felt imbued with magic. Axel had left with it.
And Axel had yet to reappear.
Grabbing her skirts in one hand, she spun around and raced for the castle, ignoring her cousin’s calls and the pounding of his boots on the gravel behind her.
~
By the time Katy skidded into the royal wing, her wild curls were either flapping around her face or bouncing their way free. Her hair was the least of her worries, though. An unusual amount of activity centered around the door to Axel’s suite.
Heedless of the armfuls of clothing and the occasional handful of knickknacks, she ran past the servants and flung herself into his sitting room. “Axel!”
“Ah, excellent timing, my love.”
She turned toward his voice to find him strolling toward her with his hands stuffed in his pockets. When he reached her, he wrapped an arm around her and leaned down for a kiss.
“What are you doing?” Katy exclaimed. Setting her hands on his shoulders, she shoved him away. “I thought you were coming right back. I thought I was going to find you—I don’t know, sprawled across your sofa unconscious or something!”
“Why would I be unconscious?” he asked, dropping his arm to her waist for a moment before letting it fall free. “I’ve simply been busy.”
Busy? He’d worried her because he’d been busy?
“You left with something I thought wasn’t safe, and yet you couldn’t be bothered to tell me that you were scrapping your schedule to—to…” She trailed off as she watched the servants studiously ignoring her raised voice. “Are those dresses?”
“But of course, my love. You can hardly be expected to wear my clothes, and it would destroy the whole point if you had to traipse across the hall to fetch your own each morning.”
“My—what?” Pinching her eyebrows together, she turned back to him. “I’m lost.”
Stepping closer, he grinned down at her as he slid his hands around her waist. “You are not lost; you are precisely where you are meant to be. In my arms, in my suite. Or rather, our suite.”
“Our…”
“But of course, my love!” The beaming prince swept his left arm to the side, gesturing to the room at large.
“Such a spacious room for a single individual is truly a waste when that individual has someone with whom he could share it. Two such living spaces kept for two such individuals seems unnecessary. Why make the servants keep both in general readiness?”
Katy had no argument for that; she had always found the separate suites silly and inconvenient. “Yes, but why so sudden, Axel?” And after five years of not fighting the social standard?
“I was thinking of the repairs at Reineggburg for Michael and Arabella.” He claimed one of her hands and drew it to his chest. “I can’t help but think that something as simple as sharing every evening would improve things for them.”
Squeezing his hand, she argued, “That may be. However, we already see quite a bit of each other.”
“Are you saying that you wish to see me less?” Axel gasped, widening his eyes and pressing his free hand to his chest.
“No, but your mother—”
He reached out and wrapped a finger in the loose curls by her face.
“You’re so sweet, Katy. Always thinking of others.
” His lips stretched in a soft smile. “Alas, Mother will have to accustom herself to one more nod to your village heritage. Had my father not swept in and overturned your life, you would have enjoyed the pleasant companionship of a single living space with your beloved Fritz. It seems only right that I offer you the same, albeit with myself as a poor substitute.”
“He wasn’t my beloved,” Katy retorted, rolling her eyes as she shoved him lightly in the shoulder. “And you know very well that you are not a ‘poor substitute,’ Axel.”
“But I was, wasn’t I?” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “You had your heart set on someone else long before I entered the picture.”
“Fritz was a substitute,” she insisted. “I wanted you, but I knew I couldn’t have you.”
His eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Then why were you so hesitant to marry me?”
“I—” She scrambled for a response, glancing at the milling servants. Even if she wanted to tell him, now wasn’t the time. Best to use the excuse she’d used then. “Because you’d been dishonest. I wasn’t sure if you were the man I thought you were.”
“I shall always be sorry for that,” Axel whispered, sorrow in his eyes. “Nevertheless, it was not to Fritz that I was referring. For when I first met you at the theater, was there not another young man which you sought?”
Promise you won’t forget me?
Katy looked away. When searching for a loophole, she sometimes wondered if the stranger’s deal had been for her noble friend, but otherwise, she rarely thought about him now. Even the echoes that had once plagued her had ceased; the memory of him paled in comparison to the reality before her.
“Yes. But he left, and you’re right here.” Meeting Axel’s eyes, she stated firmly, “That makes him the poor substitute.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers in a simple, lingering kiss. “Whoever he was, he’s a fool. I would declare that he is doubly so for not revealing himself now; after all, you have met the entire court. However, his decision may show wisdom.”
“Oh? How so?” One corner of her mouth rose in tandem with an eyebrow, his mock-serious tone filling her with amusement.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he looked down at her with a satisfied smile.
“Because even a fool is thought wise if he holds his tongue. To admit that he abandoned a young lady so special that she is now a princess would be to admit to a great error in judgment.” One side of his mouth twitched up higher.
“Not to mention, declaring oneself the former suitor of the prince’s wife is usually considered unwise for those who wish to keep their heads. ”
“As if you would do such a thing, even if the law allowed it,” she scolded lightly, struggling to maintain a serious expression in the face of his blossoming smile. “And he wasn’t my suitor, and you know it.”
“I do,” he laughingly agreed. “But it’s more fun to say he was.”
A cleared throat behind her drew Katy’s attention to the doorway. Otto wore a wry smile as he stepped aside for a departing servant. “All is well, then?”
Katy looked her husband over with a critical eye. She still didn’t understand his sudden desire for a single suite, but he appeared to be fine. Same bright smile, same exuberant affection.
He raised an eyebrow at her perusal, but he didn’t say anything. “Yes,” she said over her shoulder, “it appears that all is well.”