5. Chapter 5
Chapter five
LYRIELLE
When I woke in the morning, I went immediately to the window.
It was large and offered a brilliant view of vegetation-covered mountains rising to my left and the sea stretching out to my right.
My mind was overwhelmed as I started cataloging all of the differences between this view and the one from my tower.
The sea was a beautiful teal blue, and there were islands off in the distance.
The little houses that populated the village below were some sort of white stucco with red tile roofs, so different from the drab coloring of Eldmere.
Unfortunately, my appraisal was cut short when a young girl walked into the room and bobbed a curtsey with a “Good morning, miss. I’m here to help you dress.”
It seemed strange to lend me a helper since I certainly wouldn’t be staying here for long, but I tried to accept with grace.
Aunt Ethel had often helped me dress while avoiding my hair, so accepting this girl’s assistance wasn’t too awkward, although as she opened the wardrobe, which was somehow filled with dresses, she didn’t look particularly happy to be helping me.
Once I was dressed, with my short hair braided and coiled around my head, I followed the girl through the labyrinth of halls, looking longingly out each window that we passed, until we reached a large but cozy room where breakfast was set out.
The young girl turned to me and curtsied before leaving the room, which was utterly baffling.
Why would anyone curtsey to me? Was it simply because I’d been taken in by the royal family?
My stomach turned over at that thought. I was staying in a castle—with a royal family. But for how long? I needed to look ahead and decide what my next move would be.
I turned back to the room, which had appeared empty at first, but then a chair scraped across the floor and I saw Prince Tavric rise to his feet at the far end of the table. “Good morning, Lyrielle.” He gave a solemn nod.
“Good morning,” I responded, my hands clasped with nerves.
“Please.” He gestured to a long, skinny table pushed up against one wall that held an assortment of food. “Help yourself to anything you’d like.”
Certainly, I thought to myself. No problem. I’ll just fix a plate and sit down to breakfast in a beautiful, elegant room with a prince.
And then, tomorrow, I might fly amongst the clouds and train a chipmunk to dance.
“Perhaps I’ve gone insane,” I whispered to myself as I crossed to the table of food. “This could all be in my mind.”
After sitting with my plate of food, breakfast was a quiet affair. Prince Tavric had a stack of what must have been correspondence that he was reading or reviewing at one end of the table, and I was sitting about halfway down, wishing to give him his privacy.
I finished my food but was still hungry.
Perhaps falling from a tower into a different world will do that to a person.
I looked from my plate to the still heaping table of food, wondering if it was acceptable to go get more and realizing once again how little I knew of etiquette in this situation—or any situation.
I sat there, undecided, staring at Prince Tavric and willing him to look at me so that I could just ask. But he didn’t look up.
I huffed a sigh and gave an awkward clearing of my throat.
He lifted his eyes to me.
“I’m sorry. Forgive me. I was just”—I gestured to the food—“Is it all right if… I didn’t know if it was appropriate for me to perhaps get more, or…”
“Yes, of course. Please help yourself.” He returned his focus to the papers in front of him. “My mother would be mortified if I allowed a guest to leave the table unsated.”
“Thank you.” I liked the queen. She’d been just as Prince Tavric had told me—gushing and effusive, and clearly happy to have someone to take care of.
My second plate of food was gone just as quickly as the first, and I was nearly finished when Tavric gathered his papers and stood. “Would you like to see the library?”
I shook my head.
His face crunched in confusion. “No?”
Perhaps my honest answer had been rude. “I’m sorry. That’s a kind offer, but…I have spent too much of my life surrounded by books.”
His head tilted. “What would you like to do, then?”
I froze at the question. No one had asked me that since my parents had died. I’d spent the last ten years being told what I must do, not being asked what I wanted.
Did he truly wish to know? It was hard to imagine that my frivolous wants were something a busy prince would be interested in.
“Come now,” he prompted after several quiet moments, sounding a bit impatient, though not unkind. “You’re in a brand new place. Surely you’d like to see something.”
“Of course,” I sputtered as all the possibilities rolled through my mind.
“Then what would you like to see?”
“Everything.”
The corners of his mouth twitched, but he only gave a stiff nod. “I’m not sure we can see everything in one day, but we could try. Where shall we start?”
I licked my lips and swallowed, nervous to ask for anything. “Outside?”
“Very good. And what should we see outside?”
“Flowers? The ocean? Trees? I saw lots of trees out my window this morning. I’d never seen so many trees before, and I’d like to walk among them, perhaps.”
He studied me.
“If that’s all right,” I hedged, terrified that he’d tell me no.
He grunted. “If a walk in the trees is all it takes to make you happy, then it would be pitiful for me to deny you.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. He acted as though giving me a dream was easy, and yet for years, I’d begged my aunt to grant me that privilege, and every time she’d acted as if I were selfish for even wanting it, much less asking.
He noticed my struggle and his face drew down in concern. “Have I said something wrong?”
I gave a sharp shake of my head. “Not at all. I’m just thankful.”
“It is only a walk.”
I tried to nod like I understood, but I didn’t, not really. How could a prince want to help me get what I wanted?
He cleared his throat and nodded toward the door. “Let’s go, then. I’ll show you some of the grounds.”
I followed after him, wringing my hands with nervousness. Last night we’d come straight from the dock to the front door of the castle. I still hadn’t truly had the chance to feel the earth beneath my feet yet.
I looked down at the shoes that were carefully tied onto my feet, wondering if it would be terribly rude of me to tear them off and go barefoot.
I would resist for now. Instead, as we crossed the great hall, I fixed my eyes on the large doors ahead.
Prince Tavric motioned to the guards standing by, and they both stepped forward to open the doors for us.
Sunlight flooded in and I blinked my eyes against the brightness, my feet hurrying ahead, anxious to cross that threshold and go beyond.
I heard Prince Tavric chuckle from behind me, but I ignored it.
The area just outside the doors was mostly pebbled walkways and cobblestone carriageways, but beyond that was a broad expanse of curated gardens, then a large stone wall.
Past that, there were trees in every shade of green, and rolling hills dotted with sheep and other animals before those hills turned into towering mountains.
“Where would you like to go?” Tavric asked from beside me.
I chewed my lip for a moment, then decided to be brave. “Are we allowed to go beyond the wall?”
His brow pinched together. “Of course.”
A thrill surged in my chest. It was one thing to be wandering outside of a building at all, but to be let beyond the stone walls that were meant to keep this castle and the royal family safe…
“Can we walk up that hill?” I asked, pointing to the nearest one.
The prince tried to hide a smile and cleared his throat. “I do believe that is within our power.”
I grinned and started in that direction.
“One moment. That hill is farther than it looks. Let me get my horse.”
“We’re going to ride a horse?”
“Yes, if that’s all right with you.”
“Yes, that’s…yes. Fine.” What a terrifying and wonderful prospect. I had ridden with my father occasionally, and I still remembered the freedom of racing across a meadow, feeling the wind tugging at my hair and clothing.
The grooms made quick work of preparing the horse, saddling the large stallion with a special something called a pillion. It added an additional padded seat behind the normal saddle so we could both mount. “Will this overtax the horse?” I asked.
“Brutus is plenty strong, and we won’t be going far,” Prince Tavric assured me, patting the horse’s neck before mounting.
The groom encouraged me to step up on a mounting block, and after I’d situated myself on the little seat, the prince told me to hold on.
I circled his waist with my arms, immediately aware of the warm breadth of his back.
I hadn’t been in such close proximity to a man since I was a child, and I certainly wasn’t a child now.
I clasped my hands together over his chest and told myself not to be a ninny.
A very kind prince was going to show me some of the world, and I would do well to focus on that world instead of the way his body heat made me feel.
But, stars above, it was becoming painfully obvious that I was starved for human interaction and touch.
Luckily, I was well and truly distracted once he urged the horse into motion.
My head was on a constant swivel, trying to take in everything all at once as we trotted through the grounds, passed under the gate, and then continued down the road, taking in the views of trees in full bloom, fields of flowers and animals, and even a waterfall sluicing down the hillside.
“Whoa,” he called to the horse, slowing him to a walk as we veered off the road and into a copse of trees and vegetation. “This seems like a good spot,” he said as he pulled the horse to a stop. “Now, take my arm with both hands.”
He held his right arm away from his body, and I did as he instructed and latched onto it.
“And swing yourself down.”