Chapter 20

“I’ll leave you two to chat,” Julian said, tapping Nicholas on the shoulder.

Side by side Julian and Nicholas were of comparable height, with Nicholas an inch or two taller. They looked similar too, though Julian’s features were somewhat softer than the hard angles of Nicholas’s face.

Nicholas wasn’t saying anything. His expressionless gaze shifted from me to Julian and back again.

Julian laughed on his way out the door and well down the hallway. I could hear echoes of it long after he was gone.

I thought Nicholas might leave too. Had he only come to look for Julian? Despite Julian’s teasing, it seemed impossible that he would have been searching for me.

Yet when Julian left, Nicholas stayed in my doorway, fixed and unmoving like a statue.

Under his unwavering stare, I began to get nervous. Did he overhear something that Julian and I had talked about? No, we’d been speaking softly. Even from the door, he wouldn’t have been able to hear.

So what did he want?

I waited out his silence for as long as I could manage before I finally broke.

“Did you want to talk?” I asked.

He didn’t move, nor did not look away. “You are Julian seem… familiar.”

Did we?

“You were standing very close just now,” Nicholas said.

We had to, with how softly we were talking, but if I admitted that, Nicholas would want to know what we had been talking about. As far as I was concerned, Nicholas could never, ever know my secret.

So I gave a non-committal shrug.

“You were close during archery practice, as well.”

He had noticed? I thought he had totally avoided so much as glancing at me during the archery event. Even when I had been with his group, he hadn’t said one word to me.

“When did you two become so close?” Nicholas asked.

“Oh, he remembered me from the Royal Academy.”

I forced a smile, but it was uneasy. I felt like I was walking along a dagger’s edge, and one wrong move would send me further into disfavor with Nicholas.

Though the whole thing seemed ridiculous. He already hated me. Why did he care who I spent time with? Unless he was worried I had turned my machinations on Julian since he himself had rejected me.

“Is that what you were doing just now?” Nicholas’s eyes narrowed, his focus intensifying. “Reminiscing?”

I swallowed down my growing nerves. “No, I, um… Julian – er, Prince Julian and I had some unfinished matters to discuss.”

I really hoped he wouldn’t ask more. I would take my darkest secrets to the grave, but if he kept pushing, I was so nervous, I would surely give something away.

I’d never been very good at denying Nicholas. At one point, I would have found a way to give him the whole world.

Fortunately, Nicholas’s gaze slid away from me and to the sewing machines I’d had the maids set up in my room. He looked over the machines, the threads, and the swatches of fabric.

My heart leapt. The fabric remnants I had used for his wrist guard were still there. In fact, since Julian’s meddling, they now sat on top of the pile.

Maybe Nicholas wouldn’t notice. He was still in the doorway. He would have to have the eyes of a hawk to properly compare the fabric there to the one on his wrist.

He tapped his finger against the wrist guard. He was still wearing it.

I tried to keep a straight face, hiding my panic.

“I have to go.” Abruptly, he turned away and walked into the hallway.

I stared after him, confused by both his sudden arrival and his equally sudden departure.

Had he really only come to ask me about Julian?

No, there had to be another reason. But maybe more pressing matters had called him away before it could reveal itself.

I was no less confused an hour later.

I hated how much it bothered me, not knowing the truth of why Nicholas had come. And the only way I could find out was to ask Nicholas himself – something much easier said than done.

Even if I found him, he likely wouldn’t tell me unless he wanted to.

It was hopeless.

To clear my head, I suggested to Elva that we go for a walk in the gardens. She eagerly agreed.

Twenty minutes later, we were hand in hand among the flowers and the fresh air. The world did seem more peaceful out here in nature, and I began to let some of my anxieties slip away.

Until I looked up and saw Kirsten coming toward us. Her smirk was so smug, I could see it across the gardens.

Remembering how she pushed Elva, I quickly pulled Elva behind me, shielding her with my body.

“There you are. I’ve been looking for you,” she called to us as she approached.

Where Elva and I had kicked off our shoes to stretch our toes in the grass, Kirsten seemed utterly unwilling to step away from the garden pathway. She stopped at the edge and turned her nose up at the sight of our bare feet.

Her smirk stayed firmly in place, however.

“Aren’t you curious how I knew where to find you?” She turned around and pointed at a third-story room with a balcony. “Prince Nicholas moved me there. It was such a sweet little favor, a mere pittance compared to the gift I gave him.”

The gift she gave him? She meant my gift, the wrist guard.

“What do you want?” I asked her.

“To gloat, mostly.” She shrugged. “And to tell you that you and your little leech don’t belong here.”

“Don’t call her that.”

“Maybe you thought bringing a cute kid along might win you some favor with the public? Well guess what? That brat isn’t even much to look at.”

Behind me, I heard Elva sniffle.

“That’s enough,” I said, more forcefully.

“What did I hurt the little roach’s feelings?” Kirsten fake pouted. “Are you going to cry? Good. Can’t make you any uglier than you already are, dressed in that pile of rags.”

“This is my…” Sniff. “Gown…” Elva pulled her hand away from mine to wipe her face.

“Kirsten, I’m warning you. Stop talking to my daughter like this.”

“Or what? You can’t touch me. But you bet I can turn Prince Nicholas against the two of you. All I have to do is bat my eyelashes just so.” She demonstrated, closing and opening her eyes in a quick rhythm.

“Nick…lass?” Elva’s cries elevated into sharp sobs. Then, all at once, she turned from me and darted toward the tree line.

“Elva!” I meant to give chase, but Kirsten caught my arm, yanking me back.

“Let her go. Maybe she’ll get eaten by a bear and do us all a favor.”

I saw red.

That was it.

Swiveling on my heel, I smacked Kirsten clean across the face with an open palm.

Kirsten released me at once. She was stunned, her eyes wide.

I didn’t have any more time to waste on her.

Turning, I sprinted across the grass, chasing after Elva to the tree line. I followed the straight path from where I’d seen her last, but by now, I had totally lost sight of her.

Panic clawed at my heart.

She had to be okay. What would I do if something happened to her? How would I go on?

She was my whole world.

I sucked in a deep breath, ready to shout my lungs out, calling her name, when I heard a soft sniffle and a deep voice.

I followed the sounds through the thick tree line, until I popped through to the driveway. Just beyond, I saw her.

Elva had run the whole way to Nicholas.

He knelt beside her with her tucked into the safe cradle of his chest. Mark stood beside, observant and protective.

Relief flooded me so hard, that I felt a bit dizzy. Wobbling, I steadied myself against one of the trees, but the bark was slippery from a recent rain. I fell backwards, out into the grassy meadow.

I hit hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

Taking a moment to recover, I was flat on my back when Kirsten came to stand over me, accompanied by Lena and two guards.

Kirsten rubbed her reddened cheek, though her smirk remained just as smug.

“You shouldn’t have done that, bitch.”