“We really should get moving,” Leo agreed, mirroring Davin’s actions. Side by side, father and son were remarkably alike.
There was a flurry of activity as everyone mounted and got the horses into formation before walking out of the stable yard. It was, Vasily knew from his own experiences, a pale imitation of the procession that would make its way into the city once all the other participants had assembled at the castle gates.
The last horse turned the corner of the path, hooves echoing on stone, and then it was just the two of them. Mother looked at him with a satisfied smile. “That’s us done for the day, at least until the horses are back tonight.” He stepped closer, one hand settling on the curve of Vasily’s lower back. “Shall we walk down to the harbour?”
Vasilydidwant to go to the Blessing, but right now he could think of other things they could be doing. “We could,” he said, pressing his mouth to Mother’s ear. “But I was thinking. It’s not often we get an hour to ourselves during the day. We could make the most of it.” He leaned in, licking a long, delicate stripe along the jut of Mother’s collarbones.
Mother’s hand flexed against the fabric of his shirt, and his voice was hoarse when he said, “That. Let’s do that.”
* * *
They made it in time for the Blessing—just. It turned out that the amount of time it took for a royal procession to assemble and walk sedately down to the harbour while stopping to wave at the crowds wasexactlythe amount of time it took to suck someone off, have him return the favour, catch one’s breath, and then both hurry, laughing, down to the waterfront.
Vasily was breathless when they arrived, and he let Mother lead him through the crowds, ducking and weaving around people expertly until he found them a good spot to watch from, biding Vasily to wait there. He stared around wide-eyed. It was a very different experience, being one of the people who were jostling for a glimpse of the king and not the one on horseback waving and nodding.
Both sides of the street were filled with people all waiting to see the royal couple, their bodies packed close. Some of them refused to budge an inch and others milled about, waving to friends before wandering off to join them. Children ran back and forth laughing while their parents watched on, and a small boy barrelled into Vasily’s kneecaps, landing on his backside with a plop. He stared up before scrambling to his feet and scampering away.
It was noisy and packed, chaotic and overwhelming, and Vasily loved it.
There were street vendors selling an array of foods that ranged from candies and dried fish to unidentified meat on sticks, pastries, and hot balls of dough dusted with sugar. Vasily’s mouth watered at the smells and sounds of cooking, and he recalled that they’d skipped lunch in favour of more interesting activities. Just then Mother appeared beside him holding out a twist of paper that smelled heavenly. He opened it to find the sugared dough balls.
“Thought maybe you’d worked up an appetite,” Mother said with a grin.
Vasily moaned when he took a bite, his mouth filling with a heady combination of crispy warmth and sweetness. He shoved the rest of the treat into his mouth, ignoring the fact it was far too hot and chewing rapidly as he chased more of the taste. “Gods, that’s good. Thank you.”
“My pleasure, lad.” The way Mother’s smile lit up his face made Vasily want to kiss him despite being in a public place. After glancing around, his heart pounding, he stood on his tiptoes and pressed a chaste kiss to Mother’s lips.
The part of him that had grown up being told people like him were wrong and broken flared up inside him despite himself, and he realized he was waiting for somebody to tell him he was a disgrace. But all that happened was that Mother’s smile got wider. “I should buy you sweets more often. There’s kisses in it.”
Vasily’s heartbeat slowed, and his own smile mirrored Mother’s as he relaxed. He’d kissed a man in front of everyone, and nobody cared. It made sense, he supposed. If someone really did have a problem with a man taking up with another man, they’d hardly be lined up for Leo and Felix.
The bodies around them pressed forward and Mother put a protective arm around Vasily as a cheer rang through the crowd. Vasily craned his neck to see, and yes, coming over the rise was the start of the procession. Janus and Thomas, his second-in-command, were sitting ramrod straight on their horses, looking the part in their formal uniforms as they rode past with a slow, measured gait. Two more guards followed, and then there was the flash of sunlight on gold as Leo came into view, smile wide and coronet gleaming, nodding at the crowd. Felix rode alongside, his own coronet glinting in the sun’s rays, and while his form on horseback was impeccable, his expression held none of the practiced blandness of Leo’s. He kept scrunching up his nose, putting a hand up to his coronet, and tugging at the fastening of his cape. Vasily could have sworn he saw Leo mouth the wordbehave.
They passed at a respectable clip, slowly enough for everyone to get a good look at their king and his husband, who were nodding and smiling as they went. “Ah, aren’t they a lovely couple, though?” a woman next to Vasily said with a wistful sigh. “I wish my Jem would look at me like that.”
And indeed, Felix was gazing at Leo with unconcealed affection. The corners of his mouth were turned up in a secret smile, and Leo was looking back at him like they were the only two people there and the crowd around them had ceased to exist. In that moment, Vasily understood why Felix was willing to put up with all the pomp and circumstance his new position required.
Mother’s arm across his shoulders tightened. “Besotted, they are,” he agreed, and the woman gave a nod of approval.
Vasily leaned into Mother’s side, enjoying the warmth of him as they watched Davin, the bishop, and the heads of a dozen noble families ride by. The rear of the procession was brought up by Jeremy and another guard, both beaming from ear to ear. Jeremy waved to someone in the crowd and said something, and Vasily caught the shape of the words, “Hi, Mum!”
The crowd fell in behind the procession and followed them down to the harbour, and Vasily and Mother were swept along. Once there, the bishop stood at the top of the path that led to the harbour, facing the fleet of small boats bobbing in the sparkling ocean. He extended one arm as he began to speak, reading from a scroll. He seemed to go on forever, and his sonorous voice combined with the afternoon sun had Vasily blinking in an effort to stay awake.
Mother pressed a kiss to the top of his head and said in an undertone, “Rumour has it he’s the reason Felix refused a formal wedding. Said he’d be asleep before he could say I do.”
“I’d believe it,” Vasily said. Still, he found himself stifling his yawn from habit. Princes didn’t yawn in public, no matter how dull the ceremony.
He straightened up and tried to pay attention and was relieved to find that the man had finally pronounced the blessing. If the swell of cheering from the crowd was anything to go by, he wasn’t the only one who’d been ready for the bishop to stop talking.
The cheering increased when Leo, Felix, and a smiling Davin stepped up next to the bishop, flanked by Thomas and Janus. All three of them held bulging purses. The crowd thinned as the people hurried to form a queue that snaked all the way around the harbour wall. “It’s the royal coin,” Mother murmured in response to Vasily’s unasked question. “It’s meant to be for the fishermen, but everyone joins in, and His Majesty never says no. People all want the luck of the king.”
“Do they really believe it brings them luck?”
Mother huffed out a soft laugh. “Well, they’re getting a day off and a gold coin. I’d say that’s lucky.”
They spent some time wandering around the stalls hand in hand, watching the juggler who was meant to be there for the children but who held just as many adults enthralled. Vasily dug in his pockets and found a three-penny bit to slip into the man’s hat, the thrill of having money of his own and the choice of how to spend it still fresh, even now.
He dug out another coin at the next vendor and bought them both slices of hot roasted meat wrapped in fresh bread rolls, and after they’d eaten they strolled down the path that led to the ocean.
