“It’s fine, lad,” Mother said quietly. “I’ll get it sorted.” He forced a smile and tried to ignore the hollow ache inside of him that whispered that this was it, this was where Vasily realised that Mother wasn’t right for a prince.
His hands twitched at his side with the need to reach out and take Vasily’s hand to reassure them both, but of course it was impossible. He clenched them into fists instead, lest he reach out and give away their secret.
King Alexei threw an arm around Vasily’s shoulder and led him out of the stables, the queen on his other side, and Mother was left alone.
* * *
Looking around the empty stable yard, Mother wondered if he was meant to walk up to the castle to fetch the horses and how many were in the royal contingent, but before he had a chance to go anywhere, there was the familiar clatter of hooves and he looked to see Janus riding slowly towards him leading a horse on each side. When he reached the yard, he handed Mother the reins to his extra mounts before sliding off the saddle with a groan.
He had bags under his eyes, and he winced as he reached around and rubbed the small of his back. “I’m getting too old for this,” he grumbled. “Ten days in the saddle, and I’m ready to sleep for a week.”
Mother looked past him at the empty road. “Where are the rest of them? Still at the castle?”
Janus set a hand on the saddle and leaned against it, giving Mother a wry smile. “It’s just the king and queen. They left the horses and came straight to the stables. They haven’t even properly greeted Leo and Felix yet. When I told them what had happened to Vasily, they couldn’t leave Koroslova to get here fast enough. Didn’t bother with a retinue and told me that if I was good enough to guard the King of Lilleforth, I was good enough for them.” He stretched and winced. “I had one night’s sleep in a decent bed before we started back at first light the next day.”
Mother didn’t know why he was surprised. His own parents would have done the same. It was just that somehow, in his mind, he’d painted Vasily’s parents to be as cold as the country they came from.
Janus must have read his expression. “They love their son, even if his father doesn’t quite understand him.”
Mother cleared his throat and said quietly, “Do you think they know about…”
Janus made a seesawing motion with one hand. “It wouldn’t even cross King Alexei’s mind, but Queen Irina? I wouldn’t be surprised. She was the one who arranged his position here, after all.”
“Aye, she seems like she doesn’t miss a trick, that one,” Mother said, his mouth pressed into a thin line.
“Oh?” Janus tilted his head. “Did she see something?”
Mother looked skyward while he debated whether to say anything, but Janus was his friend, after all. “When they walked in, I had Vasily slung over my shoulder, and I was slapping his arse.” His cheeks burned at the memory.
Janus threw his head back and laughed like the unsympathetic bastard he was.
“It’s not funny,” Mother grumbled.
Janus clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, Mother, but it really is. How did you explain it?”
He blew out a long breath. “Didn’t need to. King Alexei thought we were just playing silly buggers. A bit of innocent horseplay.”
Janus grinned. “Is the king blind?”
Mother gave a wry smile in return because it wasalmostfunny. “I think maybe he is when it suits him.”
One of the horses he was holding huffed in his ear, a reminder that Mother had a job to do. “I’d best get on,” he said.
Janus took his leave, and Mother turned and led the royal mounts up the path to the general stables. But as he fed and groomed the horses and settled them in their stalls, he thought of Vasily, who, instead of working alongside him, was currently up at the castle living the life of a prince. Mother desperately wanted to believe that somehow there might be a place forhimin that life.
But try as he might, he couldn’t see how he’d fit.
ChapterEighteen
Vasily hadn’t realised how much he’d missed his parents until he saw them. Of course, he would have preferred to see them when hewasn’tdraped over Mother’s shoulder, the slap to his arse still echoing around the stables, but luckily his father had interpreted what they were doing as some kind of harmless camaraderie, and Vasily wasn’t about to correct him.
And now, with both of them walking beside him, he couldn’t deny the warmth he felt inside knowing that he was loved enough for them both to abandon their kingdom and ride all the way here. At the same time, he felt a pang of guilt because it hadn’t even occurred to him that they might be worried. Once Leopold had told him that Janus was riding to deliver the news that he’d had a fall but was safe and well, he’d assumed that would be the end of it.
But here they were, leading him up to the castle like they thought he lived there, and he wondered how he was going to break it to them that he was actually staying in a one-room cottage with an outside privy.
“—luncheon, don’t you agree, Vasily?”
“What?” He blinked, and his mother sighed.
