Her blond hair was loose, her face freshly scrubbed, and glowing. She was so intensely beautiful.
He had thought so when he had seen her at the masked ball. He had thought so even when she was shrouded in shadow.
But here, she was entirely different. Alive and vibrant, sun-kissed, and radiant.
“I just came hoping that there might be food,” she said.
“There is food.”
“Thank you. I’ve been thinking,” she said.
She walked down the stairs, and took her arm out from behind her back, a small green fruit in her hand. “I want to call a truce.”
She pressed the guava into his palm. He closed his fist around it lightly. “Why?”
“Well. Because we need to. We need to make something better than this for our child.”
He nodded slowly. “I agree with you.”
“Whew. That is so nice for me.” She smiled. “Sorry. That was not very in the spirit of the truce, I confess. Will you forgive me?”
“Yes.”
She began to walk ahead of him, and then stopped. “I don’t know where we’re going.”
“I’ll lead you.”
“I believe this is where you apologize to me for accusing me of being a calculated horror.”
Her words stopped him cold. “I am sorry but I was wrong about you. But I am not sorry for being first of all defensive of the throne.”
“You’re sorry that you were wrong? Well, that is not very in the spirit of the truce, I fear.”
“It’s true. I had to do what needed to be done in order to ensure that you weren’t taking advantage of me in some way.”
“I am very scary,” she said, lifting her hands and making claws at him. When he didn’t laugh, she lowered them. “Food, please.”
He led her out onto the terrace, where the meal was set for them. She looked critically at the stemware. “I can’t drink alcohol.”
“I know. I did not serve you alcohol. Nor did I serve myself alcohol. And there, you see evidence of your truce.”
“How magnanimous.”
“I try,” he said, his tone dry.
She took a seat at the table, and took a sip of the sparkling beverage. “Oh. That’s nice.”
“I’m glad. I haven’t tried it yet.”
There. He thought that was rather cordial.
He sat across from her, and she looked up at him over her glass, her blue eyes glimmering with that sort of reckless mischief she always had.
At least, that she seemed to have here on the island.
She had been so different working in the palace.
“I would never have thought that you had this much spirit.”
