When she reached her suite, a guard opened the door to her sitting room and stepped aside.
When Adeline strode inside, she halted at the savory smells and intriguing sight that greeted her.
Lord Lorne stood there, wearing finer clothes than she’d seen him in before. The deep blue of the fabric set off the dark browns in his eyes while his dark hair had been neatly combed with just a hint of tousling.
Beside him, a small table was draped in a white lace tablecloth and set for two in fine porcelain dishes. A gold candlestick provided a flickering, warm lighting.
Lorne held out a chair for her. “Supper will be served shortly.”
Adeline crept across the room and sank into the chair, entirely unprepared for the way her heart beat harder in her chest. “You arranged all of this?”
“Yes, with a lot of help from Thaddeus, Jelsa, and my men.” Lorne took the chair across from her.
As they did for every meal. One of her guards always oversaw the preparation of any food she or Lorne ate. While she was reasonably sure the cook and most of the staff were loyal to her, there was always a risk someone would slip something into her food.
“In the meantime, let’s get to know each other.” Lorne leaned forward, giving her a smile that held such warmth that Adeline’s cheeks flushed with amatching heat. “What’s your favorite color? Food? Sunsets or sunrises?”
Adeline clasped her hands in her lap. Those shouldn’t be hard questions. But they held meaning, when asked by him. And that made a nervous tumult twist her stomach.
Thanks to her grandfather, she knew the importance of guarding her words. Answering even those mild questions made one vulnerable. It gave the other person ammunition to use against one. A favorite dress color could be forbidden unless she agreed to what he wanted. A favorite food could be withheld or given as a “reward” for manipulated obedience.
His expression softened, and he stretched his hand out to her, resting it on the table between them in an offer without any presumption. “Perhaps you’d rather I went first?”
She managed a nod and, tentatively, reached with one hand to clasp his. The strength in his grip steadied her while knowing he’d speak first eased the nerves.
“To answer my own questions…” Lorne’s thumb rubbed over the top of her knuckles. “I can’t decide between sunsets and sunrises. They’re both beautiful. I love deep purple.”
“Lalsacian purple?” Adeline managed a hint of a smile at that.
“What can I say? I love my kingdom.” There was a note in his voice, an extra twinkle in his eyes at that.
She smiled in return. He had married her, after all, for the sake of his kingdom. “I’ll admit, I’m ratherpartial to Kelvernese yellow. And…” She couldn’t help the way her voice dropped along with her smile. “And pink. I like pink.”
She clamped her mouth shut around that admission. She remembered all too well when she’d been fifteen and the maids had come in, ordered by her grandfather to take all her pink clothing. It wasn’t a dignified color for a crown princess. She’d been in mourning at the time, not even wearing any color but black.
She’d finally been able to commission the pink dress she wore for her wedding by being particularly obedient to one of her grandfather’s demands. Even now that her grandfather was dead, she hesitated at the thought of commissioning another pink dress for herself. Granted, she was stuck in blacks and grays for a while yet, but after that, it still felt like pink would be undignified for a queen.
“Pink is a lovely color.” Lorne squeezed her hand, still giving her that soft smile.
Before she could say anything else, the door behind her opened. She glanced over her shoulder, yanking her hand out of Lorne’s, as his guard Orvyn and her maid Jelsa entered, each carrying a tray piled with dishes covered with silver domes.
“Would you like us to stay and serve, Your Majesty?” Jelsa bobbed her knees, her hands too full for a true curtsy.
“Or we can set it on the sideboard if you’d rather have privacy.” Orvyn shot Lorne a look that held a hintof a smirk. Even in their short acquaintance, it wasn’t hard to see that Orvyn was the most prone to teasing and jokes among the diplomatic envoys.
Lorne looked at her, his gaze searching her face, before he gestured to the sideboard. “Put the trays there. I’ll serve us.”
“Yes, sir.” Orvyn somehow managed an elaborate bow before he spun on his heel and placed his laden tray on the buffet beside the door.
Jelsa, too, placed her tray there before the two of them retreated, leaving Adeline alone with Lorne once again.
Lorne stood, peeking under a few of the domes, before he picked up one of the plates, whipped the dome off, and presented the dish to her with a flourish. “Our first course. Leek and potato soup.”
Adeline found herself smiling as Lorne placed a bowl of soup before her. Perhaps a romantic dinner making small talk was exactly what she needed.
After a dinnerwhere she found herself telling Lorne far more about herself than she meant to, she led him through the corridors until they stepped through a door into a small garden, the outer walls of the castle rising high above them against the starry dark of the night.
A breeze wafted over the walls, carrying with it the scents of the rolling hills that spread out as far as one could see from the castle’s windows. The seeminglyendless farmland of Kelverny teemed with the herds of cattle and deer and the wild sylon cats that hunted them.
