Lorne took the rag and scrubbed his face, his movements slow and pained. Even lifting his hand to his face ached in his stiff shoulders and sent stabs of agony through his ribs.
At least he could put off the pain of properly tending his wounds for a while longer. With the way the remnants of his shirt were embedded into the crusts of blood, that was going to hurt nearly as much as the actual torture had.
After Lorne had managed to clean up some of the blood and grime of the dungeon from his face and hands, Thaddeus helped him change into clean clothes and spritzed him with a hint of cologne to hide the unwashed, dungeon smell as much as possible.
And just like that, Lorne was as ready for his wedding as he could be.
CHAPTER THREE
Adeline tried to sit still as Jelsa tucked pearls into the braid still wound around her head. “This isn’t necessary. You’ll just have to take all these out in a few minutes.”
“Yes, Your Highness. But you deserve to feel pretty at your wedding. Even one such as this.” Jelsa continued positioning the pearls, setting them in such a way that the combination of braid and pearls formed a semblance of a crown. “It is too bad you can’t wear a tiara.”
By rights, Adeline was entitled to wear a tiara on her wedding day. But the royal tiaras were stored in the vault, and requesting one would mean going through her grandfather’s steward and the vault guards. Neither of those things would be good for keeping this wedding a secret.
Instead, she’d have to make do with the personal jewelry items she had in her own room.
“It’s all right, Jelsa.” Adeline smoothed her handsover the silk skirts of the pink dress she wore. It wasn’t nearly as intricate as a royal wedding dress would have been, but it, too, would have to do. She didn’t wish to take the time to change, and this particular dress was one of her favorites. “Thank you for being here tonight.”
“Of course, milady. Anything for you.” Jelsa adjusted a few strands of Adeline’s hair before she reached for the cosmetics.
Adeline held still as Jelsa dusted her face with powder, but she thankfully didn’t do more than that. Less to clean off in a handful of hours.
A knock sounded on the outer door a moment before it opened. Thaddeus’s voice called from the other room, “Your Highness, everything is ready.”
Adeline took one last look at herself in the mirror. The pearls glimmered in the lamplight where they were nestled against her dark brown hair while the powder emphasized the pallor of her porcelain complexion.
Everything might be ready, including her outward appearance. But inside, she was far from ready.
She had to be strong. This was what her kingdom needed. It was her best political move, despite the risk.
Pushing to her feet, Adeline smiled at Jelsa before she forced herself to totter on shaking legs from her dressing room, through her bedchamber, and into her sitting room.
Thaddeus stood before the door, and when his gaze landed on her, he dipped into a bow so low he shouldonly have given it to his reigning sovereign. “My queen.”
“Not yet.” Adeline gestured for him to rise.
“But soon.” Thaddeus straightened and held out an arm. “We must hurry.”
Just the words that every girl wants to hear before her wedding.
Adeline took Thaddeus’s arm, and he led her into the corridor. Bustle and noise came from the intersection of the corridors where the king’s chambers lay. Likely his servants and guards preparing for his return. Many of the nobility would be descending soon, if they weren’t already.
After a glance around, Adeline and Thaddeus headed farther down the passageway in the other direction before taking the servants’ stairs down to the ground floor. There, they stuck to the back corridors until they stepped through a side door into the assembly hall. It wasn’t as large as the newer Great Hall, but it was the original grand hall of the castle and the traditional place where the monarchs of Kelverny were married. It was also used as the place where the monarch met with the council.
In the rows before the dais stood a few of the guards, servants, and lords she trusted to be loyal to her.
Well, they were loyal to her late father and thus to her by default.
As she and Thaddeus strode down the center aisle, the guards and servants in the back rows bowed to her. She nodded to them, acknowledging their loyalty.
She halted by the front rows to greet the lords gathered there. There was only a handful of them, and sadly none of them had unmarried sons or grandsons over the age of eighteen, otherwise she would have married into one of their families in a heartbeat.
But those lords could be the difference between a coup and retaining her throne. Between death and actually surviving the next few years to bring peace.
Once the greetings were finished, she squared her shoulders and faced the dais. There, the only court official she trusted stood beside a young man she only vaguely recognized as the same man she’d met only an hour ago in the dungeon. He wore clean clothes, even if they were ill-fitting. She could only guess where Thaddeus had gotten them. The young man’s hair was smoothed down, his face mostly clean. He was still somewhat bent over, one arm pressed over his ribs, as if he was struggling to remain standing.
Gripping her skirts, Adeline climbed the stairs and halted before her groom. Thaddeus remained at the base of the dais, stepping off to the side in the place of a servant rather than the father-figure he’d become in the past five years.
