And then I got off the horse in town and my entire focus was on the fact that my hips might’ve dislocated and muscles atrophied. “Fucking hell!” I hollered as I clung to the saddle. “I can’t walk!”
All of them and some passersby laughed at me. “Just walk it off,” Nick the Prick said jovially.
Unhelpful assholes. Someone should’ve warned me.
Shuffling into the pub, I was pretty sure I’d just learned why John Wayne had walked the way he had. My knees didn’t want to bend and my hips were only moving so I didn’t fall on my face. I couldn’t hear my bones creaking, but it felt like they were.
I’d be in or on the carriage from then on, so help me.
We opted to eat down in the pub first, so the barman got us settled at a table. I thought back to Lars. Once we got to the castle, I’d have to find a way to return the carriage and horses to him. Maybe he’d stolen it all, or maybe it had been his, but either way, I should get them back to him with my thanks.
A waitress brought us strips of beef jerky, wedges of cheddar, thick wheat bread, and canned peaches. Canned as in mason jars of preserved fruit, which had me wondering again how the drought was impacting farming. They couldn’t import from another court, so how were they handling it?
“At first,” Red said, “we just had a longer growing season. Food was abundant, so our efforts went to preserving it.” He tapped the jar of peaches with his fork.
“But then the plants started failing,” Frank said. “The rains stopped and the heat didn’t, so it was as if the plants became exhausted.”
“We started digging wells and constructing greenhouses,” Purple added. “A few rerouted rivers to bring the water closer to their fields. Those didn’t last long.”
I kept flicking glances at Solaris while his friends talked. He looked like this was news to him, too. Disappointment stabbedinto me. I was fine with experts doing their thing, but he should’ve been there to encourage them at the very least.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said tiredly. “I was focused on the curse and breaking it. Others led the efforts to maintain our food supplies.”
I nodded, giving him that. “Okay.”
Maybe it was a difference of leadership styles, but I’d have been poking my nose into everything so that I could know at least a little bit about all of it. I’d have made sure someone was making note of all the details in case connections could be made. I would’ve scheduled all the staff meetings and organized committees, too.
And never in my life had anyone ever said one of my meetings could’ve been an email.
But I wasn’t in charge here, and this wasn’t even my world. No one would give a hoot about anything I had to say. So the thing I would do was return their leader and encourage him to participate more. Even if all he did was pat folks on the back and tell them they’d done a great job, it would mean more than flitting away in search of fun distractions.
“You’re still judging me,” Solaris said with a frown.
I nodded again, this time with a grin. “Yeah. Get used to it.”
He gave me the stink eye, but shoved more bread in his mouth and chewed aggressively instead of saying more.
And for some weird reason, feeling like I’d won that round had me getting hard for him. I wanted to haul him upstairs and do something wicked to his royal personage. Based on the way he started blushing, I had to assume something of my thoughts was showing on my face.
I redirected myself by pointing to Red and Purple. “What are your names?”
“Aloysius,” Red said.
Purple said, “Royce.”
“Al, Roy, Nick, and Frank. Got it.”
They shared a look, and now everyone was frowning at me.
No, I wasn’t going to rub some respect on their names. Respect was earned, and I was still pissed that they hadn’t stopped their idiot prince from running away from his duties.
“What’s with the monochrome outfits?” I asked them.
They all looked at Solaris.
He cleared his throat. “I, um, had some difficulties telling them apart when I was a child.”
Admittedly, they did look similarly, but weren’t in any way identical. Nick was blond for one thing.
