Page 2 of Bared

More aches up and down her throat, as a heavy swallow made its way down. “All the world’s adoration cannot help my brother fight the truth.”

“Bah,” the woman spat again. “You cannot honestly believe that—”

Jayd cut her off with a raised hand. She lowered it into a tense fist at her middle while watching Santelle and Carris move in, taking up imposing stances before Evrest’s regal oak desk. That was when she noticed the subtle differences in their style between yesterday and today. Their pristine suits and shiny boots were enhanced by small touches. Their ties were more costly. Their lapels were embellished with Arcadian flag pins. Their formidable features seemed…smoother. Were they wearing makeup?

“By the Creator,” she rasped, concluding that they were—and why. They were expecting Evrest to be making some kind of public announcement. The recognition would have panicked her at once except that her brother looked more ready for a shower and a three-day nap. He wore black slacks and a wrinkled button-front shirt, with one shoulder dotted in baby drool. His shoulder-length waves were contained at his nape beneath a scrunchie printed with baby tigers.

“Bon sonar, gentlemen,” Evrest greeted, taking command of the conversation at once. That was also Jayd’s cue to return inside.

She stepped into the space just over her brother’s left shoulder, with Requiemme taking position behind her. As Santelle and Carris dipped quick bows to Ev, she yearned to smack their smug faces. Her nerves were soothed somewhat by Emme’s squeeze at her elbow. How the woman could convey calm and chastisement in the same move was truly a mystery to Jayd, though right now, it was bested by a more dominant dilemma.

How—and why—had the secret of her true lineage been kept such a tight secret for twenty-four years? Kept from all the Arcadian people? From her brothers? From her?

That question, along with a thousand others, had taken over the real estate in her mind since last night—though she had not dared utter any of them aloud. Truth be known, she did not have the courage. An admission that led swiftly to shame. She was Jayd Dawne Cimarron, damn it. She had always held her own against three daunting brothers with guts and grit and tenacity, but now she had to accept that it might have all been for nothing. That she was not actually “the sass of the Cimarrons.” That she was the princess of nothing at all.

The sister of no one at all.

The realization that cut the deepest.

Emotional blood that Requiemme, thank the Creator, saw right away. Her fierce whisper in Jayd’s ear proved as much. “Until His Majesty says otherwise, you are still our beloved princess.”

In that moment, those words were more vital than air.

But oxygen fell off her priority list as the younger man moved out of his bow and took a confident stride forward. As he inclined his head toward Evrest again, the afternoon light mixed with the amber glow from the room’s chandelier, snaking through the oils in his hair product. There was a moment Jayd would never get back. From that instance, the man would always be Belly-Crawler Carris in her mind—down to the unctuous undertone of his voice as he addressed her brother.

“Your Majesty Evrest. Thank you for welcoming us back to the palais.”

“You gave him a choice about it?” Jayd’s sneer earned her a cocked brow from the viper before he addressed Ev again.

“We trust you have reviewed the materials we presented yesterday?”

“I have.” Evrest finished by nodding toward Jayd. “Which is, of course, why I asked my sister to join us for this follow-up.”

Carris wasted no time before ticking an eyebrow again as well as shifting his slithery weight.

Jayd straightened too, stiffening as if her cotton shift dress was a regal evening gown. Two could play the let’s-pretend-we’re-in-the-throne-room act. But the thing was, she had logged more hours at it than the snake. They could strip her of her birthright but not her experience.

“As you know, Majesty, I am one of the princess’s greatest admirers…” Down came both the man’s brows, as he flicked another discomfited glance Jayd’s way. “But with all due respect, are you quite certain—I mean, at this particular point—to involve her so fully?”

“Wise?” Jayd’s incensement overrode her decorum before she could think. “To involve me? With all due respect, Mr. Carris, does this entire situation not involve me?”

Her quickest ally was also the most unexpected. Though a chuckle played at his lips, Fortin Santelle sauntered up and said, “My favor of agreement with Her Highness.” He dipped a serene nod at Trystan’s scowl. “This verdict directly affects Jayd, after all.”

“Verdict?” And of course, she still could not seem to find the mute button on her affronted snips. Her nickname had been well-earned. She really was a sass, but only on her best days. On her worst—and this was going down as one of them—she was the shrew of the Cimarrons instead. “I was not aware this was a trial, gentlemen. If that is the case, what is the accusation? Do I get to mount a defense, or have you already erected the gallows?”

“Pardondais, Princess.” Santelle dipped a stiff bow. “A regrettable but accidental choice in vocabulary.”

“Bullshit. Of the highest order.” Luckily, she kept it to a low grumble this time.

It did not stop Ev from driving a fast elbow into her thigh while rising to his feet.

“In any case, gentlemen, we have arrived at the nucleus of your point,” he said. “The facts you have managed to kindly unearth and bring to my attention.”

Kindly?

Jayd kept the riposte completely silent this time. Aloud, she filled in, “Yes. The facts. About my lineage, correct? Oh, come now, brother,” she chided in response to Ev’s surprised gawk. “Do you think I have not suspected until now? Not heard the scandalized whispers in the palais halls as I pass? Not noticed the slurs about our maimanne, uttered too loudly to be misspoken? So now you all do not have to be so coy, do you?”

“We mean no disrespect, Princess.” Santelle’s interjection was harder to pick apart this time around. His tone was earnest, but his gaze was shifty. “Our only goal here is the truth.”