Page 77 of Fit for a King

Yes, I supposed they did.

Sitting over by one of the windows in his favorite rocking chair, with his hand-carved cane by his side, was my father, the gray in his hair and mustache much more pronounced now. He looked up from the book he was reading. When he spotted me, a tired smile spread across his weathered features, and it wasn’t lost on me the toll that the years and his disability had taken on him.

“Noah, my boy. What are you doing here?” It wasn’t until his eyes lifted past my shoulder to Nicholas that his relaxed posture stiffened. “Your Majesty.” My father’s deep voice sounded exactly as I remembered, but, like his smile, it sounded tired. He tried to get to his feet.

“Please,” Nicholas said, stepping around me and striding over to where my dad was struggling to stand. “Don’t get up on my account.” He placed a hand over my father’s where it was white-knuckling the arm of the wooden chair. “I was just thinking what a lovely spot you had here, and was wondering if we could join you.”

I could’ve kissed him in that moment for what he’d just done for my father, allowing him to both keep his dignity and also praising his humble surroundings.

“I would like that very much, sir.”

Nicholas glanced over his shoulder at me and then gestured for one of the three seats that surrounded a dainty morning table Mum had moved into the room for tea, crochet, and games. Like the ones stacked over on the small bookshelf in the corner.

“Ah, there’s the mahjong board,” Nicholas said, and chuckled, looking at my father. “Noah told me you’re the reason he was able to beat me so spectacularly when we played, and now I see why.”

“He did, did he?” Unlike Mum, Dad immediately picked up on Nicholas’s casual use of my first name. After years in service to noblemen, it wasn’t something that one missed.

But if the king noticed his misstep, he didn’t react.

“He did.” Nicholas looked at me, his eyes twinkling at the memory. “Showed no mercy. He cleaned the board with me.”

Dad turned curious eyes to me, searching for an explanation to this “friendly” repartee I seemed to have with my new employer.

“Noah has always been a quick study. An inquisitive boy from a young age, he always had questions about everything, including every move made on a mahjong or chess board.”

“So what you’re saying”—Nicholas leaned closer to my father and lowered his voice—“is don’t play chess with him either?”

Despite my father’s clear curiosity at the relationship between me and the king, he smiled. “Not if you want to keep your dignity.”

Nicholas sat back in his seat and looked my way. “See, I’m learning important things right now.”

I shook my head and thought, So am I. I was learning that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to close my heart off to this man. Not when he was constantly showing me new reasons to fall for him.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Dad, turning my attention to something other than how much harder Nicholas was making it for me to imagine a future without him.

“Some days are better than others.” Dad’s tight smile told me the good days were few and far between now, and I hated that for him. But something about the way he wouldn’t look at me made something niggle at the back of my mind. What wasn’t he telling me? “But you didn’t come all this way to talk about my ailments.”

“Dad,” I said, getting up and moving over to him. I crouched down until we were at eye level. “Tell me.”

He glanced at Nicholas, then back to me. “It’s nothing.”

“Dad…”

“Your Mum’s been having a difficult time trying to locate a wheelchair that we can afford.”

My heart clenched at the defeated sound in his voice. I’d known he was reliant on his cane for every step he took these days, but I hadn’t realized how close he was to being fully chair-bound. I’d sent as much of my money as I could for his medicine and what little they needed for food and living, but still I was failing them.

“I’ll look for something, I’ll⁠—”

“I can help,” Nicholas softly interrupted.

My dad started to shake his head, and I did the same. But Nicholas was already on his feet and placing a hand on my shoulder.

“I can’t let you do that,” Dad said, and while I knew I would say the same if I were in his position, it frustrated me to be unable to give him what he needed.

“It would be my pleasure—the kingdom’s pleasure—to donate a much-needed item to one of its loyal citizens. You worked for many households of Valoria, did you not?”

If there was one thing my dad was proud of, it was his employment record. Nicholas was smart to speak to it.