Page 40 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

“He’s only a friend, for one. Nothing more. And for two, most of the time he’s not even there when I go paint.”

“We understand, sweetheart, but it could look inappropriate. You’re royalty now.”

Sia stared at her hands that were folded tightly in her lap. She held her tongue that they were more excited about the royal part than she was.

“No one sees me in the woods, Mama. And you know as well as I do that I’m only a placeholder,” she said quietly. “Not a real wife.”

Her mother’s eyes softened, but she said nothing. Even her father took a sudden interest in the sky.

The days passed too quickly. Each sunrise felt like a countdown. Lucas would expect her back soon. The thought coiled in her stomach like a tightening rope.

She didn’t want to go. She had found peace again, and, despite her secret feelings for Lucas, she didn’t want to lose it.

Trouble struck one day after an afternoon of sitting through another gentle melody from Orion’s flute. Clouds had built up and she hurried along the path home as a storm approached.

A deer startled her as it crashed through the brush, and Sia watched it as she rushed so she didn’t see the tree root that had risen slightly but was hidden by a blanket of old leaves. Her foot caught it and the world tilted and she crashed headlong into the thick bushes.

She fell hard through the foliage to the ground as her art case went flying. Pain shot up her leg, sharp and immediate. Her hands and arms scraped against rough earth and broken twigs.

For a moment, she could only lie there. The breath had been knocked from her lungs and she was afraid to move. When she finally calmed herself enough to try and stand, her ankle screamed in protest and she fell back to the ground.

Blood dotted her forearms in thin, stinging lines. Some cuts from the sharp branches were deeper than others. Dirt clung to her dress. Her hair had come loose completely.

She sat back against the trunk of a tree and began to laugh. Here she was, Queen of Crystafalls, and she had tripped over her own two feet. She could only imagine how royal she looked at the moment.

She laughed until she cried when it started to rain. Her father would come find her sooner or later, and in the meantime, Mother Nature was going to have a little fun with her.

Then she tried to stand again and cried for real. It hurt and the injury was going to inconvenience everyone. It also probably meant a delay of her return to the castle. It didn’t have to, really, but it was a good excuse.

She pressed a hand to her swelling ankle and felt something dangerously close to relief bloom in her chest. Now she could stay longer and avoid the confusion that was Lucas, at least for a few days.

The thought glowed inside her like a small, guilty sin.

Chapter 15

Lucas

Lucas did not like deviations from plans under any circumstances.

So, when Sia’s message came, calm, polite, and regretful as she explained that she and the girls would be staying a few more days because of a minor injury, his jaw tightened. She hadn’t even called him personally. She had left a message with the staff.

An injury. Sia had been injured.

He read the message twice, then a third time. The words were too careful and too deliberate. He called immediately, but her voice sounded distant in more ways than one.

“They’re fine,” she had said of the girls. “The girls weren’t even with me when I fell. I just need a little more time.”

Time for what? He was afraid to ask for clarification. He knew she intended him to think she needed time to heal, but he read more into it than that.

She didn’t want to come back.

He stood in his study long after the call ended with his fingers resting on the dark wood of his desk. The house had haunted him with its quiet since they left

It didn’t take long for a plan to form. He told himself he was being reasonable when he decided to drive to her parents' house. It would be a surprise. And thoughtful. A devoted husband checking on his injured wife.

Yes. That was how it would appear and he would be sure that Aldrek knew about it.

He broke royal protocol and drove himself, alone. The quiet in the car soothed him much more than he expected, and his mood cheered the closer he got to his destination. Sia would be happy to see him.