AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Arrogant.’
‘Like father, like son.’ He stared at the King. ‘You should know better than to try to bring me to heel.’ He looked right at his father, ‘So it’s up to you to choose what is best for your country and for your family. And may I say you have two excellent choices. Some rulers have none.’
‘You dare walk out on your King!’
He dared. But then he heard his mother’s urgent plea. ‘Cenzo...’
She called the King by his given name and Julius stilled.
‘Please...’ she begged her husband. ‘Stop this from happening.’
‘Jasmine needs a quiet life,’ his father asserted.
Julius turned, and he saw then the strain his father was under, how he had changed so much in a year that suddenly Julius didn’t recognise him. Outwardly, he was the same—grumpy and stern—but they had smiled together before. Laughed, even.
Beatrice was right. Who did his father have to confide in? For his mother was still crumbling under the weight of grief—that much Julius could see.
‘She couldn’t even manage the Flower Festival!’ the King shouted.
‘Then why the hell would you put this on her?’ Julius stared at his father. ‘Do it if you must, but it’s on you.’ Julius turned to his mother. ‘And on you too. You push and you push for this wedding to take the pressure off Jasmine, and yet you burden her with your doubt. But she is strong. You know she doesn’t want this, but she is standing by me and she supports my decision. Talk to your husband.’
‘Julius...’
He was done. ‘I’m taking tonight off...perhaps the next fifty years—you decide. I have an important date to keep.’ He looked at his father. ‘You can talk to me about your grief any time, but don’t ever try to bully me with it.’
He turned and walked out, and there stood Jasmine, with her husband who loved her; and he had never felt more of a bastard than now, as he saw her standing there.
Except she wasn’t crying, and he had not lied. She was so much stronger now.
‘You told them?’ she asked.
He heard the quaver in her voice, but she smiled.
‘I did.’
‘Well done.’
Julius had not known he could produce tears. Not even when his brother had died had he produced them. He had sat quietly, silently, as Tobias had informed him of the awful news. But his eyes stung now.
‘I went back on my word...’ he said.
‘No.’ Jasmine shook her head. ‘What if the woman you fall in love with can’t have children? The threat will always be there for me, and now it’s being dealt with. I have my husband, and I have my daughter.’ She looked at him. ‘And I have a brother who stands up for what is right.’
She looked up as her mother came out.
‘Jasmine...’
‘I can’t stay, Mama,’ Jasmine said. ‘Arabella is waiting to tell me about puppy school.’
‘Julius,’ his father said, ‘come back inside. We have a closed room. We can properly discuss—’
‘I’ve been trying to do that for a year.’
Beatrice was right; his father was grieving. How could Beatrice, a woman who didn’t have any family of her own, know more about families than someone who did?
Perhaps you did have to step back to see what was right before your eyes?
‘I really can’t,’ Julius said. ‘I have plans. I have to get home.’
