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“I’m doing my best not to look, but it’s hard when...”
“The whole palace knows and is pretending it’s not?”
She nodded. “What happened with Sabina?”
“Nothing happened with Sabina,” I whispered back. “I ate dinner, restrained myself from causing a national crisis by punching the prime minister, and when I left, I told Sabina to stop.”
“To stop?”
“Getting in the way, appearing in our faces, basking in the press’s attention.”
“I do not know if she will give up that easily. If she was bold enough to tell me she was going to be your mistress—”
“Oh God, how I hate that word. No, I hate this conversation,” I replied quickly. “Do not worry about her.”
“So, you can worry about her alone?”
“I won’t worry about her at all. Rather, I shall worry if my toes will hold up against you.”
Her eyes widened, and she backed away from me as if I had the plague. “Sorry!”
I laughed.
“Gale!”
Grabbing her hand, I spun her back into my arms and held her tightly. Instead of dancing, however, I moved us to the edge.
“This is my favorite garden in the palace,” I whispered into her ear. “They were given to my father by the Japanese emperor for his coronation. In the emperor’s letter to my father, he wrote, ‘may your reign see their full blossoming thrice over.’ My father would often bring me here to watch them. I was annoyed because they took so long to grow, so I stopped coming with him, and then one day, I was walking through the eastern garden and looked over. All I saw was a sea of pink petals. They were everywhere. And my father was standing with my mother, grinning and laughing with her because he’d seen the first full bloom after thirty years. It was wondrous, so wondrous, in fact, that I made sure no matter what happened, I’d always be home in time to see them bloom.”
She leaned back against me, rocking with me slightly. “That’s sweet. But I have to admit that it’s so strange to me.”
“What?”
“Coronation gifts from Japanese emperors. That type of stuff was only ever in history books, and now it’s in front of me.”
“Yeah, we are living history.”
“Have you thought about what they will give you?” she whispered.
I held on to her tighter, taking in the scent of her, and the cherry blossoms before shaking my head.
“You do not ever want to think of being king, do you?” she asked.
“Being king means my father is gone, and my brother is gone. Being king means something went wrong. The spare is supposed to be a spare. The heir is supposed to be the next king. I did not even want to think of the day Arthur would be king. It was hard enough for me when he was the Adelaar. But I did my best to obey, to not get jealous or resent him. Instead, I completely and utterly looked away. I left all the work for him and my father. Any time they would ask me, I would joke and tease and make my escape. I didn’t want to think about it. And now...”
“There is no escape.”
I nodded, kissing her shoulder. “It almost feels like some sort of twisted karma. Like, had I been greedier, more invested, had I wanted it more, Arthur would have lived.”
“Gale, nothing you could have done would have changed anything,” she said, gently turning around in my arms. “It is not your fault. I do not care what anyone says. Or how little you paid attention before. You are a good person. You are a good brother and a good—”
“And a good lover?”
She pinched my cheek. “And you will be a good king.”
“And you will be a good queen.”
“Ugh.” She hunched over and rested her head on my chest.
