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“Would you work this hard to bring me back if I wandered off somewhere?”
At that, my eyebrows went up. “Where exactly do you think you’d wander off to?”
“I don’t know. I could go off into the woods somewhere too. Become a lumberjack or something.”
I laughed. “Sure, you could. Mr. Lumberjack, you’d last only a few hours.”
“Excuse you. I did nature training as a child. I did much better than Arthur,” he said, puffing out his chest. “And you still haven’t answered my question. Would you work this hard to get me back?”
“No,” I replied, adjusting my jewelry.
He placed his hand over his heart. “You can spare my pride just a little bit, bevilën.”
I rolled my eyes. Here were the dramatics. “I wouldn’t work this hard to find you because you aren’t going anywhere without me. If you want to be Mr. Lumberjack, I guess I’m becoming Mrs. Lumberjack.”
Because he would never let me go, he grinned from ear to ear, leaning closer to me. “You’d give it all up and join me somewhere in the woods? Just you, me, and the kid. I’d hunt, and you’d pick berries—”
“Are we going to the woods or the Paleolithic era?”
“I don’t think I would mind that very much,” he said, pretending to think.
“I don’t do too well going backward in history. So let’s stay in this era and just have a picnic.”
The look on his face…I tried not to look. He cracked his jaw to the side and shook his head. “Fun killer. Can’t even let me have fantasies in my mind.”
“No need for fantasies; I like this reality, here with you, the best,” I said. Once again,
he put his hand on his heart and pretended to stumble back.
“Oh my gosh! Can we focus, please? They will be here any moment.”
“Fine.” He sighed, rolling his shoulders back, and stood straighter as we waited in front of the doors. “Though you should know that King Arjun is even worse than me. He was even worse than Arthur. He lives for the love of his wife. I remember the first time I met him a few years ago, right after he took the throne. He was very concerned with making sure his wife was all right. They aren’t big into public displays of affection in their culture. However, I could just tell with the way he always hovered around her. Like he couldn’t go far, or he’d lose all the oxygen in his lungs and die right there. He always had this starry glaze over his eyes.”
“You made fun of him in front of everyone, didn’t you?!” I frowned, knowing very well now.
“No…of course not. That would be rude,” he muttered the last part under his breath, trying to avoid my glare.
“You made the comments behind his back, instead?”
He didn’t answer, fixing his cufflinks all of a sudden.
“You’re such a jerk.”
“Past jerk.” He laughed back and lifted my hands, kissing them. “I’ve been rehabilitated by you, remember? You’ve all but put a collar around my neck—”
I squeezed his hand tightly. “Is that so?”
“See? You are pulling the chain already.”
I released his hand, looking forward again. I had no idea what to do with him sometimes…especially when he was in his tease-me-to-death mode. He leaned over once more and whispered, “Love you.”
“Ditto,” I shot back, my only way to mess with him in return, as the black car pulled up to the front. I inhaled through my nose.
The footmen turned to the left, holding the door open before the deep voice of Mr. Parsworth announced, “Their Royal Majesties King Galahad and Queen Odette.”
The gust of the air went right through as the doors opened; however, I stood firm, waiting for Gale to step out first. I followed, walking out to the front where we waited between Ersovia and Bhutan’s flags. Only when we were in the palace did the doors open, and we saw both of them dressed in beautiful, rich-colored, woven fabric robes.
“Their Royal Majesties King Arjun and Queen Dema,” Mr. Parsworth also announced and then walked the small steps up to us.
