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“Oh…please don’t make me cry in church,” she muttered, squeezing my hand tighter. “It’s totally not my style.”
I smiled and just held on to her.
I wasn’t really sure what was to come in my life. People were already hinting at the fact that I could remarry, that I could find love again. I could feel it. But…for some reason, when I thought about my life, that just didn’t seem possible to me. Or maybe I didn’t want to be. I knew nothing other than the fact that I was sure I wouldn’t be alone or regret holding Arthur’s legacy. And one day in the distant future, they’d bury me here in this abbey alongside him.
My eyes shifted from the glass to the curly hair of the woman who now sat in front of me…in the seat that was once supposed to be mine, next to a king who should not have been…and truly…truly prayed for them. Because Arthur would have wanted them to succeed.
I couldn’t speak much more to either because it still hurt.
But I would pray that the happily ever after I had dreamed for Arthur and myself would be their reality as I began my journey to find a new one.
CHAPTER 5
I should have known better. Honestly, I should have. But for some reason, I truly believed that she would disappear; she would know better than to come around me anymore. After the dinner months ago at the prime minister’s home, she had not shown her face to me…or, more importantly, Odette, so I assumed we understood each other. However, I forgot that the one thing Sabina Franziska did not do was give up. Her tenacity had been fun before. However, now it was dangerously annoying. And I could not deal with her because I had to handle another dangerous annoyance.
“I’ll join you in a moment. I have to see the prime minister first,” I said to Odette as she also watched Sabina enter the western stateroom for the reception we were hosting at the palace.
She was on the arm of some lord she’d managed to wrangle in order to attend. Normally I would have been amused, happy even that she was protective of us. A little green-eyed monster could be cute in the correct proportion. But the memory of our fight over this woman and how hurt Odette had been that day didn’t sit well with me even now months later.
“Odette?” I called again, lifting her hand and kissing it.
“Hmm?” Her eyes turned back to me. She blinked a few times like she had forgotten I was beside her. “Sorry…I mean, forgive me, what were you saying?”
Dammit.
She’d reverted to being formal to me in front of people.
I sighed dramatically and placed my hand over my heart. “You know how to cut deep, Your Majesty. Here all my thoughts are about you, and you’ve forgotten I was in the room with you. What am I going to do? Are you bored with me already?”
“Must you be so dramatic?” She rolled her eyes and shook her head, though the smile on her face made me feel better.
“Yes, I must,” I replied, stepping closer, far too close for public…
“Gale, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to see the prime minister,” I whispered directly into her ear. “Then we’ll speed through this lunch and return back to our rooms, where I will be the only thing you can touch, see, and think of. And for not paying attention to me, I shall make you scream out my name twice as much as you did last night.”
“You—”
I kissed the side of her cheek, walking away from her quickly. “Balduin, Iskandar, let’s hurry; the queen cannot be without my attention for long.”
She glared at me and grinned. I winked before we went down the opposite end of the hall toward the meeting room, where I would wait for the prime minister to be allowed inside.
“Sir, may I give you some advice?” Balduin asked as we reached the door.
I glanced down at him, my eyebrow raised. “Have I made a mistake already? If it is of my public behavior with the queen, allow it just this time. Once the honeymoon phase has passed, we will no longer be able to get away with it.”
“No, sir, it’s about the prime minister.” He shifted the glass as he clearly was all business, as I should have been.
I glanced up to see only Iskandar staring back at me blankly. For some reason, I expected him to snicker or something over how silly my concern was. However, as always, well, more so than normal, he was dead-faced. “Come, advise then, Balduin,” I said, stepping inside the meeting room, which had barely been redecorated.
It looked as it always did—a formal seating area, with two chairs facing each other by the fireplace, under the former king’s portrait. That was the only thing that had changed. It had always been my grandfather. Now it was my father.
Walking to my place, I sat in my chair with my royal seal embroidered on the cushion.
“As we discussed, this is your first formal meeting,” Balduin spoke, giving me no more time to soak it all in. “So he should bring any major policies or negotiations before you.”
“He should not, but I have a feeling he may anyway,” I said, slowly turning back to face him. “Everything I have seen has shown me that Prime Minister Hermenegild is not a man to hold back.”
