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It was only at her voice that the tightness in my chest release. Glancing back to the bed, I saw her, now sitting upright, clutching the sheets to her chest.
“Forgive me, did I wake you?” I whispered, about to rise from the desk, but she stood first, and watching her walk to me, still wrapped in that sheet, was a sight I didn’t know I needed. She walked directly up to me and motioned with her hand for me to shift back. I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but I did what she wanted, thinking she was going to maybe write herself…however, the moment there was a big enough gap between my body and the desk, she sat gently on my lap. Instantly, I wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her to me.
“We have to be awake early…so why you are up earlier than that?” she whispered.
“Who can sleep when your beauty is—”
“Cheesy.” She cut me off before I could even finish, with a grin on her face.
“Fine, truthfully, it was your snoring.”
She gasped, her eyes wide, and I bit back a grin. “Never mind then—”
“Kidding,” I said when she tried to get out of my grasp, but I held her tighter. Breathing in the smell of her, the warmth of her… I rested my head on her chest.
“Is it about Arty?” she asked gently, touching the strands of my hair. “About today?”
“Yes,” I whispered back. “And every day after that.”
“Your reign as King.”
“Don’t say it like that.” I groaned as she said it, closing my eyes and resting back into the chair.
“How else am I supposed to say it?”
“I don’t know.” Lifting my eyes, I stared up at the painted ceiling above me. I wasn’t even used to this room yet. The king’s bedchamber. It had been redecorated, but there was only so much you could do to a centuries-old bedroom; changing a few drapes, sheets, and upholstery was like changing shoelaces on boots. It was just dressing. It still felt like my father’s room.
“What are you thinking then?”
“I am thinking that…I am King.” No matter how many times I said it, it still felt odd. “Even if my role is limited, I am still the ruler of this nation. The prime minister needs to come to ask me to form a government in my name. Currency will be minted with my face. Every choice, almost every word I say, will now be an integral part of this nation’s history. There is so much, Odette…so much I’ll need to do, and so much that will be expected of me. What if I fail? What if I am the one who ruins it all? They cheered yesterday…they’ll cheer today. But what happens—”
“May I recycle my speech?” she asked, drawing my attention to her.
“What?” I asked, not understanding.
“My speech to the Royal University, even though I know I am milking it for far too long,” she said, still proud, and it made me smile seeing how that one experience shaped her for the better.
“Ah, yes.” I grinned. “What was it you said? You will fail at times, and it will feel miserable…”
“But you will survive it,” she added, nodding.
“Because united we are,” I said with a little passion while chuckling.
She didn’t share my amusement but instead stared at me with deep seriousness. “I do not think you or I are going to get everything right, Gale. And I know we won’t always be cheered. But I also know if we stick together, we will make it. You will be a great king.”
“How do you know for sure?” I asked, playing with her curls.
“Because I can’t imagine we’ve gotten this far just to fail, now,” she replied. “We’ll take it day by day. Like we’ve been taking it. And today, we have one less thing to worry about.”
“What?”
She smiled. “Mr. Greensboro, my lawyer, made sure my inheritance was transferred to the royal accounts yesterday.”
My eyebrows furrowed as I stared into her brown eyes. Yesterday was our wedding, the coronation. There was not a spare second to do anything else, let alone finish that paperwork. “How? When did you do that? No one informed me.”
“There wasn’t time.” She chuckled. “Your mother came to me when I was changing into my second dress with my mother.”
I groaned, now understanding why it took her even longer than her normally long time to change. I just thought it was nerves. My mother never let up. “Odette, I am—”
