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“Aw, it’s all right. Your old baby nurse, Griselda, was my aunt, and it wasn’t right the way they fired her just because she got so attached to you, sir.”
“I still miss her. Is she all right? Do you ever get to see her?”
“She lives way south now—married a tinker and travels with him all across the kingdom repairing pots and pans and the like. I think my mother hears from her now and again. I’ll tell her to say hello for you.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course, sir,” he said, dropping a little bow to me and going to the door. He stopped and turned to look at me. “Talk is that you’re supposed to meet the Alphas who are visiting tonight. If you’d like, I could come back when I finish my work and help you find something nice to wear.”
I laughed. “Good luck with finding something. But thanks anyway, Billy. I appreciate it.”
I was kind of startled by the offer. Kindnesses were rare, so I’m afraid I was instantly suspicious of him and his motives. Had my stepmother sent him?
But he must have seen how I felt because he smiled and shook his head. “Prince Rory, I’m not trying to trick you. I just know how badly you’ve been treated. I’ll come back later and if you want me to, I’ll help.” He winked at me, then turned and left, and I sat there, hating how I’d allowed my family to make me so suspicious of every good thing, no matter how small. Maybe there were still some nice people left here in the palace.
I doubted it. But maybe it was possible.
We did have some in our kingdom, though, and they had suffered a lot over the years. Griselda, my old nurse, used to tell me about how so many of the young men died in the constant wars, leaving their families destitute. Farming was a staple of our society, but with so many young men being swallowed up by the interminable war with Morovia, crops were rotting in the fields with not nearly enough men to help harvest.
It had long been my dream to actually govern our people. I didn’t think I could do much worse than my father or those who had come before him. It was my dream to end the war and let the young men come back home to work their fields and live their lives with their families. I had ideas about opening up trade routes too, which would bring in a bigger food supply and more revenue by taxing the traders and not our people. I’d have loved to see better rights for omegas as well, but that was maybe a bridge too far.
Those were dreams that were never going to come true, or at least none that I’d be around long enough to see happen. And I still had to get through this meeting with the Alphas later that evening and decide what I was going to do.
I quickly opened the bottle of little pills and dry swallowed one of them. Then I collapsed back down on the bed for a while and tried to rest. My stomach hurt too much for me at first to even think about leaving, but surprisingly, the cramping eased after a little while. I fell asleep right away, and I slept so hard I was drooling when I woke up maybe a few hours later. The light spilling over the windowsill was growing faint by then. Gods, had I really slept so hard and for so long?
I staggered to my feet, just as there was a quick knock, and the door opened to admit Billy. He was drooping with exhaustion. He would have been tired by that time of the day anyway, but he was burdened down by a heavy looking bucket of steaming water in one hand, with some clothing draped over his other arm.
“Did you sleep well, sir? I peeked in once earlier and you were dead to the world.”
I hurried over to take the bucket from him. “Let me carry this. And yes, I did sleep really hard. I don’t know what’s got into me. I never sleep this much.”
He shrugged. “It’s your heat, that’s all. It hits some of us that way, especially when we’re already worn out.” He put the clothing on the bed and held up one of them—a long, emerald green, velvet coat. “I went to the storeroom in the basement and found one of your father’s old trunks. The king had everything packed after he gained so much weight and some of this has gone out of style. They’ve been just sitting there ever since, but it’s good quality.”
I walked over to peer at the coat and matching trousers he was holding up and took a little sniff, expecting it to smell like moth balls, but it was surprisingly fresh. “But surely those old things must be ruined by now.”
“The clothes on the top of the stacks were, but there were three or four suits I found near the middle of the trunk that still had some life left in them. Like this one. Look at this beautiful cloth.”
It was dark green velvet, expensive and still lustrous even after so many years shut away. “Hmm. Yes, it’s really nice.”
“This one was my favorite,” he said, picking it up. “The rest of the good ones were all in similar colors, but this was the only velvet coat. I remember hearing about your father when he was a younger man. Everyone said he was really handsome. His clothes were simple and classic, so they’re still in style, after all these years.”
“My stepmother will have a fit.”
“Well, it can’t be helped. Truthfully, she’d find something to say no matter what.”
Since that was perfectly true, I had no comeback.
“What do you think of this suit?” Billy asked. “I’ve heard that your mother favored the king in this color, and he wore it to match her eyes. You’d look good in it too, I think, with all that black hair and your pale skin. You have her green eyes too. As shiny as jewels. I’ve heard it was her best feature.”
“According to Berinda, she didn’t have any.”
“Don’t you believe it. That one has always been jealous. Pay her no mind. From what I’ve heard, your mother was a great beauty.”
It had been during the near constant wars with Morovia that my father met my mother. After a frantic and increasingly desperate search for a rich consort to provide my father with the funds he needed for his army, my father, then a handsome young Alpha, heard about her. He discovered that she was… how do I put this? Let’s just say my poor mother, though she was very beautiful, wasn’t exactly a cheerful girl. She wore black all the time and was never seen to smile. She “moped around a lot,” according to what I’d heard, and refused all suitors. But he decided his pack needed her big dowry, so he made up his mind to marry her anyway. I guess when you’re the king you can do that kind of thing.
It seemed that her extreme depression was remarked upon by everyone who met her, but she still had many suitors lining up to marry her, because she was gorgeous and the only child of the fabulously wealthy Lord Rory.
Griselda said my mother had been well aware of the suitors only wanting her for her money. She scorned them. My grandfather, who had made his fortune in trading, had been devastated, because his dearest wish was for my mother to find someone to love. His second dearest wish had been for her first child to be named after him.
