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I gaped at her. Never had Maywin ever refused me.
“What?!”
“I… there is a meeting of the… a call of all house staff… Grisella…” she babbled, looking pained. “Oh, I’ll see if it can be rescheduled—”
I held up my hand. “Slowly now. What is it?”
Maywin inhaled deeply. “Grisella has called a meeting of all staff to prepare for the upcoming changes in the palace. She expects Rufus and I to be in attendance.”
“That’s tonight?” I demanded incredulously.
Was this a coincidence, or was this purposely planned at the same time as my “training session”?
And now I was getting paranoid. I’d be stark raving mad by the time my tenure as queen was done in Ironhelm.
“Yes, miss, but if you need me—” Maywin sputtered.
“No,” I interjected with a sigh.
I didn’t need to interrupt Grisella’s tightly held scheduling nor get on her bad side any worse than I already was. I would make my meeting with Axel quick and abrupt. I would need to make it clear to him tonight that our sessions couldn’t continue, not anymore. I was going to be queen, and he was… well, I wasn’t sure what he was, but he could not have any part of my life going forward.
Grisella would have to find me a new trainer if they insisted on these bizarre sessions—whatever purpose they served—and I would have to forget that Axel ever existed.
“You go to this staff meeting and do whatever Grisella tells you,” I sighed. “It’s important that we fall into the routine of this household.”
“Maybe the King will be at this staff meeting tonight,” Maywin offered with her usual optimism.
The idea bothered me more than I let on. If King Cade showed himself to my staff before he did me, I would be incredibly irate to hear it.
“If he does, I don’t want to hear about it,” I muttered. “Go back to your room and get ready. I’ll deal with my own evening.”
Maywin retreated to her room, and I sat before the vanity, picking up a silver-handled brush to drive through the black tresses of my mane, my eyes staring blankly back at me in the glass.
What do you want from me, Axel? Why am I so nervous about tonight?
* * *
I wasthe first to arrive at the ballroom, the chandeliers flickering on the lowest setting, creating a shimmering glow as the only illumination along the mural-covered walls as I entered. The ambiance reeked of romance and did nothing to calm my shattered nerves.
I smoothed my hands over the front of my skirt, the hairs raising at the base of my neck as if someone were watching me, but in this low light, it was impossible to tell if I was being uneasy or if my senses were accurate.
Rubbing my hands over my arms, I ambled closer to the center of the room, looking around for any signs of Axel or anyone else.
Isn’t it odd that they would allow Axel to train me without a chaperone?I thought, although not for the first time.
Of course, I didn’t know the rules of Ironhelm all that well, but gauging from what Axel had told me about what the King expected, they weren’t that different from Carrottrove. Being raised as the future queen, I was provided a chaperone for all my interactions with males. Why, then, was I not constantly guarded where Axel was involved?
He must have had a closer connection to the King than I was told. That would also explain why he wasn’t so easily fired when I’d tried to get rid of him.
Which made my attraction toward him so much worse now that I thought about it.
His footsteps caught my attention, and I whirled to confront him.
“This is highly inappropriate,” I informed him tersely, even before he appeared. “At this hour…” I trailed off when he showed his handsome face, his expression tired. “And I only just saw you this morning.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Something has changed since this morning. You are going to be required to make public appearances now.”
My well-crafted speech to him flew out of my mouth and out one of the cathedral windows as darkness enveloped us. He drew closer to me, his face taut in concentration.
