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“Nothing.” I shake my head. “But you might be onto something. Nas Laed is one of the most beautiful cities in the kingdom. The queen should visit it.”
“And you’d be able to put a lot more miles away from the last place she saw the eastern king. You know what they say—the heart can’t feel what it can’t see,” Cleo singsongs the old southern proverb.
I don’t have the heart to tell her that the proverb was made up by cheating men who betrayed their wives with girls like her. Nevertheless, she makes a solid point. If Katrina is taken out of this place and into one as exotic as Nas Laed, then I might still have a shot.
“There’s only one downside to this plan, though,” Cleo adds, concerned.
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
“It’s a five-day journey home,” she reminds me with a warning tone.
“I know.”
“That leaves you with twenty days, Teo. Just twenty days.”
“I know,” I repeat, liking this idea more and more.
“I don’t know, Teo. You would be taking a big gamble. You might not be able to get her to fall in love with you in such a short time.”
I smile at that.
“But that’s just it, Cleo. I don’t need her to fall in love with me. I just need her torememberhow she’s never stopped.”
Chapter 33
Katrina
He’s taking me to his palace in Nas Laed.
He thinks he can fool me, but I’m no fool.
I know exactly why Teo suddenly needed to return to his home, and it had nothing to do with not being able to afford to stay outside his capital for the full month of my visit.
He thinks that a change in scenery will make me forget eastern meadows and piercing green eyes that haunt me. He thinks that traveling so far south, and adding even more distance between me and Levi, that somehow my heart will forget its true affections.
If that could ever be possible.
But I didn’t put up a fight when he gave me the news five days ago.
In fact, I rejoiced in it.
Because it meant that I had something to occupy my mind with, distracting me from my sorrow, while eating away at the days that I still had to endure the south and its vain king.
I must have been a foolish child in my youth to ever consider Teo as my soulmate. But I guess my eyes were too distracted by his amber gaze and sly smile to look deeper underneath such an exquisite exterior. Teo is as hollow and shallow as they come, no real substance to him at all.
So let him think his little game is working.
Let him believe that my heart will grow cold toward the east as we travel deeper into the scorching heat of the south.
Let him believe whatever he wants and live in his little fantasy that he could ever steal my heart from its rightful owner.
Although, five days into this voyage, I must admit it is far more arduous than the one I made with Levi east. I knew the south was known for its warm summer days and nights, yet nothing could have prepared me for its reality.
Long gone are the use of my winter gowns, as they serve no purpose here under such high temperatures. Just the weight of them on me had me gasping for breath.
Although I’m still suspicious of Teo’s so-called right hand, Cleo was the one that saved me and my handmaidens from heat exhaustion on the first day of our travels, gifting us light, breezy clothing so we didn’t pass out in our stuffy carriage. It was, though, the particular gift of sandals that gave me pause, as I couldn’t wrap my head around its purpose.
Safe to say after three days in, I understood perfectly.
