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Teo turns his head over his shoulder and sees me. He then places Zara’s feet back on the ground and stands up straight, giving her his hand to hold.
“Yes, Zara. It is. Would you like to meet her?”
Zara nods as my throat begins to clog.
When they finally reach me, I plant a sweet smile to my lips and go to my haunches.
“It’s so very nice to meet you, Zara. My name is Katrina.”
The little girl scans my face, hers looking a little confused and disappointed.
“You said she wore a crown made of diamonds and ice,” she says, looking to Teo for answers.
“I do, Zara. However, I left such a treasured keepsake at home, in the north where it belongs,” I explain with a nervous laugh, fixing the more modest crown I have on my head.
“That’s okay. That one is pretty too. Can I touch it?”
“I… huh… sure,” I stutter, handing it to her.
Zara takes my crown and begins to fiddle with it, inspecting the smaller diamonds to see if they are real. When she can’t decide, she sprints into a run to her nurse, trusting her judgment over her father’s.
Teo lets out a sigh beside me as he watches his daughter.
“Sorry about that. She’s obsessed with anything that sparkles.”
“Most children are,” I retort, observing all the similarities little Zara inherited from Teo. “She’s the spitting image of you when you were her age.”
“Yeah? You think so?” he asks shyly, obliviously happy to receive such a compliment.
I nod with a smile, while inside my mind wanders to what Zara’s mother must look like and if she is as permanent a fixture in Teo’s life as Zara seems to be.
“Is her mother around? I’d love to see if Zara bears some of her likeness.”
Teo turns to me with the oddest, confused expression on his face.
“She passed away in childbirth. I thought you knew that.”
I shake my head.
Why would I know if Zara’s mother had passed away? I didn’t even know of Zara’s existence. Not that I don’t understand why I was kept in the dark. If I learned anything from my father, it is that kings tend not to like talking about their bastard children and prefer them to be out of sight and out of mind.
Although, it does please me that Teo doesn’t seem to share in my father’s sentiment.
Then Teo surprises me further with his next remark.
“Would you mind terribly if tonight I was absent from dinner? I know it’s only been a few weeks since I left home, but I would really like to spend some quality time with Zara today. Cleo can show you and your handmaidens around so that you are familiar with the palace’s grounds.”
“Of course. And if it will make life easier on you, Zara can attend all our meals while I’m here,” I offer, thinking Zara to be the perfect buffer to keep Teo entertained and not focused on me.
But if I was expecting him to be disappointed with such an offer, then I am sorely mistaken. Teo’s amber eyes turn to liquid gold as he lifts my hand up to his lips and presses a tender kiss to it.
“I would really love that. Thank you.”
When he turns his back to me to rush over to play with his child, my brows pinch together in utter bewilderment. I start to head back inside, not having the heart to ask Zara for my crown back, when I turn around just to take another glance at them both.
Teo places my crown on little Zara’s head and curtsies to her like a lord would a queen. Her giggles are contagious, springing my own smile to crest my face.
And as I soak in this sincere moment of love, a faint memory similar to it emerges in my mind.
