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“I’d rather you at least have some toast.”
“I hate breakfast,” said Rainier. “You know this, Felix.”
“Will you at least eat something before we go?”
“I can eat later, but you know I don’t like breakfast in the morning.”
Felix’s face grew so pinched, guilt punched Rainier’s stomach, and he almost wanted to say they shouldn’t go to the house. This wasn’t fair on him, but Rainier didn’t want to stay alone here either.
“I’m going to have a bath. You can sit and eat.”
Rainier had been sitting in the tub for a good fifteen minutes and trying to let the warmth soak into him when Felix came into the privy room with an odd expression.
“Natalie said she’s kept Aunt Betty away, but she thinks you should see her. I said we’re leaving.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t have a problem with my Aunt, but I just don’t feel up to it,” said Rainier.
“That’s fine. Natalie said she’ll come by at some point later.”
Felix’s expression was still off, and Rainier squinted at him. “What?”
“Nothing.”
***
Rainier was leaving the rooms with Felix when Mum came storming down the hall.
“I found the servants taking your things out. Just where do you think you’re going? You pout for weeks-”
“I’m not doing this.” Rainier took Felix’s hand and pulled him around so they could head to the stairs.
Her eyes bored into Felix who was holding Inky with his spare arm. “Is that your whore? You’re leaving to go be with him?”
Rainier ignored her.
“Why are you wearing your cloak inside? You’ve gained weight, haven’t you? I can tell you’re fatter, and I bet you’ve been stuffing your face the whole time in your rooms.”
The words hit like knives. He was wearing his cloak with the hood up because he couldn’t seem to get warm enough.
Felix’s hand tightened as he glanced at the Queen. “What the fuck?”
“What did you say to me?!”
“Come on.” Rainier pulled on Felix’s arm while his face burned. “Ignore her.”
“Rainier, you’re not leaving unless I say,” said Mum. “This is ridiculous.”
Rainier kept Felix by him as they went down the stairs, and the effort quickly wore him out while he tried to block out the earlier words. They kept ringing in his head even when they were outside. A carriage waited, and a spare horse on a lead huffed.
He didn’t want to come back here to live with the same shit day after day, but he wouldn’t have Felix for that long either. He stopped as his mind scrambled for some way out of everything.
“Come on,” said Felix. “She can’t stop you.”
Mum already had stopped him from having a lot.
Chapter Twenty
Felix sprawled on the cushion and watched Rainier’s shape under the blanket. He’d gone to bed almost as soon as they got in, and he was still in the same position even though Felix had taken the borrowed horse back into Rosewood to shop for food.
