AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Three nights a week, and I don’t touch her.” It sounds odd when I hear myself say it, but I don’t care.
“So what the hell do you do if you’re not fucking her?”
I take a sip of my brandy and shrug. “I listen to her.”
“You know,” he smirks at me, “sometimes mouths are meant for fucking. And if I recall, she’s got a lovely mouth with rather inviting lips.”
“I listen to her play, you pillock.”
That seems to be the best joke he’s heard in a very long time with the way he bursts out laughing. The bastard even snorts and spits some of his whisky over me. “Dear God, what on this green earth is wrong with you? The girl is young, attractive…and I’ve heard violinists have strong hands.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I ignore the lewd expression lighting up his face. It’s really hard to keep to my oath when every fibre of my being is twisting with the need to smack him one in the teeth.
“If you don’t want her—”
“Finish that sentence and you won’t ever have to worry about the weight of the crown on your gormless head. I’ll make you the front-page headline of every national newspaper.”
The room darkens suddenly as a deluge pours from the heavens, and just as I’m about to check the weather app on my phone, a crack of lightning fills the room, followed by the rumble of thunder.
No doubt Eve won’t have an umbrella with her. At some point, she probably read somewhere that someone died after lightning struck theirs, and that would be it. No more umbrellas. The girl is naïve and unreasonable enough that she’d rather get doused instead of take precautions. Just as she’d rather risk my anger instead of getting in the fucking car I sent for her.
“What’s going on, Henry?” Arthur asks, topping up my drink before he sits on the other side of the sofa. “You got that thunderous, I’m-about-to-slit-a-throat look on your face.”
“Surprise, surprise. Another shit joke comes out of your mouth.”
He grins. “I’m nothing if not full of surprises.”
“You’re full of shit.”
“You’re full of psycho tendencies,” he retorts, so quickly that it hits me out of nowhere. “But…each to their own and all that nonsense.”
“Everything I do is to keep you and the future of the monarchy safe.”
“I was teasing you,” he tells me. But we both know he wasn’t. That was an off-the-cuff, unfiltered thought. Arthur said what everyone else thinks. “Seriously, why are you here?”
The folder in my hand is heavy, the information inside the country’s most guarded secret. One that he needs to know for his own good. But there’s a sliver of pity in his eyes when he waits for me to speak that reminds me of the hollow bleakness inside me. It makes me wonder what it would’ve been like to live with my father’s impending death on my shoulders. It occurs to me that maybe bearing the weight of this secret for him is the best way to protect him from himself.
“I’m not going to stay the duration of the gala tomorrow.”
Arthur gives me a pointed look. “Why?”
“There’s somewhere else I need to be.”
“And who’s going to babysit me?”
“Julian.”
“Great. You’re going off to not fuck the violinist, and I’m stuck with the eternal widower.” His laugh is peeved and exasperated at the same time.
“I’m not seeing Eve tomorrow.” I take another sip of my drink, stopping short of his refill. There’s enough going on without me getting caught driving under the influence. “It’s Wolfsden business.”
“Then why don’t I know about it?” The cock of his brow tells me he’s going to keep pushing for the answer he’s looking for.
“Sometimes, you don’t need to know everything.” The double meaning of my statement isn’t lost on me, but he nods.
“Why Julian, though?”
“Because Simon is still avoiding his family.”
