AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why have we stopped?” a female voice asked, the princess sticking her head from the carriage.
“Don’t trouble yourself, Your Highness. It’s just a cat.”
Leo smiled to himself, as he already knew what the girl would do next. It seemed the more time he spent around the princess, the more certain he became.
She was a girl after his own heart.
“That’s Archie’s cat.” Ainsley sprung out of the carriage before any of her guards could stop her. “I think he wants us to follow him.”
* * *
Archie had started to panic when the cat reappeared. Being stranded while half-naked did that to a person, even if he couldn’t see any present danger. “There you are. Where did you take my clothes?”
“Meow!” the cat said brightly, and then Archie realized what would happen next.
“The princess is back? But I’m naked!” Or at least he was only wearing his shorts. That was bad enough. He took a step back, ready to dive under the water completely.
But the cat’s trap had already been sprung, and in another moment, he heard her voice. “Archie? Are you here? Are you all right?”
“Um . . . yes.” No point in hiding now. “I just can’t seem to . . . Well, my clothes were right here.” He gestured to the bank uselessly.
Ainsley nodded, though her eyes were on his chest. She didn’t seem to mind he was built like a bull and couldn’t keep himself entirely hidden. In fact, if she weren’t the princess and therefore the pinnacle of womanly virtue, Archie might have thought her rather pleased. A guard caught up before the princess turned her eyes demurely to the ground.
How dead would Archie be before this was over?
“You were robbed?” she asked, her cheeks aflame but her voice full of concern.
“Yes. I guess I was robbed.” By a cat. He should have followed Harris’s advice and turned the wretched animal into a fur muff that first night.
“Don’t move,” she said. “My father is coming, and we can help!”
The king. Now he was going to meet the king.
His knees went weak with the urge to bow, and Archie slipped under the water again.
“Archie?” Ainsley cried with concern, but her guard was the one to fish him out, tossing him to land like a beached selkie—soaked and half-naked at his sovereign’s feet.
Perfect.
Chapter 14
What the Cat Dragged In
Archie had hoped that if he ever met King Randolph face to face, he would have a chance to be more dignified. Perhaps even competent—if he was still allowed a few daydreams. Instead, he was dripping wet and holding the king’s robe around his waist as he sat across from the king and the princess in their upholstered carriage.
He bowed his head, feeling sheepish. “Thank you again, sire.”
The king was stone-faced behind his short beard. He was a thin but well-muscled man descending into his middle years. The sort of man who could look royal without wearing jewels or a crown. He could look royal in a potato sack. And even with a host of guards, he carried his own sword on his back. “You were robbed on the road?”
“Yes.” What else did the king expect him to say? And perhaps more importantly, what did the cat expect him to say? Leo had to have some plan, but Archie had no idea what it was. All the self-important feline had done was jump inside the carriage like he owned the place, sat down on the princess’s lap, and started to purr.
Ainsley was smitten.
But the king was not so easily impressed. In fact, something about Archie’s apparent incompetence seemed to offend him greatly. “And you want to be a huntsman? Why haven’t you found someone to teach you swordplay? Bows are useless in close quarters, and not every beast you hope to slay will stay at a distance.”
Archie opened his mouth, then closed it again. This wasn’t the sort of reprimand he expected to get from a king. More like an exasperated father. And since Archie had exasperated his own father more than once, he knew anything he said would only make it worse.
The king wouldn’t want to be told that no one in Umbrae or in any of the other Borderland Kingdoms would bother to teach a miller’s son swordplay.
