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Archie sighed. They had known from the start that this lead could be another loose end, but it didn’t make the news any easier. And it seemed Archie had to say something before they both crumpled. “We can keep searching.”
“Yes . . .” Ainsley said, her expression distant as if that would be enough to stave off even the threat of tears. “Though all this searching, only to be disappointed again and again—to never know for certain . . .” She shook her head. “Sometimes . . . sometimes I think it was easier when I thought he was dead. Is that completely terrible?”
Archie understood the feeling. He felt the feeling. He hated to think Leo might be stuck or hurting somewhere without help, and he had chased down weaker leads than this one in the last three years, but Leo had also been the one to run off that day, and Archie hated what the prolonged loss was doing to his princess just as much. And while there were so many words he could use to describe the woman he loved, “terrible” would never be one of them.
But if there ever was a time he wished Ainsley was the sort of girl who would allow herself to be completely shielded from pain, it would be now.
It was the only reason he had any small thought of fighting the bear without her.
He pulled at her hand, encouraging her to turn away from the empty den and lean on him instead. She hid her face, and he felt the fluttering movement of her chest.
The silence stretched for several moments until those movements became more even.
Then he asked her, “What would you like to do?” He would do anything she wanted if it would make some of the pain go away.
She looked up at him through glistening eyelashes and regained her smile. “I want to marry you.”
Archie’s eyebrow quirked. “Is that all?” Because he was fairly certain he had dropped to his knees to beg for such a favor once already—the moment he thought his suit had any chance of being accepted. And though royal weddings took longer to approve and plan than he would have preferred, the date had already been set and was almost at their doorstep.
“Yes,” Ainsley said with a bit more fire. “That’s all. I want to put this aside, marry you, and pretend we are happy for at least the next three days. Is that all right?”
Archie paused to give her request adequate consideration. So, perhaps a second or two. “Would we really have to ‘pretend’ we are happy?”
Ainsley reached for his face, preparing for their favorite sort of stage kiss—the kind that had absolutely no hope of remaining that way. “Well, we are both very accomplished actors, but no, I don’t think we will have to pretend overly much.”
* * *
Archie had another fantasy, one he had never dared speak out loud and had hardly admitted to himself. And of course, most of it focused on marrying the most beautiful girl he had ever known. But after their vows were said, after they had shared their first kiss as a wedded couple—and perhaps a few more kisses just to make sure the first one stuck—eventually there would be time where he could clink a wine glass and have everyone looking at him for a final toast.
And he wouldn’t have to say a word. Leo would walk out in his human form, Archie bowing his head while he revealed to the kingdom, the king, and even the princess how he had returned to them their missing prince, proving not only his love for his royal bride but also his humble willingness to renounce his claim to the throne in favor of the one it actually belonged to.
His debt would be fulfilled.
His princess would only cry tears of joy.
And, yes, a man he hoped he could call his friend wouldn’t have whiskers any longer.
But failing all that, he would do his best to do the one thing Leo had asked of him—seeing to Ainsley’s happiness. And she wanted three days of peace.
So, when Archie’s habitual pacing through his home castle in Carabus brought him to the library, he knew what he had to do next. Many of the ogre’s journals and books still lay open on the table. Archie had searched through them several times—quickly confirming that the ogre had been leaching magic from a powerful fae which allowed him to breed and control the plague beasts in a limited, experimental fashion. Archie still hoped he might uncover more answers someday, but for now, it was time to put the books away.
Ainsley would be coming to live here after the wedding, and though he hoped they would spend the majority of their first few days and nights together locked inside their bedchamber, he didn’t want her to stumble upon the books before she was ready for them.
His steward met him with the task only half completed. “There is another seamstress in the great hall to see you. She’s from Castletown and says she knows you.”
Archie hardly looked up. “Not another one.” He had assumed that he wouldn’t have to spend so much time with seamstresses in preparation for the wedding as he wasn’t the one wearing the dress, but he had been wrong. There were so many pieces to his required wedding suit that there didn’t seem to be any end to it. He wanted everything to be perfect for Ainsley, but she always said he should speak his mind more, and it was his wedding too. “Can’t you just tell her to go with whatever measurements they already have for me at the castle? I can’t have grown much in the last few days.”
“I tried. She says it’s important, and her cat hissed at me.”
“Her cat?” Archie was already standing up from the table. “Tabitha? Why didn’t you say so? I’m coming.” He only took a slight detour to hand off his task to a younger library assistant—Hamish. The twins were running around the stables somewhere. The castle staff was half-full of former Charity House Children, and Archie would happily adopt them all if he could.
Tabitha was standing in the main hall, holding a long-suffering gray cat in her arms and staring at an old portrait of Ainsley’s family. It wasn’t on the wall yet—just propped against the table along the first wave of the princess’s belongings meant to accompany her into married life. The half-sized figures were almost at eye-level when Tabitha pointed to sixteen-year-old Leo.
“His hair is longer,” she said, tracing a line down the prince’s painted cheek as if demonstrating the length. “He’s thinner too. Or maybe just taller?” She squinted and then shook her head. “No. He’s thinner and taller. And I thought he might be fae with the way he was dressed, but he wasn’t.” Her index finger hovered over his hazel eyes. “He stared at me for such a long time. Then he said my name. And I knew. His eyes are the same.”
That was when she turned to face Archie, and he remembered to breathe.
“You saw Leo? Human Leo?” Archie had almost stopped believing it was possible.
