by Peak, Renna
Caspar gives another short bow before leaving us, and I turn to Nick. I’m so excited to be here—thrilled to get to explore another beautiful place—but my good mood won’t last long if Nick is being a grump. And I know one way to fix that.
“Come on,” I say, leading him toward the door to my suite. “I know a way we might kill an hour.”
Nicholas
My cousin may think he’s going to play me for a fool, but he’ll soon see that I won’t tolerate his nonsense.
Clara leads me toward her room. I’ll admit, I can use an hour of distraction, and judging by the look she’s giving me, that’s exactly her plan.
But before we even cross the entryway, a woman’s voice rings through the hall. “Nephew!”
I turn to my aunt with a forced smile—it isn’t as though I can ignore her. I give her a shallow bow. “Hello, Aunt Helena.”
She curtsies in response before turning her attention to Clara. “And who have we here?”
“This is Clara Weaver.” I turn to Clara. “Clara, this is my aunt, Lady Helena.”
Clara gives her a proper royal curtsy—she must have been practicing without my knowledge. “It’s an honor to meet you, Your Highness.”
My aunt looks delighted by the attention. It isn’t a true necessity by royal standards to give her the honor of a full curtsy—and she certainly isn’t referred to as ‘Your Highness’—but she’s clearly delighted that Clara has done so.
I try to keep my expression as blank as possible. “Clara will be accompanying me throughout my stay here in Wintervale.”
“I see.” I can tell by the look in my aunt’s eyes—and by the way she’s glancing between Clara and the door to her suite—that she knows exactly how Clara will be accompanying me.
I suppose I should have been a bit more thoughtful about this trip. While Wintervale Manor is considerably smaller than the palace, the spreading of rumors is exactly the same. It won’t due for any improprieties to occur. And unfortunately for both Clara and me, I don’t know Wintervale Manor nearly as well as I know the palace. I could have found us any number of places to secretly rendezvous in the palace—places no one else would ever know to look. Here, it is entirely different. And I certainly won’t be asking my cousins—nor my aunt—for assistance in finding places to have a secret affair.
Clara loops her arm through mine, causing my aunt to raise her eyebrows.
“You should join me for tea.” My aunt’s invitation almost seems an afterthought, though it would be quite rude for us to decline.
“We’re actually pretty tired,” Clara says before I can accept. “We haven’t even seen our room. Rooms.” She smiles. “Rooms.”
My aunt’s mouth falls open and she stares at Clara for a long moment before turning to me. “I’d insist, but it would appear that your escort has already made her decision.”
I can feel my cheeks begin to burn at her choice of words. “Forgive us, Aunt. We’ve had a long journey this morning—”
“Of course.” My aunt gives a shallow curtsy—Clara may not understand, but it’s all too clear that we’ve offended her. “I’m sure I’ll see you tonight at dinner.”
Clara doesn’t seem to notice. “That sounds great. We’ll see you then.”
My aunt eyes her for a moment before glancing at me and giving me the slightest shake of her head—so slight, I’m sure Clara doesn’t see it at all. “It is good to see you, Nephew. Do let me know if I can do anything to make your stay more comfortable.” Her lips turn ever so slightly downward before she turns to Clara. “And you as well, Ms. Weaver.”
Clara gives her a small smile and nod, and while she’s perfectly polite, I’ve no doubt that we’ve just done damage to the relations between our families.
As soon as my aunt has disappeared down the corridor, Clara pulls me into her suite.
She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me close to her, but she must recognize something in my expression. “What?” She tilts her head, her brow furrowing. “What? You’re so tense. I thought that went well. Caspar—”
“Don’t.” I raise my hand, interrupting her. The last thing I want to talk about is my cousin. I draw in a deep breath, straightening myself as I disentangle from her embrace. “I’ve no desire to talk about him.”
“Fine by me.” She grins. “The less talking, the better.” She raises a suggestive brow. “Looks like the bed is in there…”
“I owe you an apology, Clara.” I walk over to the window in her parlor and look out over the grounds. There’s a view of the lake from here and of the surrounding mountains. While the vistas aren’t quite as grand as those seen from the palace, I would have to admit it is still quite beautiful.
“You don’t owe me anything, Nick. I thought we already went through this.” She walks over to join me at the window. “It sure is pretty here, though. I don’t understand why you didn’t just move here. You have all the land and space you could ever want—”
“It isn’t mine.” My brow furrows. “None of this is mine.”
She gives a small shrug. “Technically, it’s your family’s, right? So technically, it is yours.”
“You do not understand…” I shake my head, letting out another long breath. “Even if I were to move here, none of this would belong to me.” And she doesn’t understand, but I would never move here. Not now.
“I’m sure you could take over a cabin like that one…” She points to a building on the opposite side of the lake. “I’m sure if you told people to leave you alone, they would. You’d have the best of both worlds, right?”
“If only it worked like that.” I stare out across the lake. I love this country—I’d do anything to help my family protect it and to protect the people who live here. But it isn’t mine. Not the way the ranch in Montana was mine, at any rate. There’s a big difference, I just can’t seem to put it into words.
And unfortunately, Wintervale is about the last place I want to be, for more reasons than one.
“What did you want to apologize for, Nick?”
“Hm?” I look over at her and can see she’s been watching me.
“You said you wanted to apologize for something.”
“Ah,” I say, looking back out the window. “I only wanted to say that I’ve been remiss in explaining Montovian expectations.”
She pulls my hand into hers. “I shouldn’t have said no to tea, right?” She shrugs. “I already kind of knew that. I just really didn’t want to have tea with her. Is that so wrong?”
I’m not sure what it is about the way she says her words, but I can’t help but smile. In fact, I nearly laugh out loud.
Clara grins. “You don’t always have to be so serious, you know. No one ever died because they turned down an invitation to tea.”
“No, I suppose not.” I turn to her, pulling her other hand into mine before I lift it to my lips, placing a kiss on the back of it. “I suppose not.”
Clara
It wasn’t my intention to make this stay harder on Nick. Obviously things are pretty tense in his family right now, and he’s here to fix things. Or at least make sure we don’t go to war or something. That’s a huge burden to put on one man’s shoulders, and I made myself a promise when we left the palace this morning: that I would lighten that burden as much as possible.
I can’t do a damn thing to actually make these two branches of the family get along—I hardly know anything about the conflicts that led them to this point—but I can diffuse some of the tension. I had to do that all the time at my job when two cocky executives let their pride get the best of them. There are times when inexperience and naivety are an art, even a tool—and this is one of them. I’m the American visitor who doesn’t know how things work around here, and I’m going to use that to our advantage. It’ll just take some time to learn how far I can push things.
My afternoon with Nick is wonderful, if not exactly restful. But as the clock moves closer to the time we’re supposed to meet his cousins, Nick grows
more and more subdued. He’s not going to make this any easier on anyone if he’s in a grumpy mood every time he has to interact with any of his relatives.
“Tell me about them,” I say, letting my fingers run down his bare chest. “Your cousins, I mean. When was the last time you saw them?”
“I see them a few times a year,” he replies, absently caressing my hair. “At the state dinner and a few other official events. And they came to my brothers’ weddings, of course.”
“But did you actually talk to them at any of these events? When was the last time you actually had a one-on-one chat with any of them? Or talked about anything that wasn’t official state business?”
He frowns. “I haven’t had any reason to ‘chat’ with them outside of state business.”
“They’re your family. That’s reason enough. Though I guess you’ve had your hands full with the rest of your siblings these last few years.” I smile as I let my fingers brush against the moderate patch of dark, curled hair on his upper chest. He’s just the right amount of rugged for me.
“Yes, my siblings have been more than enough,” he agrees.
“Still, you must know something about your cousins,” I say. “What are they like?”
“We used to see each other quite a bit more as boys,” he admits finally, still stroking my hair. “They’ve probably changed a lot since then.”
“Then what were they like as boys?”
He shakes his head, but I swear I see his lips twitch, almost as if he’s fighting a smile.
“They were like most boys,” he tells me. “Quite good at making trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Oh, the usual. Wrestling in the mud and ruining their formal clothes. Chasing animals in the woods and getting lost. Playing pranks on the servants or family members.”
“Like their cousins?” I tease.
His eyes flicker. “Sometimes.”
I laugh softly. “I bet you were a troublemaker yourself.”
“Not like them. Not like my brothers, either.” But that twinkle in his eyes gives him away.
And I still have things I want to know about his cousins. “Is Caspar the oldest?”
“Yes. He’s about Leopold’s age. Xavier’s next, then Benedict. Benedict and I were born within a month of each other.”
“Were they always so cocky?” I ask. “Or is that a new development?”
“Oh, they’ve been arrogant for as long as I can remember,” he replies. “Caspar was always the athletic one. He and my brother William used to go at it quite a bit when they were younger. They’re both really competitive. But as they got older, Caspar challenged William less and less. William thinks it’s because Caspar knew he would lose, but Andrew thinks it’s because Caspar turned his attention to other things like politics and learning how to run an estate. I’m tempted to agree with Andrew. Caspar is just as competitive as ever, he’s just better at hiding it now.”
“What about Xavier? He seems a little more subdued than the others.”
“He always was. He never talked much, even when we were children. But you could always see the wheels turning in his head. He’s probably the smartest of the three, but you wouldn’t know it. And he’s strong. He could snap a man in two if he gets mad enough. I’ve only seen him that angry once in my life.”
I’m tempted to ask him more about that, but now that I’ve got him talking, I want to keep going. “And Benedict?”
“Benedict has always been focused on one thing and one thing only—women. He could have given Leo a run for his money—at least before Leo met Elle. That man could charm the pants off just about anyone, and he knows it.” Nick meets my gaze. “Be careful around him.”
I laugh. “You have nothing to worry about with me, Nick.” I lean forward and kiss him on the nose. “I promise.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s him. It’s all of them.”
“Why?” I tease. “Do you think you aren’t enough for me?” I climb up to my knees and lean over him. “Because I’m perfectly happy to prove to you again that you’re the only one on my mind.”
He grabs me by the hair and in one fluid motion, flips me onto my back with him on top of me. I’ll never get tired of the way his naked body feels, spread against mine like this. I’ll never get tired of the feeling of his weight on top of me, or of the rich, manly scent of him, or of the way he’s looking at me right now.
“If you want me to show you, then I’m happy to oblige,” he murmurs, dipping his head. He kisses me thoroughly, and I wrap my arms around his neck, relishing every second of it.
When he reaches down between my legs, though, I stop him.
“We have to get ready to meet your cousins,” I remind him. “We probably shouldn’t be late.”
“They can wait,” he growls.
“Maybe. But we won’t be getting off on a good foot then, would we?” I wiggle out from under him and climb off the bed. “I’m sure it’ll only take an hour or two. Then we can come back here and enjoy each other all evening. While feeling like we accomplished something today.”
I can feel his eyes follow me as I walk over to the closet. He mutters something under his breath.
“What was that?” I ask, pausing at the closet door.
He gives me a wry look. “I said you were going to be the death of me.”
“I try.” I grin at him. “Now, unless you want us to meet them naked, we should probably get dressed.”
To my surprise, he gets up off the bed without complaining and walks toward the bedroom door. As he passes me, he grumbles something else that I don’t catch. The way he looks at me, though, makes me blush all the way down to my toes.
Nicholas
Having Clara on my arm as we reach the meeting with my cousins makes things seem infinitely easier. I’m certain it’s only my perception, but her presence is more than a buffer, at least to me.
I’ve still really no idea what is going on in this area of Montovia. There have been rumors of unrest for many years, though it’s always been such a small group of citizens that no one has paid much attention to them. Now it seems they’ve grown more vocal, and it seems my family has grown a bit more concerned that their numbers might be increasing. It isn’t so much that there isn’t room for dissent—there have always been those opposed to the monarchy—it’s more that the threats are growing more legitimate. And that this branch of the family seems to be paying attention to them, perhaps even agreeing with them.
My cousins are sitting at a small table that has been set up in the gardens for our meeting. They rise as soon as they see us, all smiling in the direction of Clara.
Her arm is looped through mine, and I clasp her forearm possessively at their gaze, causing her to turn to me.
She lifts a brow, and without a word passing between us, I already know what she’s thinking—that she’s already assured me I’ve nothing to worry about.
But the way my cousin Benedict almost leers at Clara makes me rethink everything. My jaw clenches as I see him look her up and down, his gaze resting a bit too long on her breasts.
Clara’s wearing a very appropriate semi-formal dress, one she borrowed from my sister. And while it’s tasteful, it obviously reveals a bit too much of her considering how all three of my cousins now stare at her.
I help her into her seat before I sit next to her. A waiter appears, pouring us both a glass of an iced beverage.
“Good of you both to come,” my cousin Caspar motions for his brothers to sit. “It’s been far too long since our cousins have been on this side of the country.”
“Hm.” My jaw is still clenched so tightly I can’t speak.
“And you’re looking exceedingly lovely this afternoon, Clara.” Benedict can’t seem to remove his gaze from her breasts, leering at her as he speaks.
“Thank you,” she says, sipping at her tea. “This is delicious.”
“A family recipe,” Xavier says, lifting his own glass to his lips. �
��Passed down on our mother’s side over many generations. A favorite among the citizens of Wintervale.”
“I believe you mean citizens of Montovia,” I say, taking a sip of the overly sweet beverage.
“You know as well as we do how our citizens identify themselves, Cousin.” Caspar smiles in my general direction. “That is why your father sent you here, isn’t it? Because of the concern about secession?”
I try to keep my expression impassable, but it is difficult. I’ve little interest in Montovian politics, and it’s well known that the small faction in this area have long considered themselves a separate country. And while there have been threats over the centuries, things have always seemed to sort themselves out before circumstances dictated a war.
“I think we can all agree that secession is never going to transpire.” I look at my three cousins in turn. “And if it were truly a threat, my father wouldn’t have sent me here to discuss it.”
Caspar chuckles. “On the contrary, Cousin. The numbers have been growing steadily over the past decade. Your father is all too aware of that fact.”
Something in my stomach twinges—if that is true, there is no way my father would have sent me here. He would have sent Andrew—or come himself—if there was a true threat. My presence here today is little more than a show, and I’m certain that everyone at this table knows it. That everyone in this region knows it.
“We from Wintervale are a proud people, Nicholas.” Xavier’s gaze seems to bore into me. “Many in our family have identified with them for many years. No one in your family wishes to acknowledge that—”
“My family…” My jaw tightens, and I struggle not to growl my words. “Our family has never had an issue with those from Wintervale. It is only when the threat of secession arises that there becomes a problem.” I let out a long breath, trying hard to cover my growing anger. “I’ve never quite understood what the issue is, anyway. There’s never been any threat from Montovia—”
