by B. B. Hamel
“Simple,” I said.
He laughed. “That’s right. Starkish Kings were known for their seriousness and their frugality back in the old days. These are supposed to be a symbol of our simple might.”
I smiled. “I like them then.”
“Go ahead. Take a seat.”
I stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Go ahead. Trust me, you won’t break it.”
I slowly sat down in the king’s throne. Trip stood behind me and bent down, his lips near my ear.
“What do you think?” he said softly.
“I can understand why people like this.”
“You look perfect in that chair,” he said.
I pictured ruling over a country from this chair. I couldn’t imagine how many edicts and lives had been changed from the very spot I was sitting. Probably countless.
I stood up, shaking my head. I couldn’t get too seduced by all this. “Come on,” I said. “Show me something else. Really try to impress me.”
“Not impressed enough?” he asked, laughing.
“Not yet.”
“Good. I’ve got a lot more.”
We went back down the long hall and out into the main part of the castle. We walked side by side, heading through the maze-like passages.
“Do you know where we are right now?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No clue, honestly.”
“Good. You’re not supposed to. This castle was built like a maze to confuse everyone but the royal family.”
“That makes sense. Get a lot of assassins these days?”
He laughed. “Not really, no.”
“Did you grow up here?”
“I did,” he said, nodding. “I know these halls better than anyone alive right now. Except for maybe Max.”
“Maximillian?”
He nodded. “I grew up with Max. He was my caretaker when I was a child, and he’s my closest advisor now.”
“That’s nice,” I said, “though I can’t imagine growing up with servants.”
“You get used to it, like anything else.” We finally stopped in front of another large oak door. “I think you’ll like this.”
He pushed the doors open and we stepped inside. My breath caught in my chest.
It was like something from a dream. With two floors and oak desks in the middle, the library looked like it was straight out of a Renaissance painting. It was gorgeous, all polished oak and real stone floors. The shelves were packed with books.
“Okay,” I said, walking inside, “now I’m impressed.”
“Good,” he said, laughing.
“What are all these books?”
He shrugged. “They’re mostly in Starklandian. Lots of them are pretty old.” He walked over to one shelf and pulled out a thick, heavy-looking tome. “I think this one is handwritten. Probably as old as this castle.”
I shook my head, amazed. “There’s so much history in here.”
“You’re right. Sometimes I forget about that.”
“You have other worries.”
“The luxury of you non-royals. You get to think about things like history while I’m stuck ruling a country.”
I moved through the shelves and he walked behind me, giving me space to browse. I couldn’t read the majority of the books, but they were old and they were beautiful.
I couldn’t imagine being in a place like this back in America. The oldest books were a couple hundred years old there. But here, the oldest spanned back much, much further.
“Come on,” he said finally. “I’ve got lots more to get through.”
I nodded, looking back at him. He was smirking at me, and I couldn’t help but feel my heart beating fast in my chest.
This man had grown up around all of this. He had it in his blood. His family was powerful and ran an entire country, and now he wanted me to be a part of that. I couldn’t even begin to fathom all of the things he knew and the responsibilities he had.
He turned and I followed him. The guards shut the library behind us and fell in at a respectful distance as he took me on the rest of the tour.
He showed me antique arms and armor and even let me hold a sword. It was way heavier than I would have guessed. Next he showed me a room filled with art, another room filled with musical instruments, and another room dedicated solely to sculptures. There was even a garden courtyard at the very center of the castle.
As we walked, I had to appreciate how complex the castle was. It was far larger than I would have guessed, and I had been absolutely lost the second we’d left my room. I wouldn’t have known where to go if it weren’t for Trip leading the way.
Finally, we ended up at a pair of glass doors. “This is my favorite spot in the castle,” he said.
“What is it?” I asked,
He pushed the doors open and we walked into a thick, muggy heat. I laughed, shaking my head. “Really? A pool?”
“I like to swim,” he said, grinning. “I come here most nights. I’ll swim until I’m tired. It’s a good stress reliever.”
There wasn’t much special about the pool, but that in itself was impressive. It looked like any other indoor pool, no special paintings lining the walls or something like that.
“It’s just so plain,” I said.
“I like it that way. Not everything needs to be covered in gold in this place.”
“I thought that was part of being royal. You needed to look royal.”
“Only in front of the peasants,” he said, grinning at me. “But I do appreciate how appearances can matter.”
“I can tell.”
“You seem to appreciate it, too. You wore those panties for me after all.”
I blushed. “Not exactly for you.”
“Maybe, but you only succeeded in making me want to strip your jeans off that much more.”
“Careful. I’ll push you into the pool.”
He smirked. “You think that can mask how wet you already are?” He stepped closer to me, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.
He was a cocky asshole, and his guards were standing twenty feet away.
And yet if he put his hands in my panties, he’d find out just how soaking wet he really made me.
“Your Highness.”
We both looked over. Standing in the doorway was a woman I recognized.
“Lynette,” he said. “I’m busy at the moment.”
“Yes, I see that, Your Highness,” she said, her lips pursed. “But we have a meeting.”
Trip sighed. “It can wait.”
“Please, sir. It won’t take long.”
“Very well.” He looked at me. “To be continued then, Bryce. Al will return you to your rooms.”
“Okay,” I said. “Have fun ruling.”
“I’ll do my best.” He smirked at me and then turned and left.
I watched him disappear behind the woman, and for a second I wanted him to come back. I felt bad that he couldn’t have any time to himself and was getting pulled into important meetings all the time.
It was probably pretty hard to have a normal life when you were a king, which was all the more reason to stay far, far away from getting involved with Trip.
As I followed Al back to my room, I kept thinking about the castle, about the history and the splendor. It was a beautiful life, even if it was a complicated one.
I was starting to see how a normal life could be a little overrated.
10
TRIP
“This better be good,” I said to Lynette. “I canceled our meeting for a reason.”
She nodded, her face completely blank. “Yes. I saw your reason.”
Lynette was a no-nonsense person, and she was loyal, which were two traits I liked in a person. But she was also prone to overstepping her position, and that could sometimes annoy the hell out of me.
Still, she wouldn’t pull me away from something unless it was important. Part of being a good ruler was knowing when you needed to listen and when you needed to ru
le. When Lynette pulled me for a meeting, I knew it was time to listen, even if I didn’t always want to hear what she had to say.
“What’s so pressing, Lynette?”
“It’s about the girl, sir.”
We walked side by side back toward the west wing and the official cabinet meetings.
“What about her?”
“Sir, I think we should scrap the marriage idea.”
I frowned at her. “Max tells me the people like her.”
“They do, but not for the right reason. They’re just happy someone slapped you in the face.”
I clenched my jaw. “That’s not how Max put it.”
“To be frank, Your Majesty, I’d know better than Max. Sir, I believe the girl would do more harm than good at this point.”
“That’s disappointing,” I said.
“I think we should send them off to a resort, let them have a nice time, and forget about all of this. Concentrate on the rebellion. Maybe find you a good Starkish girl.”
I pursed my lips. This was exactly what I had been afraid of. Lynette was forever doing opinion polls and testing. She was obsessed with public opinion, and for good reason: A King couldn’t effectively rule people who hated him.
But there was a line. I could only care what the people thought so much. I couldn’t make every decision based on what was popular. Sometimes I did the unpopular thing because it was the right thing.
“No. The Koch family stays,” I said.
“Sir,” she said gently, “there is a large population of people that still miss your brother.”
“I miss my brother,” I snapped at her.
“I understand. But many people believe you should marry Victoria.”
I stopped walking, forcing Lynette to turn and face me.
Victoria had been my brother’s fiancée. They never actually got married, and truthfully they barely knew each other, but she had been promised to him. She was a beautiful woman and very well liked among the people, but we all thought it would be strange for me to marry her.
And frankly, I was not my brother. Victoria was an uptight aristocrat like every rich, spoiled girl in Starkland. That was fine for my brother, since he knew it would be a good political match, but I wasn’t so practical in my marriage. If I had it my way, I wouldn’t get married at all, let alone to some baron’s daughter.
“No,” I said simply. “That isn’t happening.”
“I urge you to reconsider.”
“She is my dead brother’s girl. Leo is barely buried, and you want me to marry her?”
“King Leopold never married her,” Lynette pointed out. “Some would see it as you honoring your brother’s memory.”
“Enough,” I said, feeling my anger rise. “Here is what’s going to happen: You’re going to forget about me marrying Victoria; the Koch family is going to stay here for the remainder of their trip, as planned; and you aren’t going to interfere.”
“Your Highness—”
“Do you understand me?” I said, glaring at her. “Your king is giving you a command.”
She nodded once. “Very well, sir.”
“Good. I like you, Lynette, but don’t push this.”
“As you command, sir.”
I turned away from her and quickly left. I felt her watching as I walked away, but that didn’t matter.
Maybe that was a bad move politically. My older brother had been a beloved ruler, and when my father died of old age and my brother took the crown, the people rejoiced. When Leo went to the south to fight the rebels, everyone assumed that Great King Leopold would end the conflict and solidify the monarchy’s control over Starkland.
Instead, Leo’s caravan rode over a bomb and he blew himself to little bits and pieces. The people were distraught when their beloved king had died bleeding on the side of the road.
To them, he was a king. They didn’t know Leo. When he died, I didn’t just lose a king. I lost my older brother, the man I was closest to in the world.
We were very different people. Leo was always so sober and serious all the damn time. But he was my foil, the man I could rely on no matter what. Without Leo, I’d felt lost at first.
And the people weren’t happy that the bad boy was suddenly their king.
I never asked for any of this. I was born into this family and only became king because of dumb bad luck. I didn’t choose for Leo to go to war, and I certainly never wanted him to get blown up.
I had very few choices in my life. There weren’t many things I could actually control. The woman I married was one of the few things.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to marry Bryce. I barely knew the girl. But I did know that I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to make her mine. And maybe in the process, I’d teach her that she wanted to be my queen. Maybe that wasn’t a great political move, but fuck politics.
Sometimes I needed to do whatever the fuck I wanted to do. What was the point of being king if I couldn’t make my own choices?
I was choosing to keep Bryce around, because she made my fucking blood ring like a bell. That was good enough for now.
As I turned a corner, I nearly ran headfirst into a man coming the other way.
“Your Highness,” he said, stepping back. “I’m very sorry.”
I cleared my throat. It was Nicolai Corvin, the young agricultural minister. He came from a prominent southern family and was currently living in the castle because rebels had captured his family’s estate.
I didn’t like Nicolai one fucking bit. He was a thin, pale man with a thin mustache and a creepy smile. He was always so damn polite; it drove me mad.
“Forget it, Nicolai,” I said. “As you were.”
“Your Majesty, while I have you, could we talk some about the farmland in the Hinter Valley?”
“Maybe another time, Nicolai. I have meetings to attend.”
“Yes, of course, Your Majesty. It’s just that, the rebels took them, and they were a big source of grain for the capital.”
I sighed. “Yes, I’m aware.”
“We’ll need to subsidize other farmland, and possibly import some grain to make up for shortages.”
“We’ll talk later, Nicolai,” I said. “Make an appointment.”
“Very well, Your Majesty.”
I nodded to him and resumed my walk, the guards close behind me.
That Nicolai guy always made me uncomfortable, but he’d reminded me of what I was supposed to be doing. We were fighting a war, and I couldn’t lose sight of that.
I needed to keep focused and ready no matter what.
11
BRYCE
“The king seems taken with you.”
I sighed, shaking my head. I was sitting on a bench in the courtyard, surrounded by flowering plants and singing birds up in the trees. Dad smiled at me.
“He’s not taken with me,” I said. “He’s just bored.”
“I don’t know, kid. He seems to like you.”
“What are you doing, Dad? Why do you want me to marry this guy?”
He sighed. “I don’t, honestly. It would mean a lot of changes for us.”
“Then why are you pushing it?”
“Because it could be great for you. And who knows, maybe you’d actually like the guy if you gave him a chance.”
I sighed, shaking my head. He wouldn’t be pushing this if he knew what King Asshole said to me when we were alone.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen, Dad.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “I don’t feel like learning another language anyway.”
I laughed and leaned back on the bench. Lucy was off in the royal spa getting her nails done, which left me alone with Dad. We only found the courtyard at all because we stopped and asked for directions about ten times. The castle really was super confusing, but at least there were plenty of people around to help direct us.
And I kept thinking about my tour with Trip. He was so cocky and brash most of the time, but every once in a while he gav
e me a glimpse of something else. When he’d been talking about the library, and about his family, I had seen something underneath that cocky attitude. I didn’t know what it was, but it was definitely there.
And he didn’t seem as taken aback about the panties as I had hoped. Actually, it had only seemed to encourage him. I was going to have to think of something else to rile him up.
As we sat there enjoying the nice day, a servant appeared from around a bend.
“Miss Bryce?” he asked.
“Yes?”
“Here you are. From His Majesty.”
“Thank you.” The servant bowed and left.
“I’ll never get used to that,” Dad said. “They actually bow. It’s bizarre.”
“We’re in a country with a king,” I said. “That’s weird in itself.”
“Yeah,” Dad agreed. “And their internet is way faster than ours.”
I laughed as I opened the envelope the servant had handed me. Inside was a simple piece of paper with Trip’s handwriting.
“Have dinner with me. I’ll send Al for you at eight. Your parents have other plans. Trip.”
“What’s that?” Dad asked.
“Trip wants me to have dinner with him.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Trip?”
“Yes. He insists. Anyway, do you mind?”
“Not at all,” Dad said, suppressing a smile. “Lucy and I will find something else to do. It’s not like this place is boring.”
“Okay,” I said. “I don’t want to insult the king again, you know?”
“Of course not, sweetie.” He checked his watch. “Let’s get back so you have time to get ready.”
“Okay. Thanks.” We stood up and headed back to our rooms.
It only took three different sets of directions this time before we finally made it back.
AL SHOWED up at my room right on time. I followed him down the twisting hallways in silence, feeling nervous.
Al didn’t seem like much of a talker, and I wasn’t in the mood to chat. I felt strangely anxious about this dinner for some reason. I was wearing a decent summer dress, since it was warm in the castle, but I didn’t know what was appropriate to wear to dinner with the king.
