Ella laughed. “How about I say the truth? That I’ve never even seen as much, let alone earned it.”
Ash shook his head and put a finger over her lips. “Shhh,” he said. “I’m teaching you.” Ella scowled, but was silent. “Now, in an ideal world, you would counter that it would harm your reputation to do it for less than 35, and we’d probably settle at 30. However, since you prefer to be what you call fair, you could nod and say, ‘Only this one time, and because I like you, I’ll take such a pittance.’ At this point, we’ll finalize our agreement with a firm shake.” Ash held out his hand. “You’ll take my offer of 25?”
Ella laughed at his silliness, but he wasn’t particularly laughing back, so she began to wonder if he was serious. His hand was still held out expectantly. She looked at his hand and said cautiously, “This is a real offer? You’ll pay me 25 King’s coins to draw you?”
Ashton nodded.
“And it’s just for the picture?” she confirmed. “Nothing else.”
Ashton nodded and pushed his hand toward her. “I’m paying for nothing else,” he said.
Ella reached out and shook Ashton’s hand.
He smiled, then leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I’m paying only for your artwork, but that doesn’t mean we can’t spend our free time, time outside of your work, doing other things.”
Ella raised an eyebrow and said, “Think of me the same way you would as those fat, balding old men who normally paint you.”
Ash raised an eyebrow back, and said. “I shall reevaluate how I look at fat, balding men, so that I may think of you the exact same way.”
Ella laughed heartily.
“Can you come tomorrow night to start?” Ash asked.
She sighed. Tomorrow. That was too soon. “I can’t get away tomorrow, but in three days’ time, I can come.”
Ash nodded. Ella looked up at the sky and noticed the sun was no longer overhead. It was westward. “I have to go,” she said. “My lady will be livid if I haven’t returned and prepared dinner.”
“I’ll give you a ride,” Ash said. “My horse is just beyond those trees there.”
Ella was about to speak, to say no, when she heard a voice in the distance. “Your Highness,” the voice called.
Ella turned to Ash and asked, “Did you hear that?”
Ash turned his head and scowled. “I switched horses with my cousin, so the prince could have some time alone, and now they’ve tracked the horse. They’re searching for the prince. Wait here, while I get rid of them.”
Chapter 15
Ashton bristled with irritation as he headed into the woods in the direction of the voice. He needed to send the man from the castle away. This was his chance to see where she lived. He’d heard of indentured servants, but he knew of none of the court regulars who used the practice with such a heavy hand. If he could find this vile mistress of Cinders, he’d have her house taken from her. The King was allowed to annex lands. With that, surely Cinders would leave her. Or perhaps he was being ridiculous. How could he convince his father to take a woman’s home when he barely knew anything about the situation? But, at the very least, he could learn.
He went through the thicket of woods, walking silently looking for the man who’d called for him. It was Philip, his mother’s favorite guard. He’d recognized the man’s voice. Only, he couldn’t admit that to Cinders. He wanted Philip gone.
He kept walking, getting more than 100 yards from the clearing before calling out. “Philip” he said, hoping Cinders wouldn’t hear.
He heard a voice call back. “Prince John?”
He wished Philip hadn’t said that. He felt a twinge of guilt about lying to Cinders, but he still didn’t want her to know he was the prince. He liked the anonymity that came with not being the heir to the throne. He liked that she treated him well, but didn’t feel the need to bow and agree with everything he said, solely because of his station. Anytime he was with people who were aware of his royal heritage, they treated him so differently. While he hated that his mother had kept him locked away, part of him realized he was also grateful for it. It afforded him a certain anonymity amongst the people when he did escape. It gave him the opportunity to interact with people on a more normal level. Even the six months he spent living with his uncle, the Duke and his cousins, people simply thought him another noble. And in that time, they treated him well, but not overly solicitously. He appreciated that.
Philip rode up on a horse, smiling when he saw the prince. “Your Highness,” he said, slowing his horse to a stop. “I’m so glad to have found you.”
Ashton put his finger to his lip as a sign to shush him. He beckoned him to dismount, which Philip did. “Philip,” he said in almost a whisper. “Don’t call me Highness or John again while you are out here.”
Philip looked confused but nodded.
“Good. Now why are you here?” Ashton asked.
“Your mother asked me to find you, high—. I mean, sir,” he said.
“You’ve found me,” Ashton said. “Now go home. Leave me.”
Philip shook his head. “I’m to escort you home.”
Ashton rolled his eyes. “That won’t be necessary. You can return to the castle. Tell my mother I’ll be home before sundown.”
“Sir, I’d follow any order you gave me except for one that contradicted my queen,” Philip said kindly.
Ashton sighed, knowing Philip had a point. He was a loyal man and couldn’t ignore the Queen’s orders. “Very well, then,” he said. “Can I have a moment? Just 20 minutes to finish the walk I was taking. I swear to you, I will return and you can escort me to my mother.”
Philip appraised the prince and then said, “You know what your mother will do to me if I return without you.”
“She will do nothing to you because I will return with you. I give you my word. I just need a few moments of privacy and then I will return and meet you here.”
Philip nodded and Ashton turned and ran back to the pond. When he arrived, Cinders was gone. He called her name, but no response. He walked back to the shore where her blanket had lain and there, etched in the dirt, was a message:
See you in three days. I promise. This time I’ll be there.
- C
He smiled. She’d be there this time. He felt sure of it.
Chapter 16
The ride back to the castle with Philip was a quiet one. Ashton did not speak to him the entire way, even though he generally liked Philip. It wasn’t Philip’s fault that his mother was overprotective and overbearing. Philip had to obey his Queen, only Ashton had been thisclose to finding out where she lived. It was an unexpected surprise to find her, to be with her, and he wanted to know more about her. He hadn’t been sure he could convince her to let him walk her home, but he had had been sure that, if she’d refused his offer, he could have followed her. He didn’t like the notion of not knowing how to find her, especially when she hadn’t shown up the night before. Only, Philip had dashed his chance by arriving when he did. Cinders had fled again. Though he was sure that she’d come to the castle as she’d promised.
When they arrived at the castle, he went straight to the throne room where his parents sat. They had just finished with the public court, where they heard the people’s grievances. His father had his eyes closed and was saying he had a headache while his mother was blathering lithely, as was her pattern.
“Mother,” he said, approaching them and interrupting her.
His mother turned and looked at him, her smile fading. “Ashton,” she said. “You can’t disappear like that. I was worried.”
“I can, mother,” he retorted. “You’ve got to stop this. I’m an adult and watching over me like I am two is both unnecessary and unappreciated.”
“I don’t watch over you when you’re here in the castle,” she said, a touch of defensiveness in her tone. She raised a hand and stroked her black hair, which was plaited in a single braid that hung over her right shoulder.
The King, Henry, opened
his eyes. He was a robust man with light brown hair streaked silver. “What are the two of you arguing about?” the King bellowed, his mustache twitching.
“My freedom,” Ashton said succinctly.
Henry turned and looked at his wife. “Elizabeth, he’s a grown man of marrying age. You realize this must stop.”
She pursed her lips and stared at her husband. Though thin, her face was soft and the Queen generally appeared genial, even if she was feeling cross. Her look of pleasantness in most moments lulled people into a false sense of security that she was a harmless onlooker, but Elizabeth could be as cunning and vicious as a lioness. “It would be easy to let him go if there weren’t wicked fairies running amok. You heard what happened to that poor princess Briar Rose. Cursed not long after her birth, and then the curse took effect 17 years later. The entire kingdom, King and Queen alike, went to sleep thereafter. It was madness, and I shan’t ignore the warnings like Briar Rose’s parents did. We need to keep our son safe.”
Ashton shook his head. Not this again. Fairies were things of children’s stories, the kind Gertrude used to tell him, not real life.
“I am perfectly fine mother and will continue to be so without you hovering and sending guards after me,” Ashton said, choosing to ignore the entire bit about fairies and the ridiculous rumor about the sleeping kingdom.
“Yes, Elizabeth,” the King said from his throne. He leaned toward his wife. “Besides, you said that soothsayer told you John Ashton would be past any danger once he turned 20 and married.”
“I will be 20 in less than a month, mother,” he said.
She gave Ashton a nasty sneer. “Yet, you will still need to marry. The soothsayer was clear that you needed to be 20 and married. Yet you make such little effort to marry,” she said looking toward the north, through a little window in that area of the room. “We sent you for an entire summer to spend with your cousins, meeting debutantes and respectable women and you’ve come back alone. I fear you’ve come back worse off, having picked up your cousins’ baser habits. I’ve heard the rumors of how they treat women.”
Ashton’s mouth popped open slightly and he found that he was, for once, shocked by something his mother said. He wasn’t shocked by the fact that she’d heard the rumors, for she was one that always seemed to keep her eyes and ears on the pulse of things. However, that she actually spoke those words aloud to him, to his father, was out of character for her. He wondered if Gertrude had warned his mother that he’d picked up Chandler and Leith’s habits. Was that why she was giving him the extra scrutiny of having her guards search for him? He took a deep breath and resolved to put an end to his mother’s watchful eye. First, he needed to dispatch his mother’s claim.
“I’ve picked up no habits from my cousins that I am ashamed of,” he said, knowing it was entirely true. He had seen Chandler and Leith do some questionable things, but he hadn’t partaken in anything like that. “Besides, I could make efforts to find a nice girl if you didn’t always have guards afoot to wander after me. I saw a girl today who was simply stunning, but when I had to respond to Philip, she got scared off.”
His mother raised an eyebrow, a slight smile dangling on her lips. “Is she a courtesan? Perhaps I know her and could make inquiries for you.”
Ashton had hoped to guilt his mother into leaving him be, yet it wasn’t working. It was having the opposite effect. “Please, just let me roam in freedom a bit.”
“Done,” King Henry said. Elizabeth, her slender nose looking more pinched in reaction, turned to her husband, eyes squinted in anger, but said nothing. He stared back and eventually she turned away. “I will order the guards not to follow you, even if Queen Elizabeth requests it. In return, you are going to work on finding a wife.”
“But father, I’m still young,” he said.
“You are to be king one day, John Ashton, and you’ll need a queen by your side,” he said.
“Yes father,” Ashton said stoically. He wasn’t quite ready to settle down. He wanted more adventures, more women. More. But it didn’t matter, he had simply promised to try. It was entirely possible to try something and fail at it. Fail miserably. Ashton turned to leave, but his father called him back.
“Your royal portrait is complete,” the King said. Ashton tried to keep his expression neutral, but it felt like a small dagger to his heart. It meant that he would be recognizable soon. His mother, despite her nutty reasoning for it, had made his life much easier by keeping him away from the public. Most royal families had royal portraits painted and put in various locations so the people of the kingdom could see their rulers. But Queen Elizabeth had wanted no evil fairies to see what he looked like. They’d had the royal baby portrait, but that was when the mythical Briar Rose was 13. By the time the mythical girl had turned 17 and fallen into that enchanted sleep, John Ashton was 4 and his mother was convinced that evil fairies lurked in the distance to do him harm.
She’d kept a tight rein on him and allowed no more portraits. He almost never left the castle unattended. He always had a guard or Gertrude. He assumed his mother believed Gertrude’s supposition that she was a fairy. Perhaps a protective one, because his mother trusted him to Gertrude’s sole care, something he could say of no one else. Still, he was rarely allowed to leave and when he did, he was inconspicuous because no one knew he was prince. On those few occasions that he left the castle, no one would stare at him and say, “There’s the prince.” No one would run back and tell people they’d seen the prince doing this or that. It was liberating. And now it was about to end.
“Are you sure, Henry?” his mother asked quietly. “Is it really time for Ashton to be turned out on his own, unsafe?”
“Look at him,” her husband commanded. Elizabeth turned and eyed her son. “He’s a grown man, tall and strong. I’ve deferred to you for many years on this, but now it is time for our son to step into the light. He must start preparing to rule his kingdom.”
“And find a bride,” his mother added quickly. “That old soothsayer said he’d be well the rest of his life once he married. The danger could be avoided when he was younger, if he was kept mainly hidden away in good company, but now, in the time before he marries, that is where the danger lies.”
Henry sighed. “Enough, Elizabeth,” he said. “I don’t want to hear another word about the ‘evil in disguise’ that will harm him. Nothing that woman has predicted has come true, so I am sure there is nothing to this. I’ve indulged your superstition as much as I could allow, but now I must put my kingdom before my wife’s happiness. Our son is to take his place, rather than live the quiet life of a noble having fun.”
Ashton nodded. He agreed with his father, but he wasn’t quite ready to be thrown before his kingdom. Although he thought he knew a way to prevent that, at least for a little bit. “Father,” Ashton said, deferentially. “Why don’t we reveal the portrait in style?”
His father gave him a curious glance. “What do you mean?”
“Rather than just hanging it in the town square, why don’t we reveal it at my birthday ball?”
His father put his hand to chin and thought for a few moments. Ashton and his mother remained silent, for they knew the King did not like to be disturbed when he was making a decision. Then, King Henry smiled, very wide. “That is an excellent idea, son. We’ll do it on the eve of your birth and reveal the portrait at midnight. As the clock strikes twelve, and we commemorate your birth, we will unveil the portrait.”
Ashton forced a smile. He hated all the pomp and circumstance, but the ball had been scheduled for some time. At the very least, he could get the official portrait delayed until then. A few more weeks of freedom. He gave his father an admiring look. “That’s a brilliant plan, father,” he said.
His mother was smiling, too, but there was no joy in it. “Excellent idea, Henry,” she said. “And there will be many eligible maidens there at the ball. All the nobility are coming. You might do well to look for a bride that night.”
Ashton rais
ed an eyebrow. “I doubt I’ll find a bride in one night.”
His father winked at him. “Stranger things can happen,” he said. “Even though your mother was supposed to marry some Duke from Wilshire, I saw her and fell in love at first sight. It can happen. And once a prince finds a woman he wants, there is no man who can compete with that.”
Ashton smiled agreeably and for some reason Cinders’ face popped into his mind. The suddenness of it shocked him, and he blinked to get her face from his vision.
“Something the matter, son?” his father asked.
Ashton shook his head. “No, father. I just think I’ll retire now that we’ve got that settled.” With that, Ashton turned and left the room.
Chapter 17
Ella had decided to practice. The prospect of drawing Ash when she’d drawn so few people or things on a regular basis scared her. After she left the pond, rather than run home and start dinner, Ella ran to town, stopped at Faye’s and borrowed a portion of the money she’d received from the first night she was with Ash. Then she went and bought paper and drawing chalks. It was most of her money, but Ash had promised to pay her for supplies and she would earn more than enough for her journey by completing his drawing. It seemed drawing him was a much more honest occupation than the one she’d originally endeavored to perform with him. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed their time together, but doing that for money made her feel dirty, and possibly, more miserable. She was more at ease with the idea of being with him physically just because she enjoyed his company, not because she was his whore.
Drawing him would be much better, but she definitely needed to practice. After finishing in town, she hurried home, just barely beating her stepmother and stepsisters there. The dinner was going to be late, and when Lady Kenna found out, she looked murderous. Had the woman not been trying to impress Lord Angleton, she would probably have taken another switch to Ella. But, she was trying to stay in Angleton’s good graces. So, her stepmother simply asked, venom in her tone, if Ella had been lazing about all day. Ella made up an excuse about not feeling well, a stomach ailment, but Lady Kenna was unsympathetic.
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