Huntress

by Susan Copperfield

  I’d been played, and damn it, she was right. I would. “Under protest,” I repeated.

  “He’s lying, Evangeline. You’ve already won the war.”

  She had, and I looked forward to what the future would hold.

  His Royal Majesty of Montana called my father on my behalf, as it took Geoff less than ten minutes to contact Dr. Hampford and acquire the appropriate sedative. I learned the hard way he was willing to cheat, and unlike the sleeping pills I was accustomed to, injected sedatives took less time to kick in. Within five minutes of being stabbed, I was down and out for the count and didn’t budge until sometime after the plane touched down in Illinois.

  It took smelling salts to drag me out of the drug-induced haze, and the bearer of the vile jar smiled unrepentantly. Dr. Hampton set the salts aside, sat beside me, and checked my pulse from my wrist, staring at her watch. “The plane landed an hour ago, but I ordered them to let you sleep a little longer. You needed the respite and time to get yourself together. I would’ve liked to let you fit in another hour, but you’re going to be needed at the castle fairly soon.”

  A glance out the window confirmed we were at the Illinois royal airstrip, a safe haven where reporters were barred and royal planes could stay on the tarmac indefinitely without disrupting other flights. I stretched, bit back a groan as my sore muscles protested the movement, and wondered how I’d been suckered into accepting yet another sedation.

  “Any problems?”

  “None yet, Your Highness. His Royal Majesty of Montana is enjoying himself a little more than he should. As a fair warning, he brought the queen and princess with him. Agent Evangeline is currently assigned to the princess’s detail, which puts her in a good place to observe the press conference. Agent Scarson is on the tarmac keeping an eye on things. Your parents are at the press conference, and it’s going to be mass chaos if the rumors spreading around the castle are to be believed.”

  “In this case, the rumors are probably right. The castle staff is well aware of the situation with Gail, and there are those who’ve been waiting a while to see her get her due on the matter,” I admitted.

  “Take your time getting up. You’re going to be wobbly for a few minutes while the rest of the sedative works out of your system. I’ve had breakfast prepared for you, so you should eat before joining the fray. You’re not expected at the press conference, as His Royal Majesty of Illinois made it clear that you’re still recovering.”

  I really didn’t want to deal with my parents yet, especially my mother. Within the next few hours, I expected my relationship with my mother to take a deeper dive, likely right into the death zone. “How much of the press conference will my mother be handling?”

  “None of it, per order of His Royal Majesty of Montana. They had a row, and he informed her that if she couldn’t put her son in front of the picture-perfect image she wants to present to the world, perhaps she’s unqualified to have children. He’s cranky when he’s suffering from a lack of sleep. He’s next in line for a dose of sedative, but we’ll wait until he’s back in Montana before he’s off to take his enforced nap.”

  “My mother likely didn’t handle that well.”

  “She handled it better than anticipated. I believe she’s starting to figure out she’s made a severe miscalculation. She hadn’t reviewed the videos yet. That’s been rectified, and it’s probable I’ll be treating her for shock by the end of the day. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, although I expect you’ll have a row or two with her before she settles down. Your father’s going to be the easier one to manage. He understands that he has to dance the right line with you or risk losing his heir completely. And as you’ve committed to a marriage, despite it being to someone they don’t approve of, I believe they’ll play along.”

  “It’s not like they’re the one who has to marry her,” I grumbled.

  “That argument was used, and your mother countered with a list of qualifications she feels is needed for a queen.”

  “Did she say that in front of Eva?”

  Dr. Hampford grinned. “She did.”

  “Tell me,” I ordered.

  “Well, Evangeline began with the biological responsibilities of a queen, which involved maintaining good health to ensure the line of succession, and we were treated to a lecture about ensuring the health of the future king, as he has an equal contribution to the development of little heirs. After she informed the queen on the state of her ovaries and her reproductive cycle, she then went on a rather delightful rant about the practical responsibilities of a queen. It was then I realized we’ve made a slight miscalculation.”

  “A slight miscalculation? How? What are you talking about?”

  “Evangeline knows far more about the internal workings of a kingdom than we anticipated. Some of her speech was dated, but that’s no surprise, considering her disowning. You might want to look into her lineage yourself, Your Highness. She knows too much to be a fringe elite. Her family has ties to a royal family somehow. I expect His Royal Majesty of Montana will be looking into it more aggressively after her rather impressive and accurate speech regarding the duties and responsibilities of a queen. She also got some new barbs in about ensuring the health of the heir, too.”

  I chilled, sitting straighter in my seat. “Which royal family?”

  “We’re guessing Nevada. That’s her kingdom of citizenship. It could be with another kingdom if she sought refuge following disowning, but we haven’t found any evidence she transferred her citizenship yet.”

  I could understand how an elite could transform from prim and proper to a hellion with a foul mouth, and the idea she’s grown from someone who had needed to know the intricate details of rulership and found her way in the world, transforming herself into a huntress.

  How the puzzle fit together would shape a lot of the future, but I’d seen something in Eva when her family had been mentioned.

  It bothered me she might fear anything.

  “Please tell Meredith I’d like to see her,” I requested, getting to my feet to work the kinks out. “Unless breakfast is something I can choke down in a hurry, I’ll skip it until after this is dealt with.”

  “Oatmeal. Should be easy enough for you to shovel into you before you get carried away.”

  “I can work with that.”

  “Good. I’ll fetch Agent Scarson, you get yourself presentable and walk out the kinks.”

  I inhaled breakfast, smoothed out the worst of the wrinkles from the flight, and wasted too much time wrangling my unruly hair into something almost presentable. When I finally emerged from the bathroom, Meredith waited with Dr. Hampford.

  “What do you need?” she asked.

  “I want you to look into Eva’s background and find out what steps we need to protect her. Dr. Hampford expressed concern, and I want to make sure we won’t have any surprises from Nevada or another kingdom. If Dr. Hampford’s speculations are correct, Eva might have worrisome connections.”

  Meredith’s grim nod warned me of trouble brewing on the horizon. “A wise precaution, Your Highness. His Royal Majesty of Montana is likewise looking into the situation. We may have miscalculated. Several of the sessions regarding your health were televised, and Evangeline was in several notable clips. If she has royal connections of any sort, I’ve no doubt word has spread back to her family. This could create issues later.”

  “Honestly, I don’t care who her family is. I do care about what they might do once they learn how involved she is with me. I don’t want to see her used as a pawn in a political game.”

  “Well, she’s established she’s not a scraping from the bottom of the barrel. While there’s definitely a rift between her and your mother, she’s established she knows a lot more about being a queen than anyone expected. Your father’s expression was interesting.”

  “Interesting how?”

  “He’s figured out Evangeline isn’t nearly as two-dimensional as he wanted to believe. I expect you’ll have an interesting few wee
ks after you’re done with your first wave of RPS training. Speaking of which, we’re skipping a trip to the castle altogether. We’re going to the training center, where we’ll get you settled. If you want to watch the press conference, we’ll have a recording available. Evangeline will come to the center once her other duties are completed.”

  “His Royal Majesty of Montana is trying to use his baby to get her interested in having a baby, isn’t he?”

  I wasn’t sure what I thought about that, but I looked forward to when I could find some time to be alone with Eva.

  “You would be correct. It doesn’t help she gets stars in her eyes whenever she goes near the princess. I’m concerned you’ll be dragged into the nonsense between North Dakota and Montana.”

  “Alaska might become a contender, too. They wasted no time having a child,” I muttered.

  “The Alaskan monarchs claim they’re having no more than three. I have my doubts they’ll stick to their guns. They’re both too smitten with each other and their firstborn. Royalty tend to be unreasonable when it comes to having large families, as you’re familiar with.”

  “I literally lost count of how many sisters I have, Meredith.”

  “Don’t be absurd, Your Highness.”

  “I’m being serious! After five or six, I stopped counting. I might remember their names with a little effort.”

  Meredith sighed. “Add in your cousins, and I suppose I can understand.”

  “They do blur together. At one point, I think there were twenty or thirty of us in the same room.” I wasn’t even exaggerating, either. “Okay, fine. I have twelve sisters. I think.”

  “I have some bad news for you,” Meredith announced.

  Damn it. Thanks to the Averett talent, once securely bonded, the women didn’t age or go into menopause until late age, which left one viable option. “Well, that would explain my mother’s determination to meddle in my marital affairs. If I end up with another brother, can I quit?”

  “No, Your Highness. You may not.”

  “Seriously? Again? Aren’t the fourteen other children she’s had enough?” I sighed. “What other bad news are you going to give me?”

  “She’ll be announcing her pregnancy next week.”

  “Good. Maybe that’ll distract from the mess. Can she move that up to this week? This week would be good. Today would be even better. Please tell me it’s a boy.”

  “Your Highness.”

  “What? I just woke up to find out my mother’s pregnant again. If you’re expecting me to take this with grace, I’m going to think you’ve been snitching from my medications, Meredith.”

  “I was more thinking it might be nice to be happy for your mother.”

  “When she’s happy for me for the choices I’ve made in my life, I’ll be happy she has a functional reproductive system. Until then, let’s just stick to neutral ground.”

  Meredith stared at Dr. Hampford. “This is going to be harder than I thought.”

  “What were you expecting, Agent Scarson? The entire Illinois royal family is populated with stubborn men and even more stubborn women. If he relented with just that, you’d need to use the smelling salts on me. Don’t underestimate him. I expect he’s the type to hold a grudge until he’s satisfied there’s no threats left to his peace of mind, and his piece of mind is named Evangeline. The only reason it’s a problem is because His Royal Highness is so tolerant he’s taken everyone by surprise.”

  When Meredith’s gaze returned to me, I shrugged. “She’s not wrong.”

  “This is going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

  “Only if she tries to come between me and Eva, Meredith. I might be stubborn and capable of holding a grudge, but I’m not asking for much.”

  “No, you’re not,” she conceded. “All right. I’ll try to impress upon Her Royal Majesty that it might be wise if she concedes this battle. Though, after the press conference today, I think you’ll find it much smoother sailing. The truth is a difficult foe to fight.”

  “That it is.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I’d been to the RPS training center before, but I’d never been there as the one about to be tenderized. For the next month, my home would be a small bedroom in a hive of similar rooms, and Meredith and Eva had rooms nearby, which offered a chance to have some quiet time with my new wife. Judging from Meredith’s bemused expression, she anticipated what I had in mind, but the small shake of her head warned me I shouldn’t get my hopes up.

  Meredith’s expression changed; her eyes narrowed, and I presumed she was listening to a message in her earpiece. “Your parents are on their way here, Your Highness. They already left, so they’ll arrive any minute. As you can probably guess, the press conference is over. The delegation from Montana is settling in at the castle now. Evangeline is accompanying your parents here.”

  “If I could go even an hour without trouble, that’d be wonderful.”

  She offered me a sympathetic smile. “At least your training officially begins today, so they won’t be visiting long. To begin with, I’ll introduce you to two of your new agents. They’ll be the foundation of your daytime detail. The other members of your detail will be operating the scenarios. For the first run, you’ll keep the same daytime detail for two weeks. After that, you’ll cycle through agents on a daily basis to acclimate you to a shifting detail.”

  “Will I at least get a chance to catch up on my damned paperwork?”

  “Surprisingly, yes. Currently, we have you scheduled for half days of physical therapy, and to ensure you can do your paperwork, you’ll be scheduled for office hours in the first half of the day. That’ll be when you start adapting Agent Evangeline to her acting-as-principal role.”

  “I don’t know what he’s going to make me do with paperwork, but I already don’t like it,” my wife muttered. “Christian drives like a lunatic, Meredith.”

  Meredith checked her watch. “I’m going to have to talk to dispatch. That was not enough lead time.”

  “I tried to tell them, but they ignored me.”

  My parents lurked behind Eva, and I gave my mother a full dose of my worst glare. “Seriously? Number fifteen?”

  “It’s your father’s fault.”

  “I’m pretty sure you hold equal blame in this, Mother. Are you finally satisfied Gail would’ve been the worst mistake of my life if I’d done things your way?”

  She had the decency to wince. “I’ve been convinced she isn’t as she seemed.”

  “And neither is Eva.”

  “I discovered that this morning.”

  “If you’re going to start screaming, let’s get it out of the way. I have several weeks of torture thinly disguised as physical therapy ahead of me sandwiched between catching up on paperwork. As I expect you’ll never accept my choice of wife, let’s get the unpleasantness aside; you won’t be making that choice for me. I trust His Royal Majesty of Montana delivered the paperwork for your review?”

  “After we’re done here, we’ll be heading to Chicago to present it to the congress for signing,” she replied. “This could cost you your life, Kelvin.”

  “I’m aware of that more than anyone in this room, Mother. But it’s my choice, not yours. It was never yours. I tried things your way once, and it resulted in Gail. Now we’ve had a press conference because she was pissy she wasn’t picked after she cheated on me in my own bedroom. You tell me, Mother. Whose choice was inherently flawed?”

  “I’ll admit I never believed she would do such a thing.”

  “You still think she’s innocent, don’t you?” I clenched my teeth. “You’re delusional.”

  Silence. My mother’s mouth dropped open, she swallowed, and tried several times to say something before clacking her teeth together.

  “Delusional is exactly what to call someone when her own son has it verified by the king of fucking Montana that his ex cheated on him in his bedroom. And you still side with her? Look. I get you prefer the perfect family image, but enough is enou
gh. I don’t want your version of a perfect family image. What happened to family loyalty?”

  “How dare you!” my mother choked out.

  “Are you really asking me that, Mother?”

  My father cleared his throat. “He’s not wrong, darling. You hate being wrong, and frankly, you’re wrong. He’s provided irrefutable evidence of what she’s done, and after he rejected her unwanted advances, she began her attempts to manipulate the court against him. A manipulation you’re currently supporting. I think you need to reevaluate where you stand. Unless, of course, you want us to lose our son to your need to be right all the time.”

  Ouch. Me yelling at my mother over Gail was one thing, but my father’s ice-cold delivery entered a whole different realm of harsh. “Dad, let’s be civil about this. I’m angry, but I’m not that angry.”

  “He’s already gotten over the angry part of things around the same time he skipped dinner with me and walked out the door and almost died,” Eva muttered under her breath. She didn’t do a very good job of muttering; I had no doubt everyone heard her.

  “Agent Evangeline is absolutely correct. We’re the ones who are in the wrong in this situation, and we have zero right to dictate anything to him regarding the relationship he wishes to form. He has provided, in writing, a wedding date. He doesn’t need our approval. He needs the congress’s approval, which he has. They don’t care who he marries. They want to ensure the line of succession remains intact and he rules instead of Grégoire. He’s an adult, and perhaps it’s time we started treating him like one.”

  “He’s making a mistake,” my mother hissed.

  “And it’s his mistake to make. Not ours. We’ve already made more than our fair share of mistakes, and Gail is at the top of the list. She’s trying to ruin him in the eyes of the Royal States. That’s unacceptable. I don’t care how damaged your pride becomes over this issue, but enough is enough. Leave him alone about it. Maybe you’ll never approve or accept his choice, but you’ll do your job as the queen to at least pretend. Dislike his choice of wife all you want, but in the public eye, they’ll believe you couldn’t possibly be happier about your son finding a queen. This is not about you. It’s about what makes him happy, and if his talent continues to eat away at him, then damn it, let him be happy for however long he has left.”