Page 2

Chapter 2

Julius

J ulius strode up the grassy incline, enjoying the pleasant warmth of the sun and the slight breeze. The recent hot spell had made venturing outside the palace grounds an unpleasant prospect, and he had been starting to feel cooped up. It felt good to be free again, if only for a single, stolen hour.

He could have left the palace for longer, of course, but then he would have had to tell his parents. And if he’d done that, his mother would have insisted he take guards with him. Usually Julius didn’t mind being trailed by guards, but the itchy feeling beneath his skin demanded true solitude.

His father had dedicated his life to serving the Sovaran people, and the royal family was popular as a result. Julius had never felt unsafe in the environs of the palace, and he had picked his direction based on the likelihood of solitude. He didn’t need guards on this occasion, and he certainly didn’t want them.

He knew his duty, and he didn’t mind fulfilling it, but it was exhausting to fill a role every second of the day. They’d had a visiting delegation for the last two weeks which meant Julius had been on constant show—needing to play a perfect, charming prince day and night.

The Legacy helped, of course—along with a lifetime of training on what it meant to fill the role of Sovar’s crown prince. But usually he was able to regularly clear his head with a brisk gallop somewhere talk wasn’t needed—something he hadn’t managed to do for two straight weeks and hadn’t even been able to manage that day. But Julius at least wanted a brief window when no one expected him to be charming.

But as he crested the hill, he realized he wasn’t alone after all. A beautiful girl stood frozen mid-step, her arms full of colorful flowers and her wide eyes fixed on Julius. He could see little of her clothes behind the profusion of blossoms, but if she was wandering the hill behind Manor Row in the middle of the day, she wasn’t likely to be a servant or tradesperson. But neither did he recognize her from court, despite her memorable face. Perhaps she was the younger daughter of one of the nobles, too young to have yet attended any court functions.

He sighed internally. There was no hope of getting away without polite conversation now.

But to his surprise, the girl wheeled around and hurried away from him, almost as if the encounter was equally unwelcome to her. Worry gripped him. Was she afraid? Of the crown prince?

If he could only speak to her for a moment, he was sure he could reassure her. But perhaps it was shyness, not fear, that drove her away. She needn’t have worried on that front, either. Not only did Julius have the Legacy to aid him, he had been trained in social interaction since he first learned to talk. He was equally as skilled at drawing out a hesitant conversationalist as he was at shutting down or redirecting presumptuous or dangerous lines of talk—all without causing offense, of course.

He watched her retreat with a frown, hating the thought that his presence made her uncomfortable. His presence never made people uncomfortable. And she was even limping slightly. He should offer his assistance and ensure she left the hill with a good impression of him.

He hurried after her, collecting several dropped flowers as he went.

“Excuse me,” he said, and the deep sound of his voice made her start and drop several more flowers.

When she tried to lean over and retrieve them, she only succeeded in losing even more.

Julius chuckled. “Allow me.”

He fetched each of the fallen blooms and gathered them into a rough bouquet, presenting them to her with a flourish and a light grin. She was looking back at him with narrowed eyes, as if she found him at fault rather than charming. Perhaps she blamed him for making her drop the flowers in the first place.

His smile fell, and he tried to tuck the ones he was holding into her arms without upsetting any more or accidentally touching her. It was a tricky task, but he managed it and stepped back.

“You appear to be injured. May I assist you back to…” He trailed off and gestured generally toward the row of houses below them, waiting for her to clarify which was hers.

“Injured?” Her slight hostility melted into confusion. “What do you mean?” She twisted slightly, trying to glance down her body without upsetting the carefully balanced load in her arms.

His eyes followed hers and finally alighted on her feet. One was shod in a slipper, the other was bare.

“Oh.” He flushed slightly and took a small step backward. He should have considered that possibility. Even his own mother wasn’t exempt from losing a shoe at awkward moments.

The girl laughed. At his mistake? At his obvious discomfort? Both? His discomfort grew.

“Are you even Sovaran?” she asked in a pretty, lilting voice. “Surely you recognize the national one-shoed limp?” She laughed again.

Julius stiffened. She didn’t recognize him? He wasn’t sure if that had ever happened before, and it put him immediately off balance.

“My apologies,” he said, unused to the stilted note in his voice. “Forgive my intrusion.”

“Goodness, you’re a barrel of fun,” she muttered under her breath, but Julius caught every word, his ears burning.

Where had his famous charm gone? He had initiated the interaction hoping to put her at ease, and somehow he seemed to be doing the opposite. What was wrong with him?

His mind raced, trying to think how to salvage the situation. The thought of abandoning the encounter didn’t even cross his mind. Putting others at ease was his job, and he had always been excellent at it.

Luckily, she had a problem that he could help fix. The entire population of Sovar had an issue with losing shoes, but Julius alone possessed the opposite skill.

“Please wait a moment and allow me to look for your missing slipper.” He attempted his most charming smile. “I have something of a knack for finding them.”

“Find my shoe?” The girl stared at him as if he’d demanded she hand over all her coin instead of offering to help. She glanced back up the hill, her face turning red.

To Julius’s chagrin, the soft flush of color that warmed the girl’s cheeks only served to make her even more appealing, while apparently he was failing utterly at redeeming himself. He had seen plenty of beautiful women at court, but somehow this fresh-faced girl had turned him into a bumbling fool. It was a new experience.

“Yes, it will likely only take a moment,” he said, trying not to let his emotion show.

Her eyes widened. “No!” she said firmly. “Absolutely not.”

Julius’s jaw dropped.

“You don’t want me to find your shoe?” He could hear the grating note in his voice, so unlike his usual self, but he couldn’t seem to stop the words. “Why ever not? Is there something wrong with it?”

He bit back the addition, Is there something wrong with you? So far he seemed to be the one behaving all wrong.

The girl’s brows drew together, and she shot another look at the top of the hill, as if she already knew where her shoe could be found.

Julius drew back. Was she playing some sort of game with him? Was that why he couldn’t find his footing with her? Was it possible she did know his identity after all, and she had some sort of agenda?

He narrowed his eyes, scanning her face for some sign of calculation or duplicity. If she was trying to draw him in, she’d chosen a strange way to go about it. And yet he couldn’t deny that she’d already gotten under his skin. He couldn’t remember the last time he had participated in such an awkward conversation.

The girl straightened in response to his scrutiny, her expression turning haughty. “I have no desire to retrieve my shoe,” she said with formality. “And I don’t need assistance to reach my home. Have a good day, sir.”

It was clearly a dismissal. He stiffened instinctively. He’d never been dismissed in such a way in his life. But he fought the feeling back and merely inclined his head in her direction. Restraint was a familiar friend, and it was far better for him to utilize it now. The entire interaction had been a disaster from start to finish, and the best he could do was retreat as promptly as possible.

“I apologize for discommoding you,” he said stiffly. “I intended only to assist.”

Turning, he hurried in the opposite direction to the girl, walking almost blindly in his haste to get away. He had always prided himself on fulfilling his role to perfection and seeing himself fail so badly shook him to his core. He was the crown prince of Sovar, and he could not afford to behave more bumbling than a newborn fool.

“Stop! Wait!” the girl called suddenly from behind him, her voice tense.

He increased his pace. All he wanted was to get far away from her. He couldn’t imagine why she would want more stilted, awkward conversation, but he certainly didn’t. Just the memory of it made the itchy feeling beneath his skin flare back to full life. He sincerely hoped he would never run into her again.

“Stop!” she shouted again, but he powered on, his head facing forward although his mind was on the girl behind him.

When he heard running footsteps, he wavered. She must already have a poor impression of him. What was more likely to make it worse—further conversation or his obvious flight? The very question hurt his pride, and he couldn’t bring himself to turn and look back at the face that had managed to strip him of his most defining attribute.

He increased his speed. He just wanted to get away and forget the whole interaction had ever happened.

The girl’s cries turned into a scream as his next step landed on uneven ground and slipped away from him. He tried to pull back, one foot extended into empty air as he finally saw what was in front of his eyes. The land in front of him fell away abruptly into empty space, the gentle slope of the hill cutting off in a sheer cliff.

His whole body teetered dangerously as he tried to recover his balance. He tipped the wrong way.

Two small hands clamped around his arm and jerked sharply, pulling him backward. His center of balance shifted, and he collapsed away from the cliff, falling to the ground and taking the unseen person with him.

He gasped, his heart racing at his near escape. He was unfamiliar with the open ground behind Manor Row, and he should have been more cautious. He knew the treacherous nature of the Sovaran landscape.

The girl—no longer holding any flowers—scuttled away from him and scrambled to her feet. Dusting herself off, she stared down at him.

He rose more slowly, his mind struggling to think clearly. He knew he needed to thank her—without her quick intervention, he would likely have gone over the edge. But what explanation could he offer for walking straight off a cliff? Or for ignoring her shouts of warning? His face warmed, and for once in his life, he struggled to find any words.

“Unbelievable,” the girl pronounced slowly, shaking her head. She picked up steam. “You’re truly unbelievable! Do you have a death wish?”

“I—” he managed to say before she shook her head and cut him off.

“No, never mind. You’re alive and unharmed, and that’s good enough. I’m late back as it is, and now I have to retrieve all the flowers.”

Julius glanced back the way they had come. Flowers were strewn in a long path between the cliff edge and their previous location. She had clearly shed them as she hurried after him with increasing urgency.

The girl was turning away, shaking her head, but she paused, looking at him with a creased brow. “Will you be all right to get back to…wherever you came from? You won’t walk off any more cliffs?”

His flush grew deeper at how obviously incapable she thought him. He now hoped desperately that she truly didn’t know his identity. “I can assure you it was a momentary aberration. I’m not usually in the habit of walking off cliffs.”

The girl raised her eyebrows, as if she wasn’t entirely sure she believed him, but after a moment, she inclined her head politely and hurried away.

Julius watched her go, his heart still not returned to its normal rhythm. He was unsure if it was residual fear or humiliation fueling its thumping.

He knew he should hurry after her and offer proper thanks for the rescue. But he remained where he was, paralyzed by humiliation and indecision, until the girl hurried through the back gate of one of the mansions in the Row and closed the door firmly behind her.

He started at the sound of its closure, finally coming back to life. But it was too late to go after her. He couldn’t possibly barge into the house of one of Sovar’s noble families and demand to see the girl who had been carrying the flowers. Someone in the household would be sure to recognize him, even if the girl did not, and then there might be ramifications for his family. He’d already failed in his role badly enough. He didn’t need to continue bumbling around, making it worse.

The best thing Julius could do was get back to the palace as quickly as possible and pretend he’d never left. With any luck, he would never see the girl again. Without her flowers, he’d gotten a better look at her clothes, and while she wasn’t dressed in a servant’s livery, her clothes weren’t expensive enough to indicate she was one of the nobility.

She was a mystery he was never going to solve, and he was content to have it so.

But as Julius hurried toward home, he couldn’t shake the encounter from his mind. The more he relived it, the less he could understand his own missteps. What had come over him?

He moved faster and faster at the uncomfortable possibility that occurred to him. The girl hadn’t known his identity, so he had been interacting with her as Julius, not as the crown prince. Did that mean the Legacy had deserted him in that moment?

He had always known the Legacy aided him to play the charming role required of him, but he had thought of it as a subtle influence, providing a final gloss to his own efforts. But now he found himself questioning all his assumptions. He had given his life to his role, but perhaps he was far less suited to it than he had ever imagined. And if it was possible for both his own skill and the Legacy to desert him so completely, when might it happen again?

He tried to push the thought away. It hadn’t happened before in twenty-one years, so there was no reason to think it would happen again. He had met countless people in his life, and this girl was the only one who had ever discomfited him so.

The solution was simple. He just had to make sure he never encountered her again. Since she hadn’t appeared to be a noble, he didn’t need to fear meeting her at court. And he would make sure that was the last time he ever walked behind Manor Row. If he was fortunate, that was the one and only time he would ever see the girl with the flowers.