Page 32

OLIVIA

“D o you really have to go?” Olivia stood at the palace’s entrance, gazing disconsolately at the carriage waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

“I’ve been here for six months,” Daphne said with an amused smile. “So I think we both know the answer to that is yes. It’s past time I was heading for Oakden.”

“Couldn’t you just marry Ashton and stay forever?” Olivia wailed, giving her cousin yet another final hug goodbye.

Daphne snorted. “Appealing as that sounds, I think I’ll leave that honor to Nell or Hattie. I wouldn’t like to earn either of our cousins’ enmity by stealing their favorite lord.”

Olivia sniffled and chuckled weakly. “I’m sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this.”

“It’s already been three months since your wedding, Princess Olivia,” Daphne said with a long-suffering look. “And I even let you twist my arm into being one of your attendants. And I thought Rosalie’s wedding was exhausting! When it’s my turn, I think I’ll just run away to a beach somewhere and get married on the sand.”

“Don’t be silly,” Olivia said. “You’re on your way to Oakden. You’ll no doubt meet some handsome, charming man there who will convince you to settle down in your birth kingdom and have twenty babies. You’ll forget what exhaustion even is!”

“With twenty babies? You must be joking.” Daphne stared at her in horror. “Legacy burden or not, there aren’t enough naps in the world to cover twenty babies.”

“You wouldn’t have them all at once,” Olivia pointed out, warming to the topic.

“I won’t be having them at all,” Daphne said firmly. “I’m going to Oakden because I have to know what life is like without the constant burden of the Legacy. I’m not going there for romance.”

“That’s what you say now,” Olivia said, but in a small voice and with a cheeky smile.

“Stop harassing your cousin, love, and let her leave before the sun sets and the coachman refuses to set out at all.” Julius’s welcome voice lifted some of Olivia’s sorrow.

She smiled at him as he reached her side and slipped an arm around her waist. But Daphne regarded her with a wounded look.

“Ah! Your plan has been revealed! That’s why you’re waffling on about twenty babies.”

Olivia laughed. “We only just finished breakfast. You’ve got plenty of daylight left. But Julius is right; I should let you go.”

Daphne stepped forward for yet another final hug, and Olivia clung to her tightly.

“Don’t worry,” Daphne said lightly. “Marigold and Cade get back from their wedding trip tomorrow, remember? You won’t be lonely for long.”

Julius’s arm tightened around her waist. “She won’t be lonely at all.”

“Whoa, slow down there, lovebirds,” Daphne said lightly. “Wait until I’m napping in the carriage, and then you can gaze passionately into each other’s eyes for as many hours as you like.”

“I suppose you really will nap all the way to Oakden.” Olivia shook her head. “I can’t imagine you without the tendency to sleep everywhere you go. It’s hard to imagine an Oakdenian Daphne.”

“Which is precisely why I need to go,” Daphne said softly. “Even I don’t remember anymore.”

There was nothing to be said to that. Instead, Olivia gave the actual final hug and called repeated goodbyes as Daphne descended the stairs and climbed into her carriage. Her face didn’t appear at the window, but Olivia still waved until the carriage had passed through the distant palace gates.

She lowered her arm with a sigh, and Julius pulled her around into his arms, her front flush with his.

“You’ll miss her.” It wasn’t a question. “But we can hope she’ll come back.”

“To visit, yes.” Olivia sighed. “But this isn’t her home. If she ever decides to live outside of Oakden, she’ll go to Glandore and Rosalie.”

“You don’t need to be jealous of Rosalie anymore,” Julius reminded her. He now knew all about her complicated feelings toward Daphne’s best friend. “You’re not in Henton. Here you have your own best friend to make trouble with. And as Daphne said, that friend will be back tomorrow. We should probably brace ourselves. It’s been unnaturally peaceful for the last month.”

Olivia laughed. “Marigold isn’t that bad! Especially once her father admitted defeat and agreed to let her marry Cade. I think he’s a settling influence on her.”

“We can only hope.” Julius didn’t sound convinced. “She may just be biding her time.”

“I’m so glad Lord Emerson did relent,” Olivia murmured, gazing across the front of the palace. “Marigold would have married Cade anyway, of course, but it’s much more peaceful at court without having to manage feuding Emersons.”

“Listen to you, talking like an old hand,” Julius said with a teasing smile.

“After the eight months we’ve had, I feel like I am!” Olivia leaned into him and rested her head against his chest, letting herself draw comfort from the strength of his arms around her. “Were you surprised when Lord Emerson capitulated? I thought he would eventually, but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.”

“When it comes to court,” Julius said wryly, “alliances are always subject to change. Lord Emerson claimed he opposed the match due to Cade’s family, but his tune changed rather quickly when Cade became the Lord Strathmore instead of just a younger son.”

“Meaning Marigold got what she most wanted and most dreaded at the same time.” Olivia couldn’t help chuckling. “Marriage to Cade and the central position at court that suddenly came with it.”

She remained silent for a moment, thinking back on the upheaval of the previous autumn. It hadn’t been surprising when Zane was stripped of his title and sentenced to prison. But she hadn’t expected the panel of nobles convened by the king to rule that Lord Strathmore was at least partially complicit in his son’s actions. The old lord had been a little too careful in avoiding all knowledge of his son’s criminal activities—clearly he had known something was going on and had implicitly, if not explicitly, given Zane permission.

Since he hadn’t been directly involved, he had merely been stripped of his position—both his title and the family’s wealth passing to his second son. But Cade had immediately gifted his parents one of the more distant Strathmore properties, well out of the capital. The last Olivia had heard, the two were adjusting to a quieter and more ordinary life.

She would probably get a new update soon since Marigold and Cade had planned to stop by and see them at the end of their wedding trip before returning to the capital.

“I was more surprised by my own mother’s speedy change of attitude,” Julius said thoughtfully, resting his chin gently on the top of Olivia’s head.

She slipped her arms around his waist and gave him a squeeze. Julius had forgiven his parents, but there was still work to be done to fully restore the relationship that had existed between them before. And she couldn’t blame him for that. Trust was a slow thing to rebuild.

For herself, however, it had been easier. Without the complication of history and family between them, she had chosen to accept the queen’s profuse apologies and put the incident behind them. Given all the work she still had to do to learn the role of crown princess and eventually queen, she couldn’t afford to be at odds with her mother-in-law.

Olivia still had moments of crippling self-doubt, and perhaps that was what helped her view Queen Elsinore more softly. The queen was the only person who had stood in Olivia’s shoes, and she suspected that even decades later, the queen had her moments of insecurity and fear.

Or perhaps it was merely that the queen was the only person who loved Julius with the same fierceness that Olivia did. From the moment of her repentance, Queen Elsinore had pleaded that she had acted out of concern for her son. She had feared that Julius would end up in a miserable marriage with someone who resented both him and the court and who didn’t understand his life in the way a high-ranking girl would.

But after hearing exactly how Olivia had escaped her locked room, the queen had finally accepted Marigold’s unsuitability, acknowledging she had been wrong. And with a wedding to plan for Julius and Olivia—who had wanted to get married as quickly as possible—she had thrown herself behind their match just as heartily as she had once opposed it.

The king had been less flexible, responding to Julius’s accusations of treachery by pointing out that he had only said the guards would not impede Olivia’s access to the ball. He had said nothing of not locking her suite—a task that had been completed by a servant, not a guard.

This argument had found no favor with Julius, and it had been up to his mother to plead on his father’s behalf.

“Robert is in a unique position,” she had said. “When he took those actions, he wasn’t acting as your father, but as your king. And while it may seem obvious now that he made the wrong choice—” A snort from her son made her adjust her words. “ Several wrong choices, he was under immense pressure and acting for what he honestly thought was the good of the kingdom. Remember, he wasn’t asking for a sacrifice from you that he hadn’t made himself when he was crown prince. He truly believed it was your duty to do as he had once done.”

Julius didn’t accept his mother’s words immediately, but Olivia knew he pondered on them. And while the king had still not directly acknowledged his errors—either through stiff pride or a mistaken belief that it would undermine his position as king—he did show increasing favor to Olivia, which she saw as his attempt to acknowledge his mistake and make amends.

Eventually, Julius told his mother that she could stop hounding him as he’d decided to forgive his father. His subsequent manner toward the king couldn’t be considered warm, but it had at least grown a great deal less frosty. And Olivia noticed it thawing a little more with each passing month—a source of relief to both Julius’s mother and his wife.

When his mother asked him what his father had done to convince him to relent, Julius had shrugged.

“Nothing at all. I just realized that the day will come when I sit on his throne and wear the burden of his crown. And as king, I’m sure I’ll eventually make a wrong decision as well.”

His mother had nodded slowly, pride in her son shining in her eyes. And the same warmth had remained on her face as she looked at her daughter-in-law, sitting at her son’s side.

“Everyone is fallible, so I agree that such a situation is inevitable,” she said softly. “But I suspect that when that day comes, your queen will do a better job of helping you see your error than Robert’s queen did.”

After that, both women were in tears, and hugs were exchanged all round.

It also helped that Olivia now had her own family around her, not just Julius’s. Her parents and brothers had come to the capital not only for the wedding but to move there permanently. Uncle Walt and Aunt Helen had opened their home to them, and Nell and Hattie were adjusting to life with five younger brothers—a situation that caused great amusement to Olivia, who had once stood in their place.

But at least when Nell and Hattie needed a break they could flee to court. Olivia’s aunt and uncle now maintained an apartment in the palace, like the inner circle of nobles, and Olivia’s cousins frequently used it as a refuge. Olivia’s mother had firmly decreed that none of the boys were fit to even visit it yet. She was determined to wait until they’d grown up before unleashing them on the palace.

Thankfully, the boys seemed to think having the whole capital as their playground was good enough for the time being and had accepted her strictures. And Olivia could visit them on Manor Row whenever she wanted—something that she enjoyed less once she discovered that they’d brought two lizards with them from Henton in the hope they would grow to the size of dragons. And unfortunately, given the Legacy’s approval of Julius and Olivia’s wedding, the two creatures were well on their way to achieving the boys’ aim, much to Aunt Helen’s dismay.

“Are you really so sad to be left behind with just me?” Julius asked in an affectionate voice, clearly already knowing the answer.

Olivia pulled back so she could smile up at him. “No, of course not. I’ll miss Daphne, but I always knew she had to leave eventually. And it’s amazing how much easier it is to watch people go when there’s one person who’s promised never to walk away from me.”

“Never,” Julius vowed in a solemn voice, leaning down to capture her lips with his. When he pulled back, she sighed and put her head against his chest again.

“You are the best mistake I ever made,” he murmured. “And I look forward to dancing at many, many more Midsummer Balls with you.”

“And one day we’ll watch our children dance there,” Olivia agreed.

“Children…plural?” Julius asked cautiously.

Olivia lifted her head so she could see his face, giving him her most determined look. “I want more than one child. Our experience showed that the Legacy can be placated with a much less rigid approach, and the number of our children isn’t something I’m willing to leave up to the Legacy.”

Julius’s brow creased, and he remained silent for a minute as he turned her words over in his head.

“I’m not sure how we haven’t had this conversation before,” he finally said, but Olivia knew.

They’d hardly had a quiet moment in the last six months. Thinking about something as far away as children hadn’t been at the front of their minds.

“I like it, though,” he added, a grin growing over his face.

Olivia breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

“I always wanted a sibling,” he added. “I’m glad our future crown prince won’t have to suffer the same loneliness I did.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Are you so sure it will be a crown prince?”

“The Legacy isn’t going to let us go completely,” he told her. “But I can handle having a son first. And second and third, if that’s what we get. Although a little princess would be just as acceptable.”

“Three,” Olivia murmured, leaning back into him. “That sounds nice.” She was silent for a moment. “I want to invite Avery to visit Sovar as well.”

“Avery?” She could hear the frown of concentration in his voice. “The peddler who gave you your mirror?”

She nodded against his chest. “I’ve heard she’s been investigating the Legacies, and I want to ask her to include Sovar in her investigation. I think it’s time we knew why cliffs keep appearing everywhere—our future king has nearly gone over two of them at this point.”

The rumble of Julius’s quiet laughter felt soothing against her cheek.

“If we’re going to take a different approach to the Legacy during our reign,” he said, “then I think it makes sense to learn everything about it that we can. After weeks of deliberation, our best scholars were only able to come up with the strategy of doing everything exactly the same for a second time. I think we’re ready for some new ways of thinking.”

“Exactly.” Joy rose up in Olivia at the sense of unity she felt with her new husband.

She had never felt so excited for the future as she did in that moment, wrapped in his arms, making plans together. Her friends and family would come and go, but she would remain content, buoyed by a lifetime of such moments.