Page 32

Luc

T he surprise had been as much of a hit as I’d hoped. There was only one hitch—I needed to make sure that Alaric didn’t find out. I’d fibbed when I told Ava that he’d known. The king wasn’t big on guests at the palace unless they were on some sort of official duty. Fortunately, he rarely ventured out of his wing aside from when he had dinner in the main dining hall.

The plan was for Hailey to visit for a few days in the palace, hopefully enough time for her to talk Ava into staying and not giving up her future as a princess. If Hailey wanted to remain in Edoria beyond that, it’d be no issue to arrange accommodations for her to stay in a hotel up through the Harvest Ball. For the time being, however, I was certain that having her close at hand for Ava was essential for putting the princess in better spirits.

A small smile formed on my lips as I made my way to dinner with Alaric. Disobeying the king, keeping a secret from him like that, had never been in my nature. Then again, I was already keeping the mother of all secrets from him these days.

Dinner was to be in his office. I approached the door and knocked.

“Come in, Luc.”

I opened the door and stepped in. One of the members of the kitchen staff, a young woman by the name of Diana, was in the process of finishing setting up a small table near the window. It was still raining outside, and a fire was crackling in the fireplace, mellow piano jazz playing on the stereo.

“Thank you, Diana,” Alaric said as she finished, the young woman giving her king a respectful bow before leaving the room. Alaric turned to me and right away I could tell that there was something different about him.

Namely, that he was happy .

“Come, come,” Alaric said, sweeping his hand toward the table. “I had something special brought up from the wine cellar—a thirty-four Cabernet Franc from Bordeaux.”

I raised my eyebrow as I approached the table, the king pouring each of us a small taste.

“You broke into the pre-war stock?” I asked. “What’s the occasion?”

The king smiled again, as if pleased that the significance of the wine choice hadn’t been lost on me. Without answering the question, he offered me one of the glasses.

“Cheers,” he said. “To… overcoming obstacles, whatever they might be.”

“I’ll drink to that. Cheers.”

We tapped glasses and sipped. Despite all that was weighing on my mind, I couldn’t help but notice how damned good the wine was. The flavor was rich with tinges of tobacco and cherry.

“Simply marvelous,” I said.

“Glad you agree.” He gestured to the table, where two place settings topped with ornate silver covers waited for us. We both sat at the same time. “Please.” He swept his hand toward the plate in front of me.

I lifted the cover to find a delicious-looking cut of steak, French fries on the side. The steak was cut longways, the insides a deep pink.

“Steak frites?” I asked.

“Steak frites.”

I picked up one of the fries and popped it into my mouth. Right away I could taste that it had been cooked in duck fat—the outside crispy, the inside soft and silky, the taste rich and just the right sort of greasy. Once I was done with the fry, I tried the steak. The moment it was in my mouth, I closed my eyes and savored it. What could one even say about a perfectly cooked piece of meat?

“Delicious, no?” Alaric asked.

“Delicious. And you know what I think about whenever I have steak frites.”

Alaric chuckled, eating a fry of his own. “I know. It’s no accident that I chose them for dinner tonight.” He took a bite of his steak, shaking his head as he ate as if he couldn’t believe how tasty it was.

“Can you believe it’s been over twenty years since you and I stepped foot into this castle, since I became king?”

“Time flies.”

“Indeed, it does, my friend.” He sighed, his eyes on the meal. “I hated it here at first, being king. For my entire childhood I’d been preparing for a life of wealthy freedom, of traveling the world and living off my family’s fame and fortune. Can you even imagine such a life?”

“All the benefits of being royal, without any of the responsibility. Quite a good gig if you can get it.”

“Exactly what I’d thought when I was a child.” His expression darkened. “Then… well, you know what happened. I became king, and you joined me in the palace.”

“And you ate nothing but steak frites for, what, a whole year?”

He chuckled. “This was my favorite meal back when I was younger. Meat and potatoes, but even better. What’s not to like?”

I’d heard this story before but was more than willing to listen to it again. Something was going on with Alaric, and I was more than eager to know what it was.

“I was expected to eat all manner of fancy meals, to broaden my palate and so on and so forth. But I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to do anything of what was expected of me as king.”

I laughed. “Don’t I know it. You may not have wanted to be king, but that didn’t mean the kingdom didn’t have need of a king.”

Alaric nodded. “You stepped up to the plate, Luc. During that year when I was holed up in my room, eating steak frites and watching old movies and listening to jazz, you kept this palace and this kingdom running.”

“Anything for Edoria,” I said. “And anything for a friend.”

The year he’d described played in my mind on fast forward. I’d been the stand-in for Alaric, meeting with diplomats and royalty and nobility, only speaking to Alaric when I needed his royal initials on one document or another.

“I haven’t forgotten. Not at all.”

I popped another fry into my mouth.

“As pleasant as this trip down memory lane is, I have to wonder what brought it on.”

“My daughter,” he said. “Ava. I see myself in her, see that reluctance to take the throne, despite knowing it’s the right thing to do. And it appears that she is finally coming around, without taking a year like I did.”

I was confused. “Ava’s coming around?” As far as I knew, she’d been planning on leaving Edoria the moment the Harvest Ball was over.

“I believe she is. My dinner with her the other night was… enlightening. She appeared to finally be taking her lessons to heart, carrying herself in a much more dignified, royal manner.”

I said nothing, wondering if Alaric had seen something that I hadn’t.

“She is becoming less willful. Her bossy nature will be an asset when she becomes queen, but for now she is far better off learning a thing or two about humbling herself before the throne. And if that gets her to show a little more respect to me in the process, then so be it.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said. He had no idea how much I meant that, what was riding on it.

Alaric chuckled. “You know, as happy as I am that I came around and stepped into my role as king, I can’t help but wonder how different my life would be had I continued in the direction I originally planned to go, if I had done things the way I wanted to, if I had lived an ordinary life.”

I took a sip of my wine, then grinned. “You’d still be a pompous prick.”

Alaric laughed, shaking his head. “And I would hope that you would still be my friend.”

“That goes without saying.”

Part of me felt in that moment that it was the right time to reveal the truth of what was going on—if there was such a thing as the right moment to tell a father that you were sleeping with his daughter.

I didn’t breathe a word of it, however. There was no chance that Alaric would understand, or if I’d even be able to find the right words with which to explain myself.

Instead, we finished the bottle of Cab Franc and opened another, sitting in front of the fireplace and swapping memories of those wild first few years in the palace. As the evening came to a close, both of us a little tipsier than we’d anticipated, I left, stopping by Hailey’s door to check in on the girls. The lights were still on, music playing as the sisters laughed and chatted.

Good. She needs this, I thought as I began the walk back to my room.

Hopefully seeing her sister was the reminder she needed to continue being herself, to not let this place and her title as princess change her. Then again, if there was one thing Ava didn’t need help with, it was being herself.

And I loved that about her.