Page 19

Chapter

Nineteen

“ A ll right. Let’s do this.”

Bemused, Cassius looked from Flora’s determined face to the border crossing. Why did she look like she was preparing for battle?

“What exactly are we doing?” he asked.

It had taken a whole day to travel to the border, and Flora had been mysterious and uncommunicative throughout. Of course, that may have just been her physical state. Her energy was still depleted, and he could see from the way she moved that she remained in significant pain. Even he was struggling, and the knowledge of how much worse her state was than his own kept threatening to send him back into a spiral of fury and despair.

He was keeping it to himself now, however. It wouldn’t help Flora for him to burden her with the depths of his regrets.

“I’m doing something I swore to myself I never would,” Flora said with a sigh. “Returning to Dernan.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Just what did you do last time you were there? ”

She grinned, the expression not bringing him as much pleasure as it would if her face wasn’t so bruised.

“I ran away.”

She strode forward, a confused Cassius following as she passed through the Torrenese checkpoint and approached the border guards on the Dernan side.

“What’s your business?” one asked gruffly. “The border is closed to regular traffic until further notice.”

“Yes, but I’m not regular traffic,” Flora said matter-of-factly.

“Why is the border closed?” Cassius asked, frowning.

The guard looked him over, in all his disheveled finery. “Who are you, and what’s your business?”

“He’s with me.” Flora’s voice was commanding, something in her tone Cassius hadn’t heard before.

“Is he now?” The guard leaned on his spear, unimpressed. “And you are?”

“You really don’t recognize me?” She tilted her head to the side. “I recognize you. I can’t remember your name, but I’m sure you used to work at the castle. Did you offend Endrin to get yourself banished out here?”

The guard stilled, his eyes widening as they roved over her face.

“Endrin?” The other guard repeated the name—which meant nothing to Cassius—cautiously. “How would you know the head of the royal guard?”

“I used to be the bane of his existence,” Flora explained. “I’m guessing he hasn’t missed me.”

“Princess Floriana?”

The astonishment with which the first guard said the words was nothing to what Cassius felt.

“Princess?” he repeated, the ground reeling beneath his exhausted feet as he stared at Flora .

“Yes, it’s true,” she told him. “At least, I was born Her Royal Highness Princess Floriana Marigold Berthe of the royal house of Dernan. But it could be argued that I renounced my title when I ran away five years ago. That was my intention, anyway.”

“I…you…you can’t be,” Cassius said dumbly.

“Oh, but I am.” Her eyes twinkled. “And let it be a lesson to you not to lord it over seemingly humble strangers.”

Cassius felt his lips twitch, unable to resist the mirth in her eyes.

“Our orders are to take you to the capital immediately if ever you reappeared, Your Highness,” the guard said, glaring at Cassius as he stepped forward. “Their Majesties are anxious for your return.”

“If you say so,” Flora replied ruefully. “We’re ready to go.”

“We?” The guard eyed Cassius again. “Who is this man?”

“He’s my bodyguard,” Flora said blithely.

Cassius choked, hardly able to comprehend what was happening. Flora was in her element, at her most outrageous and her most irresistible.

“He hasn’t done a very good job.”

The second guard’s interjection sobered Cassius at once. The man’s eyes were lingering on Flora’s bruises, and he must have noted the stiff way she moved.

“He has, actually,” Flora said quickly. “It’s only thanks to his efforts that I’m alive.”

Cassius said nothing because there was nothing he could say. But when Flora glanced at him, he held her eyes, and he could tell that she saw the ghost of his agony in his gaze. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to forgive himself for what had happened to Flora because of their tether. How long would it take before he no longer saw her pale, seemingly lifeless face before him every time he closed his eyes?

“Well.” The guard sounded reluctant to be responsible for any decisions regarding the returned princess. “We’ll arrange transport to the capital at once, Your Highness. In the meantime, come into the guardhouse.”

Cassius followed Flora into the building, his mind spinning. The guard ushered them past half a dozen of his off-duty fellows and into an empty study.

“You’re not Siqualian,” Cassius said as soon as they were alone.

“No.”

“You’re from Dernan.”

“Yes.”

“And…” He struggled to get his mouth around the words. “And you’re a princess.”

Flora nodded. “I am, strictly speaking.”

“So all those times you insisted on giving me the deference due to my station…all the times you stood behind my chair during a meal…”

“I wasn’t trying to be false,” she said quickly. “I wasn’t in Carrack as a princess, Cassius. I was there as a guard.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” He couldn’t quite keep the hurt from his voice.

“Try not to take it personally,” Flora said with a pleading edge. “It was my intention to never tell anyone. Well, except Mim.”

“Princess Miriam knows?”

She nodded. “I confided in her back at school. She’s the only one, though. The mistress never knew—she would never have let me work as a servant or take a charity position in the school if she did. And the rest of the Siqualian royal family have no idea.”

Cassius ran his hand through his hair.

“But why? Why hide it?”

“Because I didn’t want the life that had been laid out for me,” said Flora. “I know it sounds selfish and irresponsible, but you don’t understand, Cassius. I know you have a great deal of restrictions, but your movements are much more your own than mine ever were. And arranged marriages notwithstanding, Miriam has a level of freedom that I could never have dreamed of. I wasn’t allowed to have my own interests, my own desires, my own ideas. I was a resource to my parents, not a daughter. Every happy memory of my childhood is from a day when I escaped what I was supposed to be doing and paid the penalty afterwards. And the older I got, the harder it was to give my minders the slip. I couldn’t live that way. It was killing me. I had to escape.”

Cassius searched her face, his sympathy stirred by the desperation in her eyes.

“I’m sorry your life was like that,” he said gently. “You were not made to be caged. But I still don’t understand how I didn’t know that a princess of Dernan was missing.”

Flora gave a bitter laugh, the sound unlike her usual chuckle. “They would never have advertised it. My defection would be a humiliation in their eyes.” She shrugged. “I’m the ninth of ten children, and my absence wouldn’t be as conspicuous as you might think. I imagine they made up some story for the court.” She glanced at the closed door between them and the rest of the guardhouse. “Clearly the guards had instructions, however. I suspected as much, which was why I was reluctant to pass through Dernan on our first journey together. I doubt I would have been recognized at the border with how I was dressed then—I’ve been gone five years, after all. But if we’d been forced to divert to the capital, I would have been lost.”

“Lost?” Cassius raised an eyebrow, his mouth quirking into a small smile. “You make that sound very dramatic.”

She didn’t respond, didn’t even return his smile. Cassius frowned, wondering if he’d been wrong to assume she was exaggerating in memory the frustrations of her fifteen-year-old self.

“Why are we back here now?” he asked abruptly. “If you were so determined never to return?”

“Because I want to help,” she said. “And I have an idea for how I can.”

The door opened, and the guard from earlier appeared.

“We will escort you to the nearest town via horseback, Your Highness,” he said. It took Cassius a moment to realize the man was speaking to Flora, not to him. “From there a vehicle can be secured to convey you the rest of the way. With an escort of guards, of course.” He glanced at Cassius but didn’t address him. “Your companion can make his own way to the capital if he chooses.”

“No,” Flora said flatly. “He comes with me, or I don’t go at all.”

The guard fidgeted uncomfortably. “Your Highness, you are in no position to decline to attend the capital. We have our orders from Their Majesties, and we will carry them out, forcefully if necessary.”

Cassius raised his eyebrows, incredulous of the man’s audacity.

“This is how you speak to your princess?” he said. “This is how she is welcomed home after an absence of five years?”

“This matter doesn’t concern you, sir,” the guard said gruffly.

“Actually, it does.” Cassius moved calmly toward the man, letting all the authority of his position bleed into his voice. “She doesn’t go anywhere without me.”

The guard hesitated, thrown by Cassius’s manner. As a member of the royal guard, he would have learned to recognize authority when he saw it.

“As you wish,” he said, with the air of one washing his hands of the consequences. “But I make no guarantees about your safety or your welcome in the capital.”

“Home sweet home,” muttered Flora.

The day was too far advanced for them to travel all the way to the capital, so they stopped for the night in the nearest town. Fortunately Cassius and Flora were able to secure rooms next to one another, so that the tether could go unnoticed. Guards accompanied Flora everywhere she went, two standing outside her door all night. They seemed more like wardens than protectors, and Cassius slept uneasily, not trusting her to these strangers.

The following day’s journey was smooth and swift. Dernan was considerably smaller than the surrounding kingdoms, and they were comfortably able to reach the capital of Dernanford before nightfall in spite of the increasingly rocky terrain. The air was cold all day—the weather had been mild and sunny in Torrens, but in Dernan, the sky was overcast.

Not just the sky. The closer to the capital they got, the more subdued Flora became. By the time they rode into Dernanford, she hadn’t spoken for at least an hour, and the bruises on her face stood out starkly against her pale cheeks .

“Are you all right?” Cassius asked as they were led up the castle steps.

She nodded. “I’m fine.”

It wasn’t convincing. Cassius had never seen her self-conscious about her attire before, but he noticed her smoothing out the skirt of her unusual guard uniform, and trying to rub dirt from the long sleeve of her tunic.

He knew that a messenger had gone ahead of them, and he’d expected the king and queen to greet them at the entrance to the castle. But instead, they were met by a servant and shown into a small audience chamber. Two guards took up positions in the hallway, but once the door was closed, they were alone.

Flora met Cassius’s eyes with a strange expression then abruptly lurched toward him and grabbed the flaps of his jacket. She pressed her lips to his with a definite flavor of defiance. Cassius pulled her close, not about to reject the gesture, confused though he was.

“Just in case,” Flora told him when she pulled back.

He frowned in bemusement. “Just in case of what?”

The door opened, and two men and a woman strode in, their steps agitated.

“Mother, Father.” Flora’s barriers were up again, perhaps even more than they’d been when Cassius first met her. “And my dear big brother. You look very heir-like.”

“Floriana.” The younger of the men eyed her coldly. “You’ve returned, then. I confess I didn’t think you would.”

“I didn’t plan to,” she said frankly. “And I won’t be here for long. I’m going to live in Carrack.”

The simple words sent a shot of satisfaction through Cassius, but they didn’t have the same effect on the others in the room.

“You are certainly not.” The woman, presumably Dernan’s queen, spoke with no more warmth than her son had done. “You will remain here, where you belong. Your flight was unacceptable behavior.” She paused, then, with the air of one making a great concession, added, “But you made the right decision to return.”

“Have you missed me, Mother?” There was a wistful note to Flora’s voice that made Cassius’s heart ache.

“I have missed having the support of a dutiful daughter,” the queen said.

Not a yes. There had been the smallest flicker on the queen’s face before she spoke, but it wasn’t enough to soften Cassius’s thoughts. He found his indignation growing on Flora’s behalf.

“You have certainly grown, Floriana,” the king said, his voice long-suffering as much as disapproving. “But apparently not in wisdom. You appear to have come to us immediately after some kind of brawl.”

“It’s a long story,” Flora said. “I’m injured, it’s true, but I don’t think there will be any lasting damage.”

“If only the same were true of your reputation,” her mother said, her tone pained. “We shall have a great deal to repair.”

“I’m not interested in repairing anything,” Flora said tensely. “As I said, I’m not staying.”

“You are fortunate indeed,” the queen continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “that the earl to whom you were betrothed has not yet taken a wife. It is possible that he will be willing to honor our original agreement.”

Cassius shifted forward, scowling his disapproval at anyone who might look his way. No one did.

“That would open a whole section of the northern cliffs to us,” the crown prince was saying excitedly. “The mining efforts in that area have been seriously hampered. ”

“I’m not marrying the earl,” Flora said, her face still paler than Cassius was used to.

“You will do as you’re told,” her brother informed her. If the king and queen held a hint of hidden softness for their erring daughter, the prince showed no sign of sharing it.

Flora didn’t back down. “As a matter of fact, I won’t.”

The prince eyed his sister with disfavor. “You’re too old for these antics now, Floriana. Have you still not learned decorum? What are you wearing? She ought to change at once, don’t you think, Mother?”

“Absolutely,” the queen agreed. “Some of her old gowns may still fit her. I will invite the earl for a private dinner once Floriana is presentable, and—”

“Did you always speak of her as though she’s not in the room?” Cassius demanded. “No wonder she ran away.”

The three royals bristled, paying him attention for the first time.

“Who are you? The so-called bodyguard?”

“I am the man who intends to marry your daughter,” Cassius said. “So I’ll thank you to stop mentioning this earl, whom she clearly does not wish to marry.”

“Absolutely not,” the king said, his gaze outraged as it passed over Cassius’s ripped and stained attire.

“Come, Floriana.” The Dernan prince spoke in a voice of command, stepping forward to seize Flora’s arm.

“No!”

Cassius heard real panic in Flora’s voice, and it propelled him toward her.

“Let go of her,” he said furiously. He noticed that Flora had begun to flick her hair back and forth purposefully, the movement a little frantic.

“Don’t you dare try to use magic on me,” her brother said sharply, distracted from Cassius’s advance by Flora’s actions. “Your tricks won’t help your cause.”

“I think you’ll find my tricks have grown as much as I have,” Flora said mulishly. “You wouldn’t let me study magic here, so I found a school where I could. I’m skilled enough now to find employment with the craft.”

The queen gave a low groan. “Like a common tradesman.”

Cassius felt foolish for how helpfully he’d explained the restrictive view his father took on magic for the titled. It seemed Flora knew that attitude much better than he did.

“Like a highly skilled and respected expert,” Cassius contradicted. “Your inability to value your daughter as she deserves reflects poorly on your wisdom as monarchs.”

“How dare you?” the prince gasped. “Who are you to speak to your king and queen in such a manner?”

“They’re not my king and queen,” said Cassius coolly. “And as for who I am, I am Cassius Leopold Detwold Tristan of the House of Renmark, the son and sole heir of my father, King Aelius of Carrack.”

There was a moment of stunned silence—into which Flora mouthed Leopold? with laughter in her eyes—before his audience of three gave vent to noises of disdain.

“You are as outrageous as ever, Floriana. What benefit do you hope to derive from this charade?”

“It’s not a charade,” said Flora. “He is Crown Prince Cassius. I’ve been serving as his bodyguard for some time now. Prior to that I served as bodyguard to Her Highness Princess Miriam of Siqual. And I can categorically say that the way we do things in the castle here is the worst approach in the entire Peninsula.”

“You expect us to believe this?” the king demanded. “That the heir to the throne of Carrack is wandering about the country with you, in torn and bloodied clothes and with no other attendants?”

“I have never yet had need of proving my identity,” Cassius said in his haughtiest voice. “But I am perfectly ready to do so should the need arise, Your Majesty. As for our condition, we have narrowly escaped from enemies of Carrack who abducted me from Crandell. Flora, on duty as my bodyguard at the time, was caught up in the attack as well. Were circumstances different, I would apologize to you as her parents for the injuries she suffered in the course of her role, but given you’ve shown no sign whatsoever of caring about her wellbeing, it doesn’t seem that it would be appropriate.”

There was a moment of silence, and Cassius could almost see the king and queen hesitating, wondering if there was any chance his shocking tale was true.

“Father, remember the news we heard this morning,” the other prince said in an undertone. “Could it be…?”

“What news?” Cassius asked sharply. “News of my kingdom?”

Flora’s brother stared at him, uncertain. “It was not an official missive. It was a rumor. That Crown Prince Cassius is being held as a prisoner within Torrens, betrayed by a spy sent by Siqual to aid in the Torrenese scheme to…”

He trailed off as his eyes came to rest on Flora, and he put the pieces together. Flora shot Cassius a rueful look.

“I suppose we should have expected the tale to go something like that.” She frowned at her brother. “What else do the rumors say?”

“That…” He seemed to be struggling to gather his thoughts, his eyes still fixed on Cassius. “That Carrackian troops are mustering near the border, preparing to attack To rrens. Supposedly they will receive support in the effort from one of the kingdoms of the continent.”

Cassius growled under his breath. Sir Keavling had been very busy. “None of that is going to happen.”

“No,” Flora agreed. “Because we’re going to fix it.” She eyed her family members. “And you’re going to help us.”