Page 16 of Stolen Princess's Secret

‘Are you ever going to put more clothes on, or am I just going to stand here and pant?’ She slipped his coat from its hanger and held it out. The coat obscured her face but the impatient shake she gave it spoke volumes. ‘I’m about to be presented with a new title and home. I don’t know if I’m excited about it or not. Lor and Silas are getting stuff too. You’re being honoured for winning that falcon race. I can’t believe you haven’t guessed that last bit already. Thirteen minutes. Hurry up.’

Moved to action, he thrust his arms into the sleeves and shrugged into the ceremonial coat. He stayed absolutely still as she fussed with the positioning of the shoulders and brushed her hand across his broad back.

‘Hmm,’ she murmured.

‘What now?’

‘Tight fit.’

He knew that. ‘It’ll be worse when the buttons are done up, so I’ll leave them loose until we get to the capital.’ He’d done this before, he knew how to stay as comfortable as possible for as long as possible.

‘What about the buckles on the sleeves?’

‘They can be done now.’ He turned and caught a waft of faint fragrance, something velvety and rich. ‘Is that why Leonidas refused your return after the kidnapping? Because you weren’t his?’ It took a while, what with all her talk of craving him, but his brain did eventually kick in around their earlier conversation thread.

‘Probably.’ She reached for the first buckle, her fingers quick and nimble. ‘They’d have had better luck taking Cas. Instead, they snatched a second-born girl child and likely not even his. Little wonder the King reacted as he did.’

‘And yet your captors let you live.’

‘I know plenty of my political opponents think I’ve got Stockholm Syndrome, but my captors were not bad people. Misguided, yes. Naïve to think they’d just be able to hand me back and take a seat at the negotiating table—Leonidas would have been perfectly capable of sitting them down and slaughtering them, don’t you think?’

‘Well, I do now.’

‘But my captors weren’t child killers. They didn’t cut off any of my body parts and send them back in the post. In many ways they were very kind to me. They reminded me of you and your father.’

He was aghast. ‘Is that supposed to be a compliment?’

‘Clearly you don’t think so.’

He could do nothing but stare.

‘I had my very own pony, wolfhound and falcon, and substitute parents who treated me far better than my own ever had. I had other children all around me and a nomadic lifestyle that made every day an adventure. I begged them to keep me. Promised I’d be useful to them one day.’

He didn’t like her captors and never would. He would sooner gut Lord Ildris, her advisor, than look at him, and the other man knew it. They claimed ground around each other very, very carefully.

‘They took you as an act of ill intent. Ripped you from your home because they wanted more for themselves.’ Tomas didn’t forgive them their sins.

She’d finished with the buckles on one vambrace. He lowered his arm and raised the other. ‘Did you ever think of the people you left behind? The ones who grieved for you and thought of you and blamed themselves for years because they couldn’t keep you safe?’

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he’d revealed too much. He might as well have screamed What about me? Her fingers faltered, clumsy, and then she found the strap again and pulled the buckle way too tight. ‘Easy,’ he muttered.

‘Sorry.’ She loosened it and found the right buckle hole.

‘The apology is mine,’ he offered gruffly. ‘What you did to survive, how you coped after being taken, is none of my business. I’m glad your captors realised your worth and treated you kindly. I reserve the right to question their humanity.’

She dropped her gaze to his vambrace, long lashes shielding her expression. ‘I missed Cas terribly at first. Then I decided he’d take far fewer beatings if I wasn’t around because he wouldn’t have to protect me. I decided I was protecting him for once. I was a hero in my own imagination.’ She finished doing up the buckles and he let his hand drop as she looked up at him through her lashes, her eyes glittering with tears. ‘I missed you and your father and the falcons most of all. I knew you’d be worried and that you’d...grieve...if you thought me dead.’

‘I prayed for you,’ he confessed gruffly. He’d hidden himself away in places no one could find him and prayed as hard as he could for her safe return. ‘I grieved.’

She’d held a special place in his heart for so many years. Beloved. Untouchable.

Dead.

And yet here she was, spinning him round, twisting him inside out, because he didn’t know what to feel when he was in her presence.

‘I’m sorry.’ She was going to ruin her make-up if she let those tears fall. ‘All I wanted was to feel safe. And loved. Both. That’s still my guiding star and something I seek again as an adult. In a lover.’

There was too much honesty in this conversation for him to reply.

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