Page 99 of Duty and Desire

Gio

The portrait gallery was a long hallway filled with paintings and busts, all of past monarchs and members of the royal family. Nick seemed to know who everyone was.

I imagined he’d had it drummed into him all his life.

Everything felt so surreal. Was it really just over a week ago that we were living in a tropical paradise, with nothing on the horizon but spending our days and nights together? And here I was, thousands of miles from that paradise. being shown around a European palace by its soon-to-be-crowned king.

If I’d written this plot, my publisher would have turned it down as unbelievable.

Except I was now one of its main characters.

I pointed to a space where a painting had clearly once hung. “What happened to this one? Who was here, the black sheep of the family?”

Nick shrugged. “I have no idea. It’s always been empty for as longas I can remember. I asked my father about it once. He said it was of no importance.”

“What you really mean is, he kept it secret.” I smiled. “Ooh. A mystery.”

He laughed. “Does your writer brain ever shut down?”

“Never.”

Nick came to a halt in front of a huge portrait. It showed a stern man dressed in a black cloak trimmed with white fur. A silver crown sat upon his head. His arms rested on his throne, and he didn’t gaze at the artist but off into the distance.

As I stared at the face, it came to me in a rush that I was looking at King Johannes, Nick’s father. The resemblance was obvious.

“He was a strict man, wasn’t he?” I murmured.

“It shows, doesn’t it?”

“Did your brother look like him too?”

Nick pointed to the next portrait, and I had to smile. “Oh. Weren’t you a cute kid?” It was a painting of two boys. Nick’s eyes held a gleeful light the artist had captured perfectly, but Rudolf held himself stiffly.

I could almost hear the king in the background, telling them both not to slouch, to hold their heads high—and Nick ignoring him, going his own way.

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? He wanted to stop you from following your own path.

Nick hadn’t budged from his father’s portrait, staring up at it, frowning.

I rejoined him. “What goes through your mind when you look at him?”

“The same fear that haunts my days. That I’ll never be able to live up to his legacy.”

I huffed. “From what I’ve heard, that might not be such a bad thing.”

Nick let out a sigh. “Karoline told me she was sorry for my loss, but she wasn’t. It was just words.” He swallowed. “But standing here,I’m feeling that loss for the first time since I learned of his death. Not because I’ll miss him, but because if it weren’t for his love of skiing, he would still be here, Rudolf would be the next in line, and I would still have my life.” His eyes glistened. “I know that makes me sound so selfish, but I can’t help the way I feel. I want him alive, because following in his footsteps? That will be the death of me. Not literally, but figuratively.”

Oh Nick.

I yearned to hold him, comfort him, but the risk was too great.

I gazed at the room full of history, tradition, and duty. A world away from everything I knew.

A world I could never fit into.

A cough startled me, and instinctively I took a step away from Nick.

Franz stood in the doorway. “Your Majesty, Miss Risch is looking for you.”

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