Page 55 of Slippers and Thorns
“Indeed,” she agreed easily, only the slightest blush of embarrassment gracing her cheeks. “I always enjoy this time of year in a forest.”
“Ah,” Michael sighed. Placing his free hand over his heart, he bowed his head in mock sorrow. “And here I thought you appreciated my own good looks. I guess I can’t compete with nature.”
Even though she tried to remind herself that she was mad at him, Ella couldn’t work up the necessary disdain in the face of the calming influence of the light breeze, the sunshine, and their relative isolation. As a result, his playful mood was infectious. “It’s quite true,” she loftily returned. “There is no comparison.”
After a moment, she relented. “I was thinking that you looked happy,” she admitted. “It’s been a while.”
Michael leaned dangerously towards her, causing Chief to prance sideways. “Like I said earlier, I had a good dream last night,” he drawled. “It put me in a good mood.”
The local atmosphere might be affecting her, but not enough to outweigh her concerns on that point. Desperate to direct the conversation away from the topic, she hurried to expound on her mental trails. “I thought you looked lighter without your responsibilities weighing you down.”
This made Michael frown and straighten up in his saddle. “You think I’m shirking my duties? And you think that makes me happy?”
“No,” she rushed to elaborate. “I don’t think that. After all, your father himself gave you the time off. I’m sure you haven’t forgotten about your duties. I only meant that it seems like you are wearing them more lightly, like you did before…”
She trailed off. “Before our wedding” was what she had been about to say. It suddenly occurred to her, though, that she didn’t know what his responsibilities had been like before the ball at which he had seemed so light-hearted. For most of the time following it, he had been at her side, up until a few weeks after their wedding. He neither attended nor ran many meetings during those few months.
It had been similar during their last visit to Ralnor, in the few days after the ball. He had been attentive and very close to being Mike while they were away from home and work, but once he returned to his daily grind, he had melted back into the crown prince.
Even if he was relaxed and “Mike” was back now, when they were on a trip and he had no work to distract him, what reason did she have to suppose that he would stay that way once they were back home and his duties were once again present to lure him away?
“Before…?” Michael prompted when she remained silent.
“Never mind,” Ella said with a frown of her own. “Forget I said anything.”
“What?” Michael laughed harshly. “No, you can’t say something like that and then just back out of it. You called me irresponsible!”
Ella shrank back a little under his anger. “I didn’t say that,” she weakly argued. “I only said that it seemed like you were enjoying the break.”
“Oh, so I’m not irresponsible all the time, I’m just happier when I’m being irresponsible,” Michael scoffed. “That’s so much better.”
“That’s—that’s not what I meant!” Ella couldn’t hide her frustration, but she also couldn’t put her thoughts into words that she could hold up in the face of his forceful emotion. And why was she trying, anyway? He wasn’t going to stay Mike, she reminded herself. It would be nice to appreciate him while she had him, but she wasn’t sure it was worth the pain of disappointment when he reverted to the crown prince, and she once again had to suffer through the loneliness. It would be better to never open up in the first place.
Michael ignored her protest and resumed surveying their route, but the slight smile was gone, replaced with a tightly-clenched jaw and narrowed eyes. She didn’t try to pull him out of his irascibility, telling herself it would be better in the long run to leave him be.
A few hours later, Michael made an effort to bring back the jovial air from the start of the day’s journey, but it fell flat. Although he himself was a bit lacking in the necessary energy, he probably would have perked up if only Ella had given him a little encouragement. Instead, she stuck with her determination to remain withdrawn, politely tolerating his presence. While he surely saw it as an improvement over pushing him away, it did nothing to bring back his delight.
They rode later into the evening to make up the time lost in the morning. Michael was perfectly proper in their public interactions. He barely glanced Ella’s way when they were in their room. And while she woke up the next morning to find him curled behind her, sound asleep and barely a handbreadth away, when he had crawled into bed the night before, he had settled on his side at the edge of the bed facing away from her as resolutely as she did him.
CHAPTER 23
Ella
T
he stretch of forest leading up to the castle was a little less wild than the last time Ella saw it. Most likely, the carting of supplies for the renovations had something to do with that, although it looked as if one of the gardeners had made an effort to clean it up, as well. The road itself had not been repaired, but it was easier to find now.
She noticed with relief that the heavy feeling she remembered appeared to be missing, too. Rather than feeling the need to turn around and flee, she felt comfortable. Since that had been one of her biggest misgivings about taking on the castle as a “vacation home”, it made her feel a little better about spending the next month there.
Of course, there was still that little matter of her husband and how she felt about him right now.
There was no doubt in Ella’s mind that King Phillip hoped this trip would resolve the tension between Michael and herself. She was grateful that he cared. However, while Michael was no longer upset about Charlie, her newfound irritation over not being valued threw another roadblock in their way.
A slight breeze stirred Ella’s hair, drawing her from her musings. It was warmer today, more like the mid-autumn day it was instead of the early winter the previous two days had pretended to be, so the hood of her cloak hung down her back. She still wore her gloves against the chill, though. The temperature was low enough that her hands would be numb after a full day of riding without them.
A bird called sweetly through the trees, a pleasant change from their arrival a few months ago. Over their heads, one squirrel chased another as it hopped from branch to branch before scurrying down a trunk with an acorn gripped in its teeth. The underbrush rustled as a rabbit dashed from its hiding spot on one side of the road to a location it perceived as safer on the other side.
Ella slowly drifted back into her previous train of thought. The atmosphere of the forest might be clear now, she glumly noted, but the air was fairly stiff nonetheless. Michael had barely spoken to her since leaving the inn, and she had done nothing to initiate conversation, either.
