“Good morning, Tassie,” he said pleasantly as she stopped before him, the teacups on the tray she carried rattling softly as she trembled.
“My…my…lord.”
“I’m looking for Lady Kylia.”
“She’s in the m-m-morning room, sire.”
He smiled. Nameless fear was a delicious thing to behold. “Is something wrong, Tassie?”
“N-n-no, my lord.”
“Are you afraid of Lady Kylia?”
“N-n-no, my lord.”
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
The young Crasii hesitated and then, somewhat to his surprise, she nodded. “A little bit, sire.”
He raised a brow at her. “Only a little? I must be slipping.”
“To serve you is the reason I breathe, my lord,” she assured him, bowing her head in submission.
Jaxyn smiled. “Then the world is as it should be. In the morning room, you say?”
“Yes, my lord.”
Jaxyn watched her silently for a moment longer, until the Crasii realised he was waiting for her to step aside, and then he continued down the hall toward the morning room, leaving Tassie staring after him, her tray softly rattling with her fear.
As it turned out, Jaxyn didn’t need directions to find his prey. He could simply have followed the sound of Kylia’s laughter. Tilly Ponting was with her, the two of them giggling over something laid out on the table. Jaxyn turned on his best smile as he entered the morning room.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, ladies?”
“Jaxyn!” Tilly declared. “What a delight! Of course, you’re not interrupting! Come join us!”
Jaxyn crossed the elegantly furnished room to the table where Tilly and Kylia were sitting. Sunlight streamed in through the tall bay windows, the morning bright and clear after the storm last night. They had the Tarot cards out again. Kylia seemed quite taken with the idea someone could predict her future.
Stellan’s niece smiled coyly as he approached. Her dark hair and dark eyes set off against her caramel skin made her a pretty enough prospect, although not the devastating beauty Arkady was. But she radiated a kind of leashed lust that seemed more than a little out of character in an innocent girl. Maybe it was the idea that underneath that modest posture and coy smile was a virgin vixen straining to be let loose. Kylia could say all that and more with a mere glance in his direction. She certainly hadn’t learned such a thing at a respectable ladies’ college. It was fortunate her charms didn’t seem obvious to other women and that her uncle was quite immune to them, otherwise young Lady Debrell might find herself being asked more questions than she was prepared to answer.
“Kylia, you grow prettier every day you spend here in Lebec,” he declared when he reached the table. He took her hand, kissing it gallantly. “I swear, if you don’t stop it, I will have to tell Stellan to place a guard on your room at night to protect you from my uncontrollable lust.”
Kylia snatched her hand away, appearing both mortified and thrilled at the same time. Jaxyn smiled. Damn, she’s convincing. He turned to Tilly and kissed the old lady’s cheek. “Of course, the only thing that keeps me in check is my unrequited love for you, Lady Ponting.”
Tilly pushed him away. “Jaxyn Aranville, you’re a scoundrel. Don’t listen to him, Kylia. This boy leaves a trail of broken hearts wherever he goes.”
Kylia looked up at him, but still didn’t say anything. Apparently his presence tended to strike her dumb unless she had a few wines in her.
“What are you doing?” he asked, as he took a seat opposite. The small table in the morning room was round, meant for intimate breakfasts and informal card games. Sitting opposite Kylia, Jaxyn’s leg was touching hers under the table. She might seem too overwhelmed to speak, but she didn’t move her leg.
“We’re going through Kylia’s Tarot again,” Tilly explained. “It’s more accurate when you don’t have an audience.”
“Then I am interrupting,” he concluded. He made to rise, adding, “I’m sorry. I shall go and leave you in peace.”
“You can stay, Lord Aranville,” Kylia told him. “Tilly just meant a big audience, like we had here last night.”
Jaxyn resumed his seat. “You honour me with the secrets of your future, Lady Kylia.”
Kylia smiled at him but didn’t answer. Tilly rolled her eyes at his words, however, perhaps more aware of how contrived they were. Jaxyn made a mental note to remember that Tilly Ponting wasn’t quite as silly as she seemed.
“Take another card, dear,” she instructed the girl.
Kylia did as Tilly ordered, turning over a card that looked like the knave from a more traditional deck of cards.
“The Page of Tides,” Tilly announced, pursing her lips thoughtfully.
“Is that bad?” Kylia asked, looking a little worried.
“This card is bringing you a message of love or perhaps romance.”
“There!” Jaxyn declared. “That’s nothing to worry about!”
“But it also comes with a warning,” Tilly added ominously.
“What sort of warning?”
“This love you seek,” the old woman said, pointing to another card that lay face up on the table. “It may end in heartbreak.”
Jaxyn turned his head to study the other card. It was the Lovers again, Cayal and Amaleta. Bordered in gold, the card depicted a man—the Immortal Prince, he supposed—and a woman, probably Amaleta, his legendary one true love, standing at a crossroads caught in a very intimate embrace.
“But you said drawing the Lovers means I should trust my instincts,” Kylia reminded the clairvoyant, obviously confused.
Jaxyn smiled, knowing full well—as Kylia doubtless did, too—that the whole wretched Tarot was nonsense. To look at her, though, he thought, you’d swear she was completely taken in.
“I think you should trust your instincts, Lady Kylia,” Jaxyn agreed. “The Page of Tides might not even apply to you. For all you know, it may mean your uncle’s marriage to Arkady might end in heartbreak.”
Kylia frowned as she thought about it. Tilly Ponting, on the other hand, was unimpressed by his interpretation. “Something you’ve been working on, perhaps, dear?” she enquired with a raised brow.
Jaxyn smiled at her. “Come now, Lady Ponting. You know me.”
“Which is why I pose the question,” Tilly replied evenly.
The old bird was definitely much smarter than she looked, Jaxyn thought. If Tilly took an active dislike to him, his plans for securing his immediate future could be in serious danger.
Kylia was frowning, obviously worried her uncle and his wife might be having marital problems. “You don’t think it means that, do you, Lady Ponting?”
“What? That Stellan and Arkady have had a falling out? Don’t be absurd. There were never two people more in love.”
“Are you certain?”
“Have you ever seen them fighting?” Tilly asked. “Ever heard them exchange so much as a harsh word?”
“Well…no…I don’t suppose I have, now that you come to mention it.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
“Listen to Lady Ponting,” Jaxyn advised, deciding it might be prudent to show the old hag he was on her side. “She knows about these things. Your uncle is in love and has never been happier. I can vouch for that myself.”
Tilly spared him an odd look, but said nothing to contradict him. She obviously knew the lay of the land; either knew or suspected Jaxyn’s real role in this household. But she was too old and too wily to comment on it.
It made Jaxyn wonder, for a moment, how many other people suspected the truth. He was certain the king was ignorant of his cousin’s sexual preferences. Stellan and Jaxyn both had Arkady to thank for that. The King of Glaeba’s feelings on the matter of men who fancied other men were well known. Stellan would have been banished long ago if Enteny suspected, even for a moment, that one of his most trusted advisors—his own cousin, no less—took his pleasure on th
e wrong side of the bed. Jaxyn’s own fate would be just as dire, he knew. It was the reason he flirted so flagrantly with women. Everyone knew about his affair with Lady Carver. Even Arkady was convinced he had his sights set on Kylia. Very few people knew, however, that he was Stellan Desean’s lover.
Tilly Ponting was clearly among the very few.
“Jaxyn’s right, my dear,” Tilly assured the young girl, patting her hand. “Your Uncle Stellan has never been happier.”
“Arkady is very protective of him,” Kylia agreed.
Too damned protective of him, Jaxyn silently amended. And not bad at protecting herself, too.
Despite all his attempts to find out the identity of Arkady’s lovers, either she was exceptionally good at keeping them hidden or she had none. As Jaxyn couldn’t comprehend the latter—not for a woman as beautiful as Arkady Desean—he was still searching for evidence of the former.
Jaxyn’s original plan for Arkady Desean had been quite clever, he thought, when he conceived of it a few days after he’d first met the Duke of Lebec. Here was a situation just begging to be exploited—a marriage of convenience between a powerful man and a very desirable woman, to hide a secret that would see a cousin of the king and an heir to the throne destroyed if it became public knowledge. Jaxyn had planned to become the lover of both Stellan and Arkady, which would have seen him well taken care of—in the manner to which he was accustomed—for quite some time.
From a distance, it had seemed a brilliant idea. But that was before he’d met Arkady. Before he discovered she despised him, mistrusted him and had probably guessed what he was planning within moments of first meeting him. Stellan was far more trusting, but Arkady was never going to believe a word Jaxyn uttered. He’d spent much of the past year trying to find a way to blackmail her instead, hoping extortion might work where seduction had failed.
Just as he was beginning to completely despair of ever finding anything even remotely embarrassing on his lover’s wife, everything changed.
Kylia Debrell had arrived at the palace.
Orphaned since the age of five, Kylia had been raised—out of sight and out of mind—on her late parents’ estate near Venetia by various nannies and servants until being sent to the very exclusive college for young ladies from which she had so recently escaped. Her presence here was a thorn in Jaxyn’s side he would give a great deal to be rid of.
“Arkady loves your uncle more than life,” Tilly assured Kylia. “Don’t you think so, Jaxyn?”
“Absolutely!” he agreed with a smile. “Have you drawn my card yet?”
“Your card?” Kylia asked with an odd look.
“Jaxyn, the Lord of Temperance. My father’s idea of a joke, I think, to name me after the most boring Tide Lord of them all. Or perhaps it was wishful thinking. Doesn’t appear to have worked, though,” he chuckled.
“I’ll say,” Tilly agreed with feeling. “I’m surprised you even know what temperance means, Jaxyn.”
“Moderation and self-restraint,” Kylia quoted, speaking directly to Jaxyn. “In one’s behaviour or expression, specifically showing restraint in the use of, or abstinence from, alcoholic liquors.” She smiled then and turned to Tilly. “We had to learn that definition at school. They harped on about it a lot.”
“I suppose that’s why you escaped from those staid old hags and came here to the palace, where you can have some real fun.”
“I think you’d benefit from a bit of discipline from a few staid old hags, my lad,” Tilly suggested with a frown.
He grinned at the old woman. “Only if you promise to tie me down first, Lady Ponting, and tell me I’ve been a very naughty boy.” Before she could respond to that, he turned to Kylia. “You know what I think? I think you and I should take a punt out on the lake. After the rain last night it’s as flat as a piece of smoked glass.”
Kylia’s face fell, as she realised she couldn’t just walk out on Tilly without being considered rude. “I can’t, Lord Aranville. Tilly came out here specially to give me a private reading this morning. I couldn’t possibly abandon her to go boating.”
“No, she couldn’t possibly,” Tilly agreed, but not because she was likely to be offended. Jaxyn wondered if Arkady had been in the old lady’s ear, warning her to keep him away from Kylia.
“I think perhaps, if you ask her nicely, Tilly won’t be offended,” Arkady remarked from the door. “Not now that I’m here to keep her company.”
Jaxyn leapt to his feet, not sure what surprised him more: that Arkady was standing there pulling off her gloves, or that she’d just sanctioned his outing with her husband’s niece.
Although he knew she’d gone out this morning, he didn’t know where she’d been. She’d obviously been working, dressed in the clothes she usually wore when she attended the university: dowdy, buttoned up high, grey and unattractive. She tried to play down her appearance, Jaxyn knew, as if dressing plainly would somehow give her credibility. But nothing Arkady Desean did could disguise her beauty. Stellan had married her for that reason, Jaxyn was certain. He might not be attracted to women sexually, but he did like to look at beautiful things.
Pity she’s such a frigid bitch.
Kylia was quite flustered by Arkady’s unexpected suggestion. “Would you…really not mind, Tilly?”
“Well…I suppose…if your aunt doesn’t mind…” Clearly, Tilly Ponting was just as puzzled by Arkady’s uncharacteristic approval.
“You run along, Kylia,” Arkady ordered, as she placed her gloves on the side table. “Just make sure you take a hat. And a shawl. It can be quite chilly out on the lake at this time of year.”
Kylia rose to her feet, curtseyed quickly to Tilly and then hurried out of the morning room, stopping only long enough to plant a hasty but grateful kiss on Arkady’s cheek as she raced off to find her hat and shawl. Jaxyn also stood up and headed for the door. When he drew level with Arkady, she turned to him, her expression stern.
“Jaxyn.”
“Yes, your grace?”
“She’d better come back a virgin.”
Jaxyn stared at her for a moment and then smiled. The one thing he did admire about Arkady was that she wasn’t afraid to say exactly what she meant when the occasion called for it.
“You know I’d never harm anything Stellan loved,” he reminded her.
“I also know what you’re after, Jaxyn Aranville. So let me assure you of this. If you expect to spend another night under this roof, you’ll return Kylia home at a decent hour, whole, unharmed and preferably not betrothed to you.”
Jaxyn smiled. “Spoilsport.”
“Try seducing Kylia,” she suggested frostily. “If you want to discover how much of a spoilsport I can be.”
Jaxyn decided not to answer that. He turned and bowed to Tilly. “Lady Ponting.” Then he turned and bowed to Arkady with an insolent smile. “Your grace.”
“I mean it, Jaxyn.”
“You’re very attractive when you’re being domineering, did you know that?”
“I’m also a heartbeat away from revoking my permission for Kylia to go anywhere alone with you,” she warned.
“Then I’ll be gone, your grace, while I’m still ahead in the game. You ladies enjoy the rest of your morning now, won’t you?”
He left before Arkady could respond, certain he had aggravated her enough to count himself the winner of this particular encounter, but not enough to have her do anything to evict him from the palace.
It was a fine line Jaxyn Aranville walked with the Duchess of Lebec. Sooner or later, one of them would have to go.
Jaxyn was working hard on making sure it wasn’t him.
Chapter 11
“Was that wise?” Tilly asked as she began to gather up her cards.
Arkady rang the bell on the side table to summon a slave and walked across the morning room. It was quite stuffy in here with both fireplaces alight. She undid the button at the waist of her jacket and loosened the top few buttons on her blouse as she walked.
Tilly nodded. “She’s very interested in the identity of her future husband.”
“Could you please tell her it’s not Jaxyn Aranville?”
“I could,” Tilly agreed, “but that might not be what the cards say.”
Arkady picked up the nearest card and studied it for a moment. “You don’t really believe a card can tell you anything about the future, do you, Tilly?”
“I don’t not believe it.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I tell fortunes, darling,” Tilly chuckled. “I’m supposed to be cryptic.”
“Do you believe the Tide Lords really existed?”
Tilly leaned back in her chair and looked at Arkady. “There’s a question I never thought I’d hear from you. What’s brought this on?”
“I’m curious, that’s all. You know I’m working on the history of Glaeba prior to the Cataclysm.”
“By trying to get the Crasii to tell you their legends, so I’m told,” Tilly said.
“There’s usually a grain of truth in most legends, Tilly.”
They were interrupted by the arrival of a slave answering Arkady’s summons.
“You rang, your grace?” the Crasii enquired, after bobbing awkwardly in a curtsey, her tail wagging eagerly. Until she learned to control it, she wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the public areas of the palace that housed any number of priceless—and importantly breakable—antiques and artefacts.
“Could you bring us tea, Tassie?” she asked.
“Of course, your grace, is there anything else? Anything at all I can do for you? Anything?”
Arkady smiled. “Settle down, Tassie. Just tea will be fine.”
Tassie bobbed another awkward curtsey and hurried away to fetch the tea. “She’s a nice-looking beast,” Tilly remarked as the Crasii left the room.
Arkady nodded in agreement. “We bred her in-house. She’s one of Fluffy’s pups.”
The Immortal Prince Page 9