by Emma Lea
Lucas
Danika showed us through the castle to our assigned rooms—not the same room, but rooms next to each other. She didn’t give us a tour or point out any interesting architectural features. In fact, she barely spoke at all as she led the way.
The castle was not as grand as I’d expected. That is to say, the building itself was massive, built at the apex of the island and looking down on the town from one side and spectacular views of the sea on the other. But inside the castle it was rather…plain. There was very little art on the walls and any of the grandeur I expected to see was absent. I assumed it had to do with being under a usurper for so many years. Anastas no doubt stripped the castle of all its treasures. It had been two years since they had reinstated the king and from the evidence of our surroundings the rebuilding was a slow and arduous process. Rather than frighten me, it actually excited me—if excited was an appropriate word to use. I relished the chance to dig in and help this country flourish once more. It had been rich in both heritage and wealth when I was a child, which was probably why it had been targeted by greedy men. I wanted to see it restored to its former glory, and I wanted to be part of the restoration effort.
It did not, however, bode well for my family’s compound. If the palace had been so thoroughly and ruthlessly pillaged, then there was no doubt the Andino estate had been too. My parents could only take what they could carry and so had to leave a lot behind. Family heirlooms any bigger than what could fit into a pocket or luggage would have been sold off or destroyed by whoever took possession of the house and surrounds. Mother and Father rarely mentioned the compound, and I did not look forward to finding out what was left of it.
“This is Maddox, your valet,” Danika said when she entered the room assigned to me.
“Lord Andino,” Maddox said and inclined his head toward.
“Call me Lucas, please,” I replied.
Frankie had also been assigned a lady’s maid, and it made me smile to imagine how she would interact with the woman.
“The king would like to meet with you as soon as possible,” Danika said, “but he also understands it has been a lengthy journey and you will probably wish to freshen up. I’ll come back for you in an hour. I will also have some food sent up from the kitchens immediately.”
“Thank you, Danika,” I said to her.
She nodded once and then left, leaving me alone with Maddox.
“Would you like a shower?” Maddox asked.
“Yes,” I replied with relief. “That would be wonderful. Um, my luggage?”
“It will be here by the time you have finished showering,” Maddox said briskly.
I nodded and followed him to the bathroom. The suite they assigned me was large and surprisingly comfortably furnished. There was a sitting room with large glass doors leading out onto a stone balcony. The view was breathtaking, and I longed to linger awhile and take it all in. I had hazy memories of living on Kalopsia, but they were a child’s memories and hadn’t registered the beauty we’d been privileged to live with.
Maddox led me through the master bedroom, complete with king-size bed and lush furnishings. The ensuite bathroom was all in stone and slate. The walls were the stone of the castle walls and slate tiles covered the floor. There was a massive free-standing tub and a walk-in shower with a rain fall shower head and what looked to be a waterfall.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Maddox said. “There are toiletries in the vanity and towels in the cubby.”
“Thank you,” I said, barely waiting for him to leave before I began stripping off my clothes.
I stepped into the shower and groaned as the soft, warm rain fell over me. I let my body relax and breathed in the steam, keeping my eyes closed and just letting the shower minister to me. Once I felt more human, I became curious and explored the room with first my eyes and then my hands as I discovered that within the shower there was a sliding partition. I slid it open to reveal a window. A full-length window in the shower cubicle that looked directly out to the Aegean Sea.
It was glorious.
There was no fear of anyone seeing in and it was incredibly exhilarating to stand on the very precipice of a cliff in nothing but my birthday suit with the world laid out below me.
I luxuriated in the shower as long as I thought appropriate. The king was waiting for me and I was starving. Hopefully, there would be food and clean clothes waiting for me.
The towels were thick and soft and there was a charcoal gray robe waiting for me to slip into. I padded out of the bathroom to find an outfit pressed and laid out on the bed for me. I didn’t dress straight away. I wanted to eat first and knowing my luck, I would soil my clean clothes with whatever food had been prepared.
Maddox had set up a table on the balcony and I smelled the coffee before I noticed the food. There was a charcuterie board filled to overflowing with cheeses and meats and fruit, and then another platter piled high with pastries. My stomach growled as I sat and reached for my coffee, not even caring that there was no tea.
“Lucas? Is that you?”
I frowned and looked to the side of the balcony where I could just see the top of Frankie’s head above the stone partition.
“Yes, I’m here,” I replied. “What are you doing?”
“Eating,” she said, and it sounded like she had a mouthful of food.
I chuckled. “Me too,” I replied.
“Do you think we could eat together?” Frankie asked.
“I don’t see why not,” I replied. “Do you want me to come to you?”
I’d barely gotten the words out of my mouth when a passageway opened in the stone and Frankie stood in a matching robe grinning at me.
“Ta da!” she said, striking a pose.
Chapter 11
Lucas
“Do I curtsey?” Frankie hissed at me as we waited to be announced.
“It is customary,” I whispered in reply.
“Crap. I don’t know how to.”
I turned to look at her with my eyebrows raised. “My mother didn’t teach you when she was filling your head with all that other nonsense?”
“Oh, no, she did. I’m just not very good at it.”
I rolled my eyes and grinned.
Frankie backhanded my shoulder. “Don’t you dare laugh at me,” she growled.
“I’m not laughing at you,” I said, turning to her. I cupped her face and made her look me in the eyes. “You’ll be fine. From everything I know about the king, he’s not into all the traditional protocols. Just do the best you can and do it with confidence.”
“Ha,” she barked, but smiled up at me. “You’re the one telling me to be confident? Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?”
I smiled and let her go. Best friend. Yeah, she was my best friend. I needed to remember that.
“Okay,” she said with an exhale. “I can do this.”
“Of course you can,” I said without looking at her. “You can do anything.”
The double doors opened and a deep voice spoke, “Lord Lucas Andino, Markissios of Kourouka and his fiancée, Francesca Davenport of Boston.”
I stepped forward and bowed. Frankie wobbled into a curtsey beside me and I bit down on my lip to stop myself from smiling. This was not the time to embarrass myself by laughing, although I was glad Frankie was here with me for this first meeting. She was enough of a distraction to keep me from becoming too anxious.
When I rose, the king was looking at me with an unreadable gaze. He was blond, not what I was expecting, and the woman beside him, the queen I surmised, had red hair and a sparkle in her eyes I recognized. Frankie quite often wore that same expression and I knew she and the queen would become fast friends.
“Lord Andino and Ms. Davenport,” the king said. “It is good to finally meet you. May I introduce my wife, Queen Meredith.”
The queen nodded in my direction and I bowed once more while Frankie valiantly tried to curtsey again.
“Please,” the queen said.
“Let’s not stand on formalities. Neither Jamie nor I require you to bow and curtsey to us.”
The king looked at his wife with a raised eyebrow and she shrugged. “What? It’s the truth.”
The king sighed and smiled. “My wife is right. We don’t prescribe to the traditions, at least not within the walls of the palace and definitely not with the members of the royal court.”
“Of course,” I replied, my voice rough with nerves.
“Thank God,” Frankie murmured under her breath beside me.
“This is the rest of the court,” the king went on, nodding toward four other people standing nearby. “This is Lord Dorian Stamos, Ducas of Paralia, Lady Sophia Dellis, Archontissa of Kalon, Lord Evan Anastas, Komis of Alethio, and Lady Elena Manolis, Varoni of Lethe.”
There were too many names and titles to remember them all at once. I would get to know them during the time I was here, but I felt the anxiety press in on me at not being able to keep everyone’s names and titles straight.
“Um…may I ask a question?” Frankie said, pulling me out of my spiral but in turn creating an entirely additional worry. One did not simply ask the king and queen a question without first being addressed.
I turned to her and shook my head, but it was too late. The queen answered, “Of course. What do you want to know?”
“I thought the king’s name was Christophe,” Frankie said. “But you called him Jamie.”
The queen grinned and looked at her husband. “It’s a long story,” she said. “And one I would love to tell you. Ladies? Shall we leave the men to it and go gossip over tea and cake?”
I swallowed as Frankie left with the queen and her companions, leaving me with the king and his.
“I think we all need a drink and something to eat,” the king said after the women had departed. “Let’s go into what my wife affectionately calls the ‘man cave.’”
I swallowed again and followed the king, the ducas, and the komis through a pair of wooden doors on the opposite side of the chamber from where I entered. A security team accompanied us, and servants waited inside the adjoining room. The table was filled with food and although I’d recently eaten, my stomach growled quietly at the sight and smells.
The king took his seat at the head of the table and we arranged ourselves around the sides. The servants poured wine before the king dismissed them with a wave.
“As my wife mentioned, and your fiancée pointed out, the queen calls me Jamie, as does the rest of the court,” the king said and the two other men nodded in agreement. “When I was smuggled out of the country, I took refuge in Merveille. The King of Merveille shielded me and I lived there under an assumed identity—Jamie Kosta. I was part of the princess’, now queen’s, security team, as was Meredith. That’s how we met.” He smiled. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, Lord Andino. Don’t be afraid to speak freely and ask questions. I believe in transparency and informality, where appropriate.”
“Lucas,” I said, my voice croaking. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Please call me Lucas. I don’t think I will ever be comfortable with my father’s title.”
The king smiled again. “You and me both,” he said.
Francesca
I didn’t think the queen would be so cool. I don’t know what I expected, really. I certainly didn’t expect her to be so young. Logically I knew she was young, but in my brain queen equaled old. I kept imagining her to be like Queen Elizabeth, the English queen. But Queen Meredith was nothing like the monarch who reigned over the United Kingdom for decades.
She was also pregnant, a secret she divulged when we all sat down in her sitting room. While the other women—and I—indulged in a little afternoon wine, the queen abstained and shared her impending offspring. There was no way I would have known if she hadn’t told me. Queen Meredith was not yet showing and as far as I knew, she hadn’t released the baby news to the press yet. It was humbling to be so quickly brought into the fold.
“So, um, please forgive my ignorance, but would you mind terribly explaining the different titles?” I asked, looking around the room.
Queen Meredith smiled. “I’m the queen,” she said and then laughed. “But I’m also addressed as vasilissa. It’s an old title and not used very often, but some members of parliament insist on it occasionally. Jamie is sometimes addressed as vasilefs which is the male form of vasilissa and basically just means king.”
“You called him Jamie earlier,” I said. “I thought his name was Christophe?”
“His name is Christophe,” Meredith replied. “Christophe James Kostopolous, but when I first met him he was introduced to me as Jamie. We spent quite a few years working together, and I knew nothing about him being the heir to a throne or even that he had another name. Personally, I prefer Jamie and I think he does too. The dignitaries all address him as King Christophe and I know he’s uncomfortable with it. When he’s home, he’s just Jamie, the man I fell in love with.”
“Not everyone likes that he is so…relaxed about his title,” one of the women said. She turned to me then. “I’m Elena Manolis, Varoni of Lethe. The anglicized version is Baroness.”
“Not Viscountess?” I asked.
Lady Elena shook her head. “No, that would be ypokomissa.”
I didn’t even attempt to pronounce that word. I barely understood it when she spoke it, and she spoke it flawlessly. Everything about Elena was flawless. Her skin was a rich olive and so smooth she looked like she’d been airbrushed. Her dark hair shone in the sunlight and hung in a glossy sheet to below her shoulders and her almond-shaped eyes were a surprising hazel color and framed with the most perfectly shaped eyebrows I had ever seen. She sat perched on her chair with such elegance she reminded me of the porcelain egret statue in my mother’s office. This was what I expected the queen to be like, but Meredith reclined in her chair and her red hair, although tamed, was hardly the silky sheet of Elena’s. I think I preferred the queen’s posture and casual elegance to Elena’s stuck-up poshness.
“And this is my sister, Athena.”
I turned to the younger version of Elena and smiled. “Nice to meet you. You weren’t in the other room earlier.”
Athena shook her head. “No. I’m not part of the court,” she said. “I just like to visit.”
“You just hang around the palace?” I asked.
Athena nodded with a grin at her sister. “Elena is mentoring me.”
Elena made discreet noise in the back of her throat as if she disagreed with Athena’s explanation.
“So you just follow your sister around all day?” I asked.
“Pretty much,” Athena replied with a shrug.
I raised an eyebrow and looked at the queen, but she just smiled in return. Okay, so the queen didn’t seem put out by Elena’s sister being around all the time. Maybe things in this royal court would be completely different to what Lucas’ mom had warned me about. I couldn’t help wondering what exactly Athena’s endgame was, though. Was she hoping to snag a titled husband? Was she one of those gold-digging women Maya had warned Lucas about? She was beautiful, there was no denying that. So was Elena, her sister, but there was something more stern about Elena that I think most men would find intimidating. Athena, on the other hand, looked like the dewy-eyed innocent that would have all the men swooning. Ugh. I’d yet to have a positive experience with someone like her. In my experience, they were not all that innocent and knew exactly what affect they had on men. Spoiled was the word to come to mind. But I shouldn’t be judging her, not so quickly and not so harshly. I didn’t even know the woman. And it didn’t matter, anyway. I would be gone soon enough and I wouldn’t need to think about her or the men she might try to ensnare.
“And I’m Sophie Dellis, Archontissa of Kalon,” the final woman in our little congregation said. “Duchess. And when you marry the markissios, you will be a markissia, or marchioness.”
“Right,” I replied with a nod, except I wouldn’t be marrying Lucas and I wouldn’t be part of
this circle of women. I felt bad for deceiving the queen in such a way, especially when she’d shared about her and the king’s baby.
Sophie smiled warmly at me and I knew we would be friends…if I was staying. She seemed younger than Elena and Meredith, but not as young as Athena. She was also gorgeous, and I was fast getting a complex about my own appearance. I’d never been insecure about the way I looked, but being surrounded by such perfection was a bit of a blow to my ego. Sophie was also dark-haired, although she had subtle highlights that gave it some interest. Her hair was not the flat-iron straight of Elena’s, rather the ends of her long hair were curled. Her eyes were dark and her skin was tanned and her lips and cheeks were full.
“May we see the ring?” Athena asked.
“Oh, sure,” I said, holding out my hand for the others to see.
I still couldn’t get used to the size of it. I felt like my hand was weighed down by an anchor. And even if it sparkled brilliantly, I would have preferred something a little less…obvious. But this ring had been bought for Clarissa, and no doubt it was exactly what she would have wanted if she hadn’t broken up with Lucas.
“It’s beautiful,” Athena breathed dramatically, clutching her hands to her breast, her eyes going soft. I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes in response.
“It is beautiful, but it gets caught on everything,” I said. Which was true, but maybe I said it just to burst her bubble. I was a horrible person.
“If I had a ring like that I wouldn’t care,” Athena proclaimed. “I would make everyone around me do everything so I couldn’t get it caught.”