The men returned looking grim.
“His horse is gone,” said Jake. “He got away. And I don’t dare send any of my servants after him. He has the gem, and we don’t know if its power was permanently destroyed or if it was only this enchantment.”
“I’ll go,” said Miles. My heart contracted.
To my relief, Jake shook his head in a swift refusal.
“He could have gone in any direction, you’d never be able to find him alone. Plus it’s already dawn, and you haven’t slept all night. I couldn’t possibly let you go racing off into the forest.”
Miles looked disappointed but didn’t try to argue.
“I’m going to see what order I can bring to this chaos,” said Jake. “I’ll send a messenger to the queen right away, and then I’m going to check on Evelyn.”
I wanted to say that I would go with him, but when I opened my mouth, nothing came out. I wondered if you could lose your voice to fatigue.
Jake strode off before I could remember how to form words, and I was left sitting on the floor next to Miles.
He looked down at me, and his eyes became intent. Suddenly my exhaustion faded, and my nerves began to glow instead. He reached down and pulled me to my feet. Slowly he led me over to a secluded corner of the hall.
“You’ve put me off several times now, and I’m not letting you do it again,” he said, his voice firm.
I shook my head. “I don’t know what you want to say exactly, but I do know that you’re the son of the most powerful noble at the Rangmeran court and I’m the daughter of a travelling merchant. So whatever it is, I think it would be best if you didn’t say it.”
“Best for whom, exactly?” he asked, looking down at me fondly.
“Best for my heart,” I said, my words barely a whisper.
He grinned. I had seen his eyes blaze several times in the last few hours but never quite like this. The force of his expression made me catch my breath. I began to tremble.
He took me in his arms and gazed hungrily down into my face.
“I guess it’s good that I don’t want to say anything at all, then,” he said. “I want to do this.”
He crushed me against him and pressed his lips down over mine. The room spun around me, and I clutched at his jacket for support. He responded by pulling me even closer and deepening the kiss. I abandoned any thought of protest and returned his embrace enthusiastically.
Chapter 16 - Evelyn
“We’ve tracked him as far as the Northhelmian border,” said the captain of the guard, “but I’m afraid he’s long gone.” From his expression, he was taking Anhalt’s escape personally.
Hans sighed. “It’s not good news, but it’s hardly surprising.”
Ava shook her head. “My godmother warned me that a darkness was coming to Northhelm – I just hope we’re not the ones to have unleashed it. I’ll have to send a diplomatic envoy to their king, of course. Not how I had been hoping to open diplomatic relations with them.”
I wasn’t in my normal place behind Ava’s chair because my healing leg still wouldn’t allow me to stand for long periods of time. Instead, I’d been given a seat at the table, along with Sarah, Miles and Jake. I glared down at the lump of the bandage. If I hadn’t been such an idiot and allowed myself to get wounded, I could have stopped Anhalt before he escaped.
Ava and Hans didn’t blame me. In fact they credited me with saving the day, and they’d refused to consider my resignation. Not that I would be back on duty for weeks.
I still blamed myself, though.
When the meeting broke up, Ava stopped Sarah with a question. I took the opportunity to hobble past her and catch Miles just outside the door. Since I’d woken up in Jake’s castle, the two of them had been almost inseparable, and I’d been waiting for an opportunity like this for a while.
“Miles.”
He turned and smiled at me. “How’s the leg?”
“Healing,” I said, not wanting to be distracted from my purpose. “I need to talk to you.”
“Let me guess,” he said, with a grin, “it’s about Sarah.”
“You two have been very close since we were all kidnapped,” I said, watching his face closely. “The whole court is talking about it.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Let them talk.”
“And your father? Are you equally unconcerned about his opinion?”
“My father doesn’t control me,” he said, still calm, “I make my own decisions. I was the one to help take Anhalt down, not him, after all.”
“That’s good to know,” I gave him a long, level look. “And you should know that if you ever hurt her, I’ll hurt you.”
I was serious, but I could see he was, too, and I couldn’t resist a small smile. “Of course, I’ve seen you fight now, so that’s only if I can.”
He smiled back at me. “I can assure you, if I ever hurt Sarah, I would let you beat me. As many times as you liked.”
I nodded, satisfied. “Well, in that case, I wish you joy. I’m quite certain she’ll run rings around you.”
He laughed. “I’m pretty sure she’s determined to run rings around us all.”
Sarah emerged from the meeting room and cast a suspicious look between us.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said, a chuckle in my voice, “nothing at all.”
She looked like she was about to press the matter further, but Miles captured her arm and began to lead her down the hall.
“Leave your poor cousin alone,” I could hear him saying to her. “She’s still recuperating.”
I shook my head at his brazenness.
“They seem like a good couple,” said a voice behind me.
I turned and smiled at Jake.
“I think they are,” I said.
We began to walk slowly down the corridor in the opposite direction to Sarah and Miles. Jake matched his pace to mine without ever appearing impatient. I appreciated that about him. In fact, I appreciated a great deal about him. He kept appearing at my side, ready for a chat or just to sit in silent companionship. He’d only just received his proper title, but he apparently had plenty of time to keep me company as I recovered my strength.
“Hans just told me you tried to resign. I can’t imagine why. I thought you liked your job as a guard,” he said.
I examined his face but could see no sign of judgment. He seemed merely curious.
I shrugged uncomfortably.
“I do,” I said. “But Ava is still establishing herself as queen. She needs the best. It only took a week for her and Hans to see the job was too much for me.”
Jake shook his head. “You need to stop blaming yourself for not being able to do everything, Evelyn. It’s not weak to need help. Having a strong team around you is a strength, not a weakness. Surely you learned that when you were guarding the caravan.”
I considered his words. He was right about the caravan. Merchant guards were only as strong as their weakest member. My old Guardsmaster had drilled that into us often enough. We operated as a single unit, and it was why Caravan Hargrove was the safest caravan in the Four Kingdoms.
“It’s different here, though,” I said. “Here it’s up to the personal guard to protect the queen.”
“Certainly,” he agreed, as calm and cheerful as ever. My heart sank a little at his words. Part of me had wanted him to keep arguing.
“But you know, traditionally,” he continued, “the personal guard of a Rangmeran monarch is made up of a team of six guards who take rotating shifts.”
I turned my head to stare at him.
“But Ava only ever had Hans when she was a princess.”
He nodded. “Normally, as the daughter of the king, she would have had a team of three to guard her. But no one else would take the job. And Hans was so dedicated that eventually everyone sort of forgot there were supposed to be others. I think it’s fairly obvious now why he was so single minded.”
He smiled at me, and I let mys
elf smile back. I felt like an explosion had gone through my brain. Why had I not known that about the monarch’s personal guard? The answer was simple. I had spent my whole life in a merchant caravan, I knew nothing about how royal guards functioned.
Jake stopped and turned me to face him. His hands lingered on my arms, and I could feel warmth expanding out from where he touched.
“No one thinks you’re weak for being injured or for needing us to fight for you. Neither Miles nor I could have done it on our own, either. In fact, you’re the one who saved us by breaking the enchantment. And you just about killed yourself in the process. It’s time you stopped trying to be a one woman army and let some of the guards here help you.”
I took a deep breath and nodded my agreement. An invisible load lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t have to do everything, I just had to do my best as part of a team. That was easy – I had been training for that for years in the caravan.
We started walking again, and I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.
“I’m glad to see that smile back,” said Jake once we made it out into the sunshine. “I’ve been missing it.”
I raised my eyebrows and he laughed.
“No, truly, I have. And I think you should enjoy every minute you have left as a personal guard.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” After his previous words, I was pretty sure he was jesting, so I playfully bumped my shoulder into his.
“Oh, merely that I have every intention of convincing you to take up a different position just as soon as I can.”
I stared at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
He looked at me and laughed. “Let’s just say the position I have in mind is a little higher ranked than personal guard.”
When I still didn’t understand, he just watched me, his eyes smiling warmly into mine.
After a moment, his meaning burst on me, and I felt my whole body flush with warmth.
“But I…I…” I sputtered, wondering where my usual poise had gone.
A full smile broke across his face, and he tucked my hand into his arm.
“Don’t worry,” he said as he led me slowly onwards, “you’ll come around.”
Note from the author
Don’t miss out on the beginning of Sarah and Evelyn’s story, told in The Princess Fugitive: A Reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood, Book Two of The Four Kingdoms series.
Thank you for taking the time to read my book. If you enjoyed it, please spread the word! You could start by leaving a review on Amazon (or Goodreads or Facebook or any other social media site). Your review would be very much appreciated and would make a big difference to me!
To be kept informed of my new releases and for free extra content, including an exclusive bonus chapter of my first novel The Princess Companion (Book One of The Four Kingdoms series), please sign up to my mailing list at www.melaniecellier.com.
Acknowledgements
This novella started as two short stories but it wasn’t happy to stay there. Sarah and Evelyn needed their own happily ever afters and I had a lot of fun writing them.
As always, a big thank you to everyone who helped this story along. In particular:
My beta readers: Ber, Deborah, Katie, Priya, Rachel, Greg and Rachel – you guys are the best!
My editors: Lyn and Dad – sorry for any mistakes I managed to introduce after you returned the manuscript to me.
My cover artist: Julie from Duong Covers – thanks for producing a cover that fit so well into my series.
My family: Marc, Adeline, Mum, Dad and everyone else (you know who you are!) for encouraging and supporting me through this journey and this story. I love you all madly.
And a final thanks to God for sustaining me through everything life throws my way.
About the Author
 Melanie Cellier grew up on a staple diet of books, books and more books. And although she got older she never stopped loving children’s and young adult novels. She always wanted to write one herself but it took three careers and three different continents before she actually managed it.
She now feels incredibly fortunate to spend her time writing from her home in Canberra, Australia where they don’t have a beach but they do have kangaroos hopping down the streets. Her staple diet hasn’t changed much, although she’s added choc mint Rooibos tea and Chicken Crimpies to the list.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Enchantment
Chapter 1 - Sarah
Chapter 2 - Evelyn
Chapter 3 - Sarah
Chapter 4 - Evelyn
Chapter 5 - Sarah
Chapter 6 - Evelyn
Chapter 7 - Sarah
Chapter 8 - Evelyn
Chapter 9 - Sarah
Chapter 10 - Evelyn
Chapter 11 - Sarah
Chapter 12 - Evelyn
Chapter 13 - Sarah
Chapter 14 - Evelyn
Chapter 15 - Sarah
Chapter 16 - Evelyn
Note from the author
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Happily Ever Afters Page 11