BABY ROYAL

by Bella Grant

  “Would you like some help?” he offered.

  She almost passed out. He was offering to help her? She started to laugh at the thought.

  “What?” he asked as he raised his brows.

  “Do you even know how to lift a bucket?” she asked with amusement.

  “Hmm,” Jason hummed in pretense. “The last time I tried,” he said as he hunched over the bucket, “I believe this was called the ‘snarfblat.’” He grinned.

  “The what?” she asked.

  “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t watched The Little Mermaid,” he teased.

  “The Little…” Elena couldn’t help but laugh. “Imagine that. The sophisticated Prince Jason watches children’s movies and wants to help a poor farm girl carry her bucket…snarfblat.”

  He laughed again, and she couldn’t help but become enthralled with the sweet sound of it. He was getting to her, and she could feel it. Suddenly, she was afraid.

  “I gotta go,” she said and hurried off to the barn.

  He was right behind her when she got there. “You really need to learn to walk slower so the people who chase you won’t have such a hard time.”

  Elena stopped walking and turned around. “Is everything a joke to you?”

  “No. Just the funny stuff,” he replied and leaned against the inside of the doorjamb.

  Elena went about her business of watering the horses, her shoulders sagging and her heart quickening when she had to pass him again. She stopped within a few feet of him and spread her arms.

  “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’m not royalty material. I might be getting ahead of myself, but you coming around all the time means you’re either interested in me—for whatever reason—or you’re mocking me. Which is it, Jason? Are you mocking me?”

  He had an alarmed look on his face now. “Mocking you? Why on earth would I do that?”

  “Because…look at me! I’m almost always covered in dirt, or hay, or animal dung. Doesn’t this bother you?”

  “I think you look just fine considering what you do. I would be rolling on the floor if I came over and saw you in a pretty dress, satin ribbons in your hair, and stilettos as you fed the horses and the pigs.” He pushed himself off the doorjamb and walked to her. He stopped when he was in front of her and could no doubt see the rise and fall of her chest, her brown eyes unsure what to do next, and the panic making its way into them slowly. “I’ve seen many women since I’ve been here, Elena but none with a character like yours.” He walked away again and stopped when he was at the door. He turned his head, but not all the way around. Just enough that he could see her out the corner of his eyes. “Or maybe it was the smile.”

  Elena stood in the same spot long after he had gone, compelling her mind to stop racing and her heart to settle back into its regular rhythm. She had been that close to Jason only on two occasions—just now, and the second night he had interrupted her at the oak tree. Her cheeks had flushed with embarrassment, or maybe it was something else. He wasn’t the same person she had envisioned before he came to the village. In fact, he seemed almost human. The way he had interacted with her brother and how poised he had remained even when she was rude… he didn’t once lash out or discriminate against her. He acted like her being in those worn and oversized clothes was normal, something he was accustomed to seeing.

  She couldn’t understand him. Nor did she want to. She merely wished he would find his bride and go back to his castle.

  He didn’t reappear. She didn’t see him for the rest of the day, and she was afraid to go back to the tree for fear of running into him again. Which meant she was forced to remain in her room, listening to the raucous sounds of her unseemly neighbors who didn’t understand the value of a night, who didn’t walk under the stars and realize how insignificant they all were in comparison. She fell asleep, half angry and half paralyzed with fear that Jason might have her in his sights.

  She woke up the following morning feeling the same. She tossed the sheets angrily from her and, in case Jason was waiting for her in the kitchen again, she stole outside through the back and slinked to the wooden bench at the back of the barn. She sat for a long time, absorbing the cool morning air and clearing her mind of yesterday’s troubles.

  “Elena!” she eventually heard her father calling.

  “Don’t let it be the prince,” she groaned and stood. “Yes, Dad?”

  “One minute please.”

  She got up to meet him halfway to the house. “Yes? Is he back?”

  “No, he isn’t.” Her father sighed and so did she. “You’re worried, aren’t you?”

  “A little,” she sighed. “But you promised me I wouldn’t have to marry him.”

  “Not if you don’t want to,” he added, and his eyes creased at the corners as he smiled at her.

  “I don’t want to!” she answered immediately. “I don’t know what he is doing, but it would be better if he chose Emma, or Candace, or any of the other girls who keep chasing after him. I don’t even look like a girl.”

  Her father laughed. “You do to me.”

  “Apparently to Jason too.”

  “Sometimes being different is what makes you stand out,” he told her and slid her hair behind her ear. “If he chooses you, I will fight it if you want me to.”

  “He won’t choose me,” she said as she battled with herself. “He can’t.”

  “Don’t let it worry you,” he advised. “Come on, I need you to do me a favor.”

  That favor meant going into town to get supplies for the animals. He was old, and though still quite capable of working around the farm, she had insisted he give that part of the labor to her. But going into town meant she might run into Jason, and she wasn’t mentally prepared for it. He saw the look of concern on her face after he asked.

  “I could go if you like.”

  “No, it’s okay,” she responded sharply.

  “Gregory!” Olivia’s panicked voice shouted from the kitchen. “Come quick!”

  Elena and her father shared a frightened look and dashed to the house.

  “Olivia!” Gregory called the closer he got to the kitchen. “What is it?”

  They reached the kitchen at the same time as a man they didn’t know stepped around the side of the house. He took off his hat and nodded at Gregory.

  “Are you the owner of this farm?” he asked.

  Gregory looked confused. “Yes, I am.”

  The man nodded, stepped back, and hailed someone at the front of the house. “It’s the right one. Bring them on in.”

  “Wait a minute,” Gregory said as he walked over to the man. “What is this?”

  “We’re dropping off some supplies, sir,” the man told Gregory without looking at him. “Prince’s orders.”

  Elena’s blood began to boil. “What? We didn’t ask for anything. Send it back.”

  “Now hold on a minute,” Her father interjected. “This is a good thing. You know how many things were running low.”

  Her eyes narrowed at her father. “Did you ask him to do this?”

  “No!” he replied. “I mean, I may have said something at breakfast about supplies running low, but I didn’t ask.”

  “Ugh!” Elena groaned. “Why did you do that?”

  “Because he is the prince, and if he’s here in the village, he might as well help us.” His logic was undeniable, but she hated thinking she owed Jason anything.

  “Over there,” Gregory instructed the men as they dumped hay, oats, pigs’ feed, cleaning supplies, lumber, and all sorts of farming supplies and tools—most of which Gregory hadn’t mentioned.

  Elena watched grudgingly from the sidelines. She knew it was a nice thing to do, but she thought she would go into town to seek him out and set things straight. He ought to know she couldn’t be bought with farming tools, as pretty and shiny as they were.

  “Dad, I’ll be back,” she said and hurried off.

  She wasn’t sure if he’d heard her, but she left anyway. T
he morning was already hot as she charged into town in search of the prince. She found him, as usual, among a swarm of people. She stood away from them and waited for him to acknowledge her. He did, and the crowd parted as he moved away from them to her. Angry eyes flashed at her, and rude words were whispered.

  Jason locked his hands behind him and stood before her, like he was waiting for a thank you.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked pointedly.

  “Do what? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he teased yet again.

  “You know. I didn’t ask for your help.”

  “Good, because I didn’t do it for you. I did it for your father,” he said and leaned forward so his lips were very close to her ear. “Sometimes, people are merely nice.” He smiled at her, winked, and returned to his groupies.

  For the first time since they’d met, she was dumbstruck. She had nothing to say because she was no longer sure of herself. She watched as the women virtually hurled themselves at him, and heard his laugh as they touched him and led him away. For a brief moment, she felt a tinge of jealousy and a bucketful of betrayal as her heart fluttered beyond control, refusing to submit to her will and be still.

  Jason

  He was wearing her down, not by acting like a prince but by revealing to her his softer side. He had seen her several times after his visit to the farm, either in passing or deliberately. Her choice words for him grew less, and she had even become civil. Jason didn’t need to search any longer. He wanted her to be the one he married, but he still had a lot of fighting to contest. She was content on her farm, and what he offered was everything but. Life with him meant dressing up at all times, being proper, choosing words well—all things Elena struggled with.

  Still, he couldn’t get her off his mind. He had seen something in her, something different that had stirred his curiosity, and he wanted to know more. She didn’t go to the tree anymore, so he took it for himself. As soon as it got dark, he followed the all too familiar path and was once again disheartened she wasn’t there. He wanted to see her—he looked forward to it.

  He sighed as he sat on the stump under the tree, watching as the night grew darker, and listened to the sounds of the creatures stirring nearby. It was peaceful, and he didn’t appreciate the night as much from his balcony at the castle. There, in the village, it was serene and practically blissful. He was getting lost in the moment when he heard a sound to his left. He turned and almost fell off the stump when he saw her standing only a few feet away.

  His heart soared but his face remained calm. “I was wondering when you would show.”

  “I thought you might be here,” she replied calmly as she moved forward. He noticed she wasn’t wearing the blue or gray overalls she always wore. She had on a plain white dress that fell to her knees, and her hair was combed back into a ponytail.

  It wasn’t the usual low-cut, cleavage-revealing, long-slit, open-back kind of sexy he had grown to appreciate over the years. This was a different kind, and it appealed to him in the same magnitude as did the others, if not more so. What he saw that night was a gem, hidden so far beneath rags it had to take a master excavator to dig beneath the overlay to uncover the mysterious treasure. And from what he saw, he had barely scratched the surface.

  He sucked in his breath and patted the stump beside him. He thought she would rather sit on the ground, as predicted by her usual defiance. She surprised him when she did as he asked.

  “What is wrong with you tonight?” he asked out of shock.

  She turned and shyly batted her lashes. “What do you mean?”

  “The dress. Sitting next to me. The dress,” he repeated, provoking a laugh from her.

  “I figured the dirty overalls and filth might be a turn on for you, so I came like this, hoping I might turn you off,” she replied timidly. She looked over and smiled wryly at him. “Did it work?”

  “Not on your life. You merely opened a different can of worms.” He laughed.

  They sat in silence for a few minutes, painfully aware of the other person next to them. Jason couldn’t think about much more than that. He decided to make a bold move, and he reached out and took her hand resting on her leg. She jumped, and her eyes told him she was afraid. She slid it quickly back to its former position and locked both hands together.

  “I don’t bite.” She was quiet. “Elena, what’s wrong? You know, I’m used to the feisty woman with the sharp comebacks. I’m not sure I know who this woman is.”

  “I don’t want to leave my farm,” she announced and faced him. She took his hand. “Please, don’t make me leave my family here.”

  “What are you talking about?” He was puzzled by her outburst, and he squeezed her hand as she held onto him.

  The motion sent shock waves running along the length of his spine, and he felt like a young boy sneaking out to be with his first girlfriend and anticipating their first kiss. He felt her shiver, and he held her hand even tighter.

  “I thought maybe if I came out here, dressed like this, I could convince you to change your mind about me—and don’t tell me I’m seeing things. You always do that, like I’m an idiot. I know you like me. You do things for me that you don’t do for anyone else. And I am grateful, but…I can’t marry you, Jason.”

  “Hmm,” he grunted, and turned away from her. He stared out into the night, seeing nothing and feeling everything he would rather not feel. “Can’t, or won’t? It may not be a choice.”

  She yanked her hand back. “Why would you do that?” Her eyes were glossy as the tears started to form.

  “I’m not doing anything, Elena. This is being done to me too.”

  “But you can choose someone who wants to go with you. I don’t,” she cried and turned away so he wouldn’t see the tears as they fell.

  “But what would be the point?” he asked her.

  “So, because you are forced to do something, you are going to force me? That’s not nice.”

  “Well, I’m sorry it’s not nice,” he said almost angrily. “But it has to be done.”

  “No!” she said, stumbling to a standing position. “I won’t let you do this.” She ran off.

  He didn’t chase her because her action didn’t change anything. He had to choose a woman to marry, and he chose her. It was as simple as that, and he needed her to understand it was the best decision for everyone. At that point, it wasn’t about love but more out of a sense of obligation. Maybe she didn’t understand that, but he would convince her of it in the morning, when this evening wasn’t so fresh in her mind.

  But Elena proved even colder over the next couple of days. She refused to speak with him, she avoided him every chance she got, and when he called to her in the streets, she pretended not to hear him.

  “Don’t mind her,” Charlotte said as she clung to him and batted her lashes. “Poor thing. She hardly has any clothes.” Other women hanging around laughed at her comment and added some of their own.

  “That’s not a nice thing to say,” Emma, the shy one, replied, backing away when they gave her nasty looks. “You know why she wears those clothes. She only started doing it after her brother died.”

  Jason’s ears pricked. “Her brother died?”

  “Yes,” Emma responded. “He went to war and never came back. She’s been different since. But she is still nice. She just stays by herself a lot.”

  “What would you know? You probably don’t even know how to please a man. Have you ever had a man, Emma?” they teased.

  “Leave the girl alone,” Julianne interceded. “What’s wrong with not sleeping with every man in town?”

  They looked at each other and burst out laughing. “You wouldn’t know either. You have slept with every man in town.”

  Julianna grinned because she wasn’t offended. “And I bet I could get the prince too. What do you say, Prince Jason? Let a real woman show you how it’s done,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him and pushing her breasts up. “My girls say hi.”

  “Ew,” some
one responded in disgust.

  “No thanks,” Jason told her. “But nice rack.”

  “Thank you,” she cooed. “Hit me up anytime.” She winked and left the other hopeless women still vying for his attention. At least she knew her limits and where her ambitions ended. He was way out of her league.

  “So, um, Prince Jason,” Charlotte ventured to say again, “what do you say about dinner?”

  She tried to touch him on the chest, but he caught her arm and laid it back to her side. “I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen.”

  “What about me?” Emma asked nervously.

  “Or my Candace,” the father who had invited him for breakfast on the second day questioned. “She would make a fine wife, Prince Jason. She has all the makings of a princess, and—”

  “I’m not marrying Candace,” Jason replied dryly, weary of their questions and constant demands. He was annoyed because the one person he wanted to see, to speak with, had walked away from him, and because of them, he couldn’t go after her. He had made a show of walking away, laughing loudly and faking happy, but he wanted to run to her. He was sad when he’d looked back and seen that she had gone.

  “But you came for breakfast,” the father persisted. “I thought that meant—”

  “It meant I was hungry,” Jason told him flatly. “Wasn’t it enough that I actually came with you?”

  “But I only asked for Candace’s sake,” the man argued, obviously infuriated that his daughter was no longer in the running.

  “I’m sorry, all of you,” he replied, turning about so they would know he was talking to all of them. “I’ve made up my mind.”

  “What?” came the murmured whispers as they wondered who he had chosen.

  “Don’t tell me you chose that mud-slinging Elena!” Charlotte growled.

  Jason didn’t answer, and that in and of itself sufficed for one.

  “You must be joking!” Candace’s father said. “My Candace is far better than that tom-boy.”

  Jason remained silent, but the anger was slowly snowballing inside him. He locked his hands behind him and glowered at the gentle crowd slowly turning monstrous before him.