by Lia Lee
“Thank you so, so much,” Caitlyn gushed.
“It is nothing, Miss. I am here to serve you.” Heloise bowed her head once more, leaving Caitlyn to her own devices.
The first thing she did was wander around the room once more. It was too much. Too grand, too rich, too perfect. She almost wanted to roll around on the plush rug beneath her. Instead, she took her shoes off and kneaded it with her toes as she tried to wrap her mind around these rooms.
The responsible thing to do would be to quickly check her email and then take a short nap.
Instead, she stripped off her clothes and went into the bathroom. She stood in front of the cabinet, naked, as she sniffed her way through the salts and oils and chose a heady lavender to scent her bath.
She held onto an ornate bar fixed above the tub as she eased herself into the steaming water. She loved a good, hot bath. Stretching out, feeling the fragrant water seeping into her skin, she let out a sigh and smiled widely.
***
It would have been terribly inappropriate for Emrys to go to Caitlin’s room, but that was exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted that so much more than he wanted to go to greet his mother in the tea room.
He tried to brush the wrinkles out of his outfit. It would have been acceptable to go change first, but he knew that his mother would be put out if he waited to greet her.
There she was, in all her imperious glory: Eliana Sébire. Her hair, dark auburn delicately streaked with silver, looked as it had been recently done. Not a hair was out of place, and it hung just below her ears. She pursed her lips, reading through a tablet on which, no doubt, she was making meticulous plans for upcoming events.
“Good morning, Mother,” Emrys said.
“Em?” Eliana lifted her head. “Well, come here. Let me look at you. I swear, I haven’t laid eyes on you in the flesh for two years.”
“I haven’t been away for that long,” Emrys protested. But he sat beside her anyway.
“You’ve been gone long enough. This career of yours,” she scoffed. “You’re looking well. I’ll give you that. I take it the business is proceeding at an acceptable pace.”
“It is,” he said simply, taking his mother’s hand.
“Well, it’s good that you’ve come back. I was wondering if you’d make it.” Eliana lifted her chin and looked out the window.
“I promised I would be home, didn’t I?” Emrys shook his head. “Mother, I do my best to please you.”
“I would’ve been pleased if you’d married Miranda,” she said a bit shortly.
“You’ll have to get used to disappointment on that account. Miranda wasn’t willing. What was I to do about that?”
“You could have fought for her!” Eliana tsk-ed. “You could have convinced her. Aren’t you the actor?”
“I’m not a wizard.” Emrys patted her hand and then let it go. “But I will be at the ball, no matter what.”
“There are a few ladies who will be in attendance you ought to meet. Not as good when it comes to a match as Miranda, but regardless.” Eliana picked at an imaginary dust mote from her blouse.
“I would prefer not to be paraded around like a prize stud.”
“Oh, the things you say! What am I supposed to do with my unmarried son? Do you really want to wait until you are forty for your inheritance?”
“I don’t want to, no, but I’ll do what I have to.” Emrys paused and his lips tightened into a sour expression. “You asked me to come to this ball just so that you could introduce me to eligible women, didn’t you?”
“You know that your father would be better persuaded to release your trust if you were at least engaged.” Eliana touched his knee. “I am simply looking out for my only son.”
“You needn’t look quite so closely. I’m capable of choosing my own bride, I assure you.” Emrys sighed and sat back, crossing his arms. It was hardly ever different with her. She had an incredible sense of “the way things are done,” and part of that was indeed arranged marriages used to solidify wealth and alliances. She herself had been given to the current king at only nineteen for that very reason. It just so happened that she was tremendously fond of her husband. Emrys doubted that anyone else in their family would have been so lucky in their matches.
“I brought a friend home with me. You’ll meet her at lunch,” Emrys said, unfolding his arms and sitting properly. “I expect that you will treat her with as much kindness as you could spare for your own daughter.”
Eliana seemed taken aback. Emrys caught the expression and wondered what could have startled her so. Before he could ask, she smiled like the Cheshire cat and patted his arm.
“Of course, Emrys! I will welcome her to the family with such stunning alacrity that she’ll hardly know which way is up.”
“Thank you, Mother.” Emrys rose and gestured to the door. “I will need to freshen up properly. I’ve already assigned Heloise to Caitlyn’s service, so she should be ready herself in a few hours. It’s been a long night for her.”
“I’d imagine. Did the two of you come straight from New York?”
“We did.” Emrys nodded.
“Well, regardless of your status, it is good that she has her privacy. There’s no need to cause a sensation before anything is official.”
Emrys frowned in confusion.
Eliana’s hands seemed to flutter eagerly in front of her. “I really ought to hunt down your grandmother’s ring.” She stood herself and set her tablet on the coffee table. “It would be perfect for this, assuming we can get it sized soon enough.”
Grandmother’s ring? Emrys watched her for another moment in bewilderment before it dawned on him that his mother had connected the first part of their conversation to his speaking of Caitlyn. Eliana assumed Caitlyn’s visit here involved meeting his parents—officially.
He opened his mouth to correct her, but he couldn’t say a word. It was impossible to squelch his mother’s excitement. Emrys knew that bustling energy. A new task for her, a new challenge. Preparing an announcement for the ball, seeing to the ring, making sure that the right people would be there to witness the event.
“I’m sure Caitlyn will love it,” he said.
Emrys had so seldom in his life made his mother happy. How could he take this away from her? He gave her another bow before leaving her to her planning.
A few hours later, after Emrys had cleaned up and checked with the butler about the goings-on of his family, he found himself in the southwest dining room with his older sister Imelda. She had sent her children off with their father for the afternoon, but she still seemed as busy and distracted as ever, making notes in her planner as she chatted with their mother about matters of state.
It was obvious why Imelda was next in line for the throne, her position as first-born notwithstanding.
Emrys was barely listening the moment they spotted Caitlyn in the doorway. She had changed into a long, flowing gown that she’d belted just below the bust. She seemed to float in and hover at the doorway. Her gaze lifted to the ceiling, drawn by the chandelier and the filigree sprawling from arch to arch.
“Oh, my,” Eliana muttered. She turned her head to Imelda. “A redhead.”
“I think that’s more of a blonde, Mum.” Imelda tilted her head to the side. “Won’t have to worry much about children, will we? Not with those hips.”
“You two stop,” Emrys growled under his breath. If nothing else, he could count on the pair of them to make things more difficult in the most “appropriate” way possible. But he didn’t have to listen to it.
He left their sides and greeted Caitlyn at the door, offering his hand.
“You look lovely,” he said, and then kissed the back of her fingers.
“Thank you.” Caitlyn smoothed a hand over the front of her dress nervously. “I was a little afraid that I’d get lost on the way here.”
“Hello.” Imelda approached them. “You’re Emrys’s, yes?”
“Oh, um, I suppose I am.”
; Eliana appeared by Imelda’s side and offered Caitlyn her hand. Awkwardly, Caitlyn took Eliana’s hand and made a weird little bow. Eliana frowned, and Caitlyn looked to Emrys haplessly.
“Let’s be seated,” Imelda suggested. “I’ll have them start serving.”
Emrys guided Caitlyn to the table.
“Tell us, my dear, where are you from?” Eliana asked as she smoothed her napkin in her lap.
“Ohio. Pettysburg. You probably haven’t heard of it. I moved to Cincinnati after college, though.” Caitlyn fussed with her napkin, getting it tangled before letting it drop in her lap.
“So America, then?” Imelda took a seat next to Eliana.
“Yep.” Caitlyn looked to Emrys as he took her napkin and folded it properly.
“There you are.”
“Th-thank you.”
Emrys decided, as the servants came around with plates and drinks, that his mother must have come up with a list of questions for Caitlyn since he’d last seen her, because every question was followed by another. Caitlyn’s cheeks were turning pink, fielding interrogations about her education, her cultural background, her business, and one veiled question about her health that was more of a comment on her weight.
“Your mother adores me,” Caitlyn muttered sarcastically, when Eliana had excused herself from the table for a moment.
“Give her some time. It’s her way,” Emrys replied. “I’m sure your mother would be equally curious about me.”
“I don’t know that curious would be the functional adjective for how she’d feel about you.”
Emrys laughed softly.
“Does your mother not know about your relationship?” Imelda pressed.
“She knew about it once,” Caitlyn offered.
Emrys shot her a look and touched her back. Imelda leaned her chin on her hand and smiled knowingly.
“Oh, Em, what have you done?”
“I’ve been a perfect gentleman,” Emrys said sternly.
Imelda narrowed her eyes. “But of course. You always are.”
“Behave, Im.”
“I’m simply curious.” Imelda gestured to Caitlyn. “You clearly have known her for some time, and yet we’re only meeting her now?”
“Well, he could’ve introduced me years ago, if he hadn’t arrived home to find himself engaged,” Caitlyn said a bit peevishly.
Imelda’s lips parted. Her eyes widened. Emrys felt the urge to give Caitlyn a bit of a shake.
“You should have told us!” Imelda said.
“As though that would’ve made a bit of difference in Mother and Father’s plans,” Emrys replied.
“Father’s no, Mother’s yes,” Imelda insisted.
“I have serious doubts that Mother is entirely on board now. And I have very few prospects for her to obsess over at the moment.”
Imelda smirked and held her glass aloft. “You have prospects. They’ll all be at the ball.”
“I intuited that much. You’ll understand if I’m not particularly interested in being selected like a piece of meat, especially when I have already made a choice.” Emrys wiped his mouth. “Perhaps you’ll let Mother know that we had to leave the table.”
Imelda clicked her tongue. “Stay. She’ll be on another tack when she comes back. I’m sure of it.” She looked to Caitlyn. “Have some patience with us. Our family is a bit much to tolerate, but I promise once you get past the vetting process, we’re not so bad to be around.”
“It might be worth it in exchange for the amazing digs,” Caitlyn said.
“Oh?” Imelda raised a brow.
“That bed is some kind of portal to a heavenly realm or something.”
Emrys took Caitlyn’s hand under the table. His mother returned, and sure enough, she had tired of questioning Caitlyn and now wanted to talk about the families who would be attending the upcoming ball.
Emrys felt lucky that things had gone as well as they had. He would eventually have to have a word with Caitlyn and explain his mother’s misconceptions about their relationship. For now, though, he simply wanted her there by his side, making jokes and enjoying everything the royal life could bring her.
Chapter Six
Over the next few days, Caitlyn found herself experiencing the spoiling of a lifetime. The kitchen brought her whatever she liked as quickly as possible when she made a request via the intercom. Heloise was available to her before meals or trips outside of the palace to properly arrange her hair and choose her outfits—from a wardrobe that seemed to be expanding by itself somehow—and Heloise had even brought in a seamstress to have Caitlyn’s clothes custom fitted. Almost every day, she found gifts waiting for her on her pillow or at breakfast. Once, she’d walked into the tea room to see an explosion of orange and gold daisies. Emrys had simply hugged her from behind and whispered that he knew she loved daisies.
It was true, of course. Still, she had no idea what the purpose behind all of this was. The tending from Heloise could’ve been passed off as the woman doing her job well. But each time she saw a new gift, Caitlyn felt more and more curious. What was all this lavish attention for? It wasn’t all from Emrys, either. The new clothing and one necklace had come from his mother, paired with the explanation that a woman in the company of a Sébire man must at all times look her best. Caitlyn knew that Emrys’s mother didn’t entirely approve of her, but at the same time, she seemed steadfast in her determination to make Caitlyn’s behavior conform to an unspoken, but impossibly high standard.
That morning, Emrys had been obligated to attend a Skype meeting regarding his next project and promised to meet with her later. Having finished everything on her to-do list for her web design clients the night before, she took Imelda up on her offer to go out to the market together.
Caitlyn arrived, freshly coiffed by Heloise, to find Imelda waiting, her long dark hair pinned up on her head as she made notes in a bound book. When she spotted Caitlyn, she slipped the book into her purse and rose.
“Ah, Caitlyn dear. Are you ready?”
“I am. What are you looking for at the market?”
Imelda chuckled and offered Caitlyn her arm. “Come.”
Caitlyn didn’t find the question all that funny, but she followed regardless, and as soon as they stepped out of the palace, a pair of guards flanked them. Well, of course, Imelda was heir apparent. Had to protect this one.
Instead of taking a car, Imelda took Caitlyn along a footpath and through a gate. As they walked, Imelda began a truly dizzying lecture on the running of Cabeau’s parliament, and how the monarch fit into that governmental structure. If they hadn’t been walking, Caitlyn might have taken a nap.
“I guess you guys don’t have Starbucks around here,” Caitlyn joked.
“Of course not. We’ll visit a stand once we reach the market. They always have the most exquisite offerings. You came to visit at a good time. All our farmers are bringing in their produce. The harvest festival is held the same day we have our ball in the palace.”
“That sounds fun. Will we go to the festival?”
“Oh, no. It’s too difficult to arrange that much security. But we can go out for the events leading up to it. It does the people good to see their royal family from time to time,” Imelda advised. “We are a small country, and the people are very attached to us. They’ll be watching our every move, so it is important to be respectable and worthy of their admiration.”
Caitlyn nodded and gave her a vague smile. Imelda was a little strange.
They approached the market, where the entire street had been taken over by vendors. The stalls sold vegetables, clothes, people’s homemade wares and artwork, and steaming plates of food. Everyone was wearing colorful sweaters and large, fluffy scarves. Caitlyn didn’t feel all that cold, though. She was the only one strolling along wearing sandals and a short-sleeved dress.
Imelda took her to a cart where the vendor seemed appropriately star-struck to be talking to her. The vendor, a middle-aged man, handed Caitlyn a large cup of coffee.
/>
“There’s a hint of cinnamon in it,” he said. “I hope you like it.”
“Oh, I do like cinnamon.” Caitlyn smelled the coffee and smiled. “Thank you.”
The two of them walked through the market, and Caitlyn watched the people going about their business and enjoying the excitement. A pair of little girls bolted past the two of them, giggling and holding hands.
“This place is lovely,” Caitlyn murmured.
“We do our best,” Imelda said graciously.
Caitlyn was really talking about the citizens, but she let it go. She paused to look at a series of paintings on display at a stand, and another person appeared beside her, a girl of about eighteen or nineteen, short and a bit chunky, with fiery red curls.
“I can’t believe it’s the fall festival already!” She seemed to bounce as she came up to them, breezing past the guards.
“You ought to have met us at the palace properly,” Imelda said sternly.
“I only got in from school this morning. I talked to Mum before I left,” the girl protested. She looked at Caitlyn. “Is this…?”
The girl’s eyes were lit up with mischief and excitement.
“Yes. This is Caitlyn. Emrys is on one of his internet meetings or something, so we have some time to get to know her,” Imelda explained. She gestured to the girl as she looked at Caitlyn. “This is Adora, our youngest sister.”
“Ohh!” Caitlyn laughed. She gave a wave with her free hand. “It’s good to meet you.”
“And you. When was the last time Emrys ever bothered to bring a girl home?”
Imelda cleared her throat and apparently decided to keep moving through the market. Caitlyn and Adora looked at one another and followed her.
Caitlyn was glad that Adora had shown up when she did. She was like a little creampuff and positively chatty. There was no talk of politics or governmental structures with Adora by her side. In fact, Adora had the tendency to point at things, grab Caitlyn’s arm, and drag her over to see whatever had caught her fancy.
It was silly, but spending time with the two of them made Caitlyn feel a bit homesick. She wasn’t even sure that was the right word, since what she was longing for was something she’d never had. As an only child with parents who both worked, her childhood home had been very empty sometimes. She would have loved to have sisters, even if one of them tended to bore and lecture her, and the other was potentially exhausting. She hadn’t imagined how much she would enjoy a day out with Emrys’s siblings, but she knew she would count today as one of the highlights of the trip.