Revealing A Marchioness's Heart (The Chronicles of Loyalty)

by Jessie Bennett

  “Jerrico,” he gripped him tightly, pulling him close so he didn’t smack his head against the stone wall. Nathan tried to remember what Loyalty had done the night before. His heart was pounding a mile a minute, and his ear was still turned to listen for the king’s final breath. His own head was spinning and he was trying to think of all the things he could do to keep everything in control. Nathan liked control, but control was not to be his as Jerrico slipped to the floor and began to seize.

  Nathan saw right away that it was different from what had happened at Loyalty’s house. Jerrico’s body shook violently and white foam began to squirt from his mouth. He was sure that they could hear him on the other side of the wall. He was used to always knowing what to do; always having an answer. “Jerrico,” he hissed in alarm as he held his shoulders, trying to stop him from hurting himself. In short order, Jerrico’s nose began to bleed and mixed with the white foam, creating a terrible sight.

  The guard was fighting for breath, and on the other side of the door, so was the king.

  Nathan heard a loud gasp, a cry, and a moan. Then, everything fell silent.

  Including Jerrico, limp on the floor.

  The king was dead.

  Nathan put his hand to Jerrico’s neck, and found no pulse. In a panic, he rolled him over.

  “No no, don’t leave me,” he said, frantically, pressing against his chest. “Come on, Jerrico, there is no way I’m doing this alone.” A horrid thought passed through his head; a thought that he never should have had. He instantly hated himself for it. If Jerrico died here and now, with the king, no one would know about Loyalty, save Sylvie. And Sylvie was easily taken care of without notice.

  If Jerrico died, Loyalty would be spared the horrid life that Nathan knew royalty led. Loyalty would be spared the horror of the throng, the danger, the controlled life.

  Nathan sat back on his haunches, just for one moment, looking through the crack in the door at the shifting crowd. He was stuck in a trance, his brain completely unable to think, unable to process what to do next.

  Jerrico suddenly gasped, his blue eyes flying open.

  Nathan sunk against the wall, the adrenaline coursing through his body leaving him shaky. “Oh God,” he said as he made sure Jerrico’s head was nestled against his shin, so it didn’t hit the hard floor. “Oh God.” He had actually considered leaving his best friend for dead. Actually considered walking away.

  This is what the throne did to people; this was how it destroyed people. Loyalty wasn’t even there and he had already been corrupted by it. True, he wasn’t corrupted in the way that people normally were. However, it was still damaging.

  He wasn’t sure how long they sat there. It could have been hours or it could have been minutes. Nathan was staring off into the darkness, his mind lost to the logical side of his brain.

  “Is it over?” Jerrico said softly, through cracked lips.

  Nathan glanced down at him. “Yes,” he said. “George is dead. Your prince is now king....” He took a breath before continuing. “You almost left me too.”

  Jerrico closed his eyes, saying nothing for a long moment. He licked his lips before choosing his words carefully. “If I do, you have to make sure that she is safe. No matter what.”

  “No matter what,” Nathan said, emotionless. He wasn’t ready for all of this. However, ready or not, it was upon him. “But I’m not sure telling her is the way to keep her safe.”

  “I can help you until...”

  “No,” Nathan knew what he had to do. He felt like there was a huge weight on his chest, and it was a struggle to figure out how to breathe, let alone speak. “No. I can handle it.”

  “You...”

  “Jerrico, are you going to die?” Nathan suddenly looked toward him. The fact that Jerrico avoided his eyes was answer enough. “When?”

  “When I am at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Jerrico replied at last.

  “It could be any one of these...attacks?”

  “Yes,” Jerrico confirmed.

  Nathan breathed deeply. “Does Loyalty know?”

  “No,” Jerrico replied.

  “The doctors have...”

  “The doctor I trust has confirmed this. I don’t want anyone to know. I want to keep going until the end.”

  “Then you make me a promise,” Nathan said, speaking very slowly. He felt as if he was moving underwater. “Bringing Loyalty to the throne is going to be hell. You are going to pull every string possible to be with her, you are going to be her personal guard for as long as you can. Can you do that?”

  Jerrico blinked, indicating that he understood.

  “You’re her best friend. She’s going to need you.”

  “She’s going to need you,” Jerrico managed, his voice scratchy.

  “No,” Nathan said softly. “Once Loyalty is a princess, she will not need a lower class lover who soils her reputation. What she needs is for me to distance myself from her.”

  “Nathan...”

  “Jerrico, I could have left you to die,” Nathan snapped. “So agree with me or I will next time. Is that clear?”

  A long silence passed between the two of them. Finally, Jerrico took a deep breath. “Fine,” he said. “Until the end.”

  “Until the end.” Nathan replied, closing his eyes. He felt like his soul was dying, and in a way, it was. His best friend was dying, and his love life with it. And his king. Nothing made sense anymore. Nothing was in his control, and nothing was turning out the way it was supposed to turn out.

  He wasn’t sure how much longer they sat there. There were still sobs in the room, and he didn’t want to bring Jerrico out that day. He would have to wait until he was strong enough and then walk him down the long passage and out the other end.

  Nathan was perfectly fine if that took all night. He wanted Loyalty to have one last night where everything was fine, and everything was normal. One last night of happiness before he ruined everything for her forever.

  10

  CHAPTER TEN

  Loyalty answered the knock on her door with haste. She had heard the bells ringing from the palace and knew something had happened. She figured that was why Nathan hadn’t come home last night. Jerrico she wasn’t so worried about; he didn’t come by unless he had a job for her.

  “Are you Loyalty?” a guard asked, and she recognized the two men standing at her door as Alexander and Ricardo. However, what drew her attention more was the high class woman standing between them, clearly noble. Loyalty dipped to bow to her, even as her eyes lingered on the scars on her face. The woman was staring at Loyalty's birthmark the same way.

  “I am,” she said. “Milady.”

  “There's a note for you,” Alexander said and handed it over. Loyalty's attention was torn between the note and the strange gathering at her door. However, when she read the words, her heart dropped.

  The King is dead. Come to the palace at once. Ask for me.

  “Oh my goodness...” she muttered. “I...do you know what this says?”

  “We are here to escort you to the palace, Milady,” Ricardo said, and she stepped outside right away, closing the door behind her. “This is Lady Nora, by the way, our current charge. She wanted a walk into town.”

  It didn't take an idiot to see the way Ricardo looked at Nora as they headed toward the waiting carriage. The two girls couldn't stop staring at each other as they climbed into the carriage. Alexander sat beside Nora, clearly in charge of her protection.

  “I'm sorry your visit to the city must come to this, Milady,” Loyalty said. Nora cocked her head, and glanced at Ricardo, who spoke to her in French. “Oh,” Loyalty cut him off, translating her sentence into French herself.

  Nora raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You speak French?”

  “There is a great many things to learn when you spend your days hidden away,” Loyalty said softly, and she knew that this girl understood right away. “You must be from Calais?”

  “Come to find a husband,” Nora said so
ftly. “The king commanded it. But all that is going to change now.”

  “I think everything is about to change,” Loyalty replied, as the carriage moved toward the palace. She felt a little bit swept away that this noble lady would even so much as speak to her. Her clothes were so fancy, and her face must have been so pretty once. She was clearly rich beyond anything that Loyalty could imagine, and she found herself longing for a day when Nathan was promoted and they didn't have to worry about bills.

  The church bells rang and she was reminded that all of that might never happen, now that the king was dead.

  In a way, it was a good thing. She knew that Jerrico and Prince George were close. Perhaps he would experience greater fortune now that his chosen prince was on the throne. Perhaps Nathan would find the heirs and he would be commemorated and they would all live happily ever after at the palace.

  She had all sorts of hopes and dreams for what would await her at the palace. Despite the fact that it was terrible that the king was dead, she couldn’t help but smile as she walked into the palace. She used the back door; the servant’s door that she usually used to drop off laundry.

  She could see the distraught faces right away. The palace didn’t stop because someone had died; she knew that well enough. There had been enough death through the reign, and as sad as it was, a death almost meant more work. For the next few weeks, people would flock to the palace to say their goodbyes and pay their respects. It meant more work for the servants, the cooks, the laundresses. Grief had no place in the lives of servants, even if their hearts were broken and tears stained the food they were preparing.

  She realized suddenly that they weren’t that different from the royals. Their grief couldn’t stop them from taking the throne, from greeting the public, from holding a funeral and attending a state dinner. They had to keep going, because the whole country certainly didn’t stand still while they were grieving the loss of a parent.

  She thought it was such a terrible thing to be crown prince. To both dread and yet wait for the moment that your father died.

  It was exciting and heartbreaking all at once as she asked a few faces for Nathan. They knew that he was her lover, and that he had a brilliant mind. No one seemed to know the secret task he had been given, which made her feel even more important. Her Nathan, his brain had been chosen above all.

  Alexander took her through the back passages to the guard’s rooms, where she guessed that Nathan was waiting for her. They had used Jerrico’s room as a rendezvous point before, for meetings far less important than this. She didn’t knock as she reached the right door, instead just pushing it open.

  Jerrico out cold on his bed was not the sight she had been expecting. Nathan was standing by the window in the narrow room, his back to her.

  “Nathan?” she asked, her voice suddenly small and full of fear. “Jerrico?”

  “Mmmm.”

  To her surprise, he was awake. However, his blue eyes were clouded, and she could see that he had been through a rough night.

  “Loyalty.”

  She sat at the edge of the bed, taking his hand as she glanced toward Nathan. “What happened?” she said. Nathan sighed, but he didn’t come to her like he normally did. She expected him to put a hand on her shoulder, a kiss on her head. However, none of those things were moves he even appeared to be considering. “Does this...the king...?”

  “Jerrico and the king have nothing to do with each other,” Nathan said calmly. “Although as you can see, we had a rather difficult night.”

  “Are you alright?” she asked Jerrico, who was struggling to sit. “You normally don’t have attacks this close together.”

  “Loyalty, I need you to listen to Nathan,” Jerrico managed. “And listen carefully.”

  “What?” her head swiveled toward him. “What’s happening?”

  Nathan glanced at Jerrico, and then took a deep breath. “We think we found one of the princesses.”

  “You did?” Loyalty asked, her jaw falling open. “Who is it? Where?”

  “On the night she was born...” Nathan said. “She was taken from the palace by carriage. The carriage was followed by a homeless woman named Sylvie, who took an interest in the child, curious. Sylvie felt a bond with her.”

  “Sylvie? The woman with the red eyes?” Loyalty asked. “I remember her. Why did she bond with her?”

  “Because,” Nathan said softly. “The child was also scarred by red.”

  Loyalty felt her blood run cold.

  “W-What?” she asked, looking between the two of them.

  “Prince George...King George as of last night...confirmed that his first daughter was born with a red birthmark on her face. That is why Sylvie took an interest. Yesterday, Jerrico slipped her gold. She confessed to watching the child all this time. And she led us...”

  Loyalty’s mind flashed to yesterday. She had seen Sylvie outside the house. Everyone knew the scary homeless woman with the red eyes. However, she thought that she had just been there, wandering about as usual. “Nathan, what are you saying?” she asked, her voice sounding odd.

  No one said anything, so she turned to Jerrico. “What are you saying?” she repeated.

  Jerrico brought his hand up to her face, gently touching the side with the birthmark.

  She didn’t flinch, although if it was anyone else, she would have. Her eyes locked onto his, and she could see that this was no joke. His eyes were serious. “No.”

  He managed a soft smile. “My princess,” he said softly. “I always knew there was something special about you.”

  “Nathan,” her head whipped back to her lover. “Tell him that this can’t be true. Tell him that he’s being silly. He...”

  “I’ve looked at it from every angle,” Nathan said. “Only George can say for sure. However, the facts don’t lie, as much as I want them to. Trust me, Loyalty, if I could find a way out of this for you, I would. I don’t want you to have this life. I don’t want you to be anywhere near the danger that the palace is. But I can’t find a way out of it.”

  She looked between the two of them. “So what now?”

  “You can run,” Jerrico’s voice was cracked, so soft she had to strain to hear it. “We are the only ones who know. You can run. But I have a feeling that you won’t.”

  “No,” Loyalty put her head in her hands, trying to make sense of all of this. “No.”

  “You can dictate the next move to us,” Nathan said. “I have always honored my duty, Loyalty. But if you say it...I will take you far away from here, never to be seen again.”

  She looked up in surprise. “You’ll come with me?” she asked Nathan. “And you, Jerrico...?”

  He squeezed her hand, but said nothing. It was enough of an answer. Nathan shook his head. “I can’t. You know that.”

  She took a few deep breaths. She wasn’t even sure her brain was fully aware of what was happening. This couldn’t be real; it couldn’t be. This was what children dreamed about, what little girls played at in the street.

  She couldn’t be a princess. That didn’t actually happen, not to peasants like her who were scarred and considered half freaks. Then she remembered her encounter with the Lady Nora, so rich and yet so scarred, like her. Nora's was an accident, of course, but they still bowed to her, protected her. She had made that life work for her, and Loyalty was grateful for the brief encounter. There was hope.

  Still, this couldn't be real.

  Yet, here it was, happening.

  “Take me to the king,” she said at last. “He will know for sure. You have the authority to do that, don’t you, Nathan?”

  “Yes,” Nathan said.

  “Ask George to come here,” Jerrico said softly. “Give me an hour and I can get to the chair. He trusts my word above all, and God knows he needs some happiness today. Ask him to come here to see her, and he will come. He will come to see his daughter in the flesh.”

  “This isn’t happening,” Loyalty said. “Is it?”

  Nathan dipped
his head to her, still not moving from his spot. “It is,” he said formally. “Your highness.”

  Loyalty knew, then and there. Nathan would never joke or say things without being sure. She was a princess. She was the daughter of George IV. In addition, if they didn’t find her siblings, she was going to inherit the throne.

  “You’re not upset,” Nathan noticed.

  She burst into a grin. “Why would I be upset?” she asked. “This is the answer to all our problems.”

  Nathan gave her a confused look.

  “Nathan, you’re so smart, I can’t believe you haven’t figured this out,” she said, squeezing Jerrico’s hand. “If I am princess, I can promote you high enough to marry me in an instant. We never have to worry about money again. I can get you,” she turned to Jerrico. “The best care available and still keep your job, if you still want it. Housing, money, rank, health, all of it will be the best from now on for my friends.”

  “Loyalty...” Jerrico said, and she glanced between the two of them.

  “Don’t you see? You two have taken care of me for so long. Now it’s time for me to take care of you.”

  Both of them were silent and she spoke. “Have you met the Lady Nora? The French Lady from Calais?”

  “I have,” Jerrico said softly. “I was hoping you two would meet.”

  “I met her, just now,” Loyalty said. “And I didn't see one ounce of disrespect toward her as we entered the palace. She has clearly been through hardship, and her face, like mine, garners stares. But she commands respect, even though she is different. I can do the same, Nathan. I can bring us the hope, the chance we've been waiting for all this time.”

  “Loyalty, it's never been about the way you look,” Nathan said softly. “I think you're beautiful.”

  “Then let me try this, for us, for all of us,” she said softly. “I think it's my turn to be strong. You've been so loyal to me, all these years. Let me be strong now.”

  Nathan’s face slowly changed. “I never thought of it that way,” he said.