The Inherited Series Book 2: The Claimant

by Lily Burlington

  Chapter Three

  "So there is nothing you can do?" Leopold asked.

  We were all seated around the dining room table, eating breakfast. When we had gotten back from the pier yesterday, Leopold had filled Felip in about our theory that Richard and Antoine wanted to take over Solis and Arcadis. Felip had told Leopold that he needed the night to review some legal papers on the matter, but that it was unlikely we could do anything about it. This morning he had confirmed his original statement.

  Felip buttered his toast methodically, taking time before he answered. "We cannot prove that Richard has done anything wrong. As Catherine's advisor, it is only logical that he would suggest other possible paths for her to take."

  "I think he has done a little more than that," Leopold spat.

  "It is not like he is committing treason, Leopold. No one is going to die," Hector said through a yawn. He reached for a cup of coffee. "It is not the French Revolution. No one will be guillotined or burned at the stake."

  I think he was trying to lighten the situation to comfort us.

  "He is close enough. I want him out of the castle," Leopold said. Unlike the others, he hadn't touched his food.

  "If anything, I think we should be working even closer with him now. If you are worried, then having him here will allow us to keep an eye on Richard. If we banish him from the castle, we will not have any idea about what he may be planning."

  "Besides," Phillipa added, "It will not matter after Monday. You two will officially be a done deal to the entire world."

  "That is not good enough. Something else needs to be done. I will not have him around Cat permanently." Leopold was nearly growling now. I reached out under the table and rested my hand on his knee.

  Leopold froze, his lips drawing into a tight line.

  "They are right," I told him. "It'll be fine. Richard won't be able to do anything soon. We just have to get through the next few months."

  Leopold took a deep breath. He didn't seem at all reassured.

  "I am going to go study," he said dismissively as he pushed himself away from the table.

  I took a bite out of my bacon as the dining room door shut behind him. Everyone was quiet for a moment, contemplatively picking at their food.

  "If you are free today, Phillipa, I thought we might be able to make up for the lesson I missed yesterday," I suggested. I mean, why not? Leopold was going to be studying for most of the day. I figured I might as well keep myself occupied until he was done.

  "Really?" she asked, brightening.

  I nodded. "It sounds like Leopold is going to be busy for a while."

  Phillipa clapped her hands together excitedly. "We can start reviewing the wedding!"

  "I would love to sit in, if it would be alright," Beatrice cut in. It surprised me because Beatrice had never been to one of my lessons before. She would probably have a lot of good input regarding the wedding though, since she was the only one out of the three of us that had actually gotten married.

  "Perfect," Phillipa decided. "I will grab everything and meet you two in the solarium."

  She downed the rest of her orange juice and skipped out of the room.

  I grabbed Leopold's untouched cup of coffee and a plate of toast before following her out of the door.

  I wound through the halls to my wing of the castle, not stopping until I reached Leopold's room. He was out on the balcony, drawing life out of another cigarette. His eyes were fixed on me as I made my way to where he was leaning against the railing. I raised my eyebrow a fraction and placed the coffee and toast down on the banister, challenging him to say something, but he stayed quiet. Taking a step towards him, I wound my fingers around his belt, burying my fingertips between the fabric of his shirt and the waist of his pants.

  "I will be with Beatrice and Phillipa, looking over wedding details," I told him softly.

  Leopold turned his head, a mouthful of smoke hissing from his teeth before he spoke. "Do not let them talk you into anything you do not want. Your options are limited enough as it is."

  I frowned slightly for a moment, not fully understanding what he was saying. It seemed a little strange that my options would be limited. The way Phillipa had been going on about it, it sounded like we would be planning a huge party, not a small ceremony steeped in tradition. I decided not to question him about it though; he already wasn't happy with the way today was going, so it would be better not to push him.

  "Is there anything you want included?" I asked.

  "Choose whatever you like, Cat. I am sure it will be perfect. I promise that I will look over what you decide, but as long as you are my wife at the end of the ceremony, I will be happy." He offered a small smile, his free hand resting on my waist.

  Richard and Antoine had been dropped for now.

  He placed a kiss on my forehead. "I will come find you when I am free."

  Soft morning light filtered through the solarium's windows, making dust moats dance around the inside of the glass roof. Beatrice and Phillipa were seated side by side on one of the plush velvet couches, pouring over a series of binders. A tea service had been set up on the table before them, and lines of steam twirled out of their floral and gold-painted teacups.

  Phillipa jumped to her feet as I slid into the room, Beatrice slowly rising after her.

  "Here, Catherine," she smiled, patting the free cushion on her other side. "Come over here so you can see what we are looking at."

  Tucking my skirt underneath me, I sunk into the velvet and glanced at the glossy pages of the binder. There were two diagrams on it: one that appeared to be for a church, the other for a dining room. There were titles scrawled across them in an elegant script.

  "These are the seating plans for the Saint Francis Basilica and the formal dining room downstairs. The guests' titles are written across their seats," explained Phillipa.

  "Oh, you have already picked somewhere?" I asked, both slightly confused and relieved.

  Phillipa shook her head, "Not exactly."

  Beatrice smiled knowingly at me. "Nearly every wedding of Solisian royals has taken place at this church. Royal weddings are not the same as normal weddings. They have to adhere to a strong set of rules and traditions. Almost everything is already decided for you."

  "Oh," I said again, slightly deflated this time. "What's the plan then?"

  That started Phillipa off.

  "The invitations are at the calligrapher as we speak," she began, passing me a mockup invitation to examine. It was on thick cream paper with black ink swirling in loops across the page. "The ceremony and reception details and venues have already been set, as has the rehearsal dinner. Transportation has been decided upon, colors, the men's uniforms, bridesmaids, groomsmen..."

  "Wow," I breathed.

  Beatrice patted my knee reassuringly.

  "So what's left?" I asked Phillipa. It seemed as though everything was done, no planning required.

  "The most fun bits," Beatrice said. "The parts that everyone will remember."

  "What are those?" I prompted, knowing how the game worked by now.

  "The flowers, the food, the cake, the dresses, and your maid of honor," Phillipa listed. "We are going to have a meeting with the royal florist, who is also a botanist and an expert in floriography, later in the week. Before that, I will start teaching you floriography, and I will take you to a shop to see some examples. We will spend an afternoon in the kitchen soon, tasting dishes for the dinner. A cake specialist will be arriving next month. As for the dress, you will be meeting with Veritee Leroy shortly."

  My mouth fell open. I didn't know much about fashion, but I definitely knew of Veritee Leroy. She was one of the top designers in the world. Her work was on the same level as Chanel, Armani, and Valentino.

  "We will be with you too, dear," Beatrice added, trying to reassure me. "We will offer our opinions, if you would like them."

  "Thanks," I managed after a moment. "So what are we doing today?"

  "I need a guest l
ist from you," Phillipa said, grabbing a pen and flipping to a blank page, "and I want to run through the steps of the wedding process with you, to make sure I do not miss anything you cannot live without."

  I shrugged. "Louis, Renée, John, Tess, and Alex."

  "That is all? You can get back to me in a few days," said Phillipa as she jotted down the names.

  "No, that's it."

  Renée and Louis were both only children. I had never known any of my grandparents, and I wasn't one for keeping many friends. They were all I needed.

  The shadows in the solarium had grown long when Leopold finally came for me, the warm afternoon light casting him in gold. My mind was so full of thoughts of poached chicken breast, calla lilies, wedding vows, and gold versus platinum rings, that I was relieved when his familiar form sauntered into the room.

  "What are your thoughts on crab?" Phillipa asked me, not noticing her brother's entrance.

  "They are inconvenient and uncomfortable," Leopold replied, lips twitching.

  Beatrice and Phillipa stood, Phillipa rolling her eyes at her brother's dry remark.

  "Come to steal Catherine again?" she asked knowingly, ignoring his jab.

  "Well, I hate to interrupt this thrilling conversation on the pros and cons of seafood, but Cat and I need to leave soon." He had stopped at the piano, halfway into the room, his fingers ghosting across the keys impatiently as he spoke.

  "I wondered when you were going to show up," said Phillipa, glancing at the grandfather clock.

  Beatrice crossed the room towards him and straightened the collar of his sweater, which had turned in on itself. "Where are you two off to?"

  "Drag racing and drug deals," he told her, a roguish smile curling at the edges of his lips.

  "Keep her safe," she told him, not missing a beat.

  Leopold leaned down so that she could place a kiss on his cheek, "Always."

  He turned to me then, raising one brow a fraction, "Cat?"

  I didn't need another invitation. I quickly thanked Beatrice and Phillipa for their help before scuttling out of the solarium after Leopold. I glanced down, surprised when I realized he was in jeans and a pair of beat up sneakers. We obviously weren't going on any official royal business; it would just be Leopold and me.

  He led me through the halls toward the back door of the castle that opened out onto the gardens. I stopped dead in my tracks at the top of the steps, pulling Leopold back with me as soon as I spotted what was in the backyard.

  A shot of fear fizzed through my veins as I took in the helicopter that sat in the middle of the grass. Its blades were rotating, kicking up whirlwinds, tugging at everything within its reach as if caught in a severe storm.

  I took a long, deep breath, calming my nerves. I was more startled than anything; I wasn't afraid of flying after all. This was no plane though, and while I was happy it wasn't the seaplane I had been forced onto for my arrival, somehow the helicopter didn't seem as trustworthy as the huge commercial jets I was accustomed to. It didn't even have wings!

  "What is that?" I asked Leopold, shouting to be heard over the wind and beating blades.

  Leopold pressed close to me, bending his head, his mouth at my ear. "We are going flying," he said. "I thought I would show you Solis from a different perspective."

  I groaned low in my throat, but it was stolen instantly by the noise of the blades. I was fighting against the pull between what the old Cat would have done, and what the new one would do. I didn't like water or horses when I arrived, and so far Leopold had managed to convince me to both swim and ride. Besides, how many times does one get asked to go for a helicopter ride?

  Bracing myself on his shoulder, I pulled off the heels I was wearing and dropped them onto the stone steps. They would be hazardous to wear while attempting to cross the field, no less climbing into the helicopter. With a nod in Leopold's direction, I let him pull me into the storm.

  It was a good thing Angelique hadn't done anything spectacular with my hair today because any effort would have been destroyed as the wind threw tresses in every direction. My skirt and blouse were both form-fitting enough to mostly stay in place, luckily. Trying not to flash the palace was one less thing to worry about.

  As soon as we were close enough to the helicopter, Leopold released me from his protective hold to pull open the door. It wasn't the back door though, where I had been expecting to enter, but the passenger door.

  Leopold helped me up into my seat, a guiding hand on my waist. When I was safely seated, he grabbed onto some invisible framework and pulled himself up with a practiced ease to stand on the lip of the door. He took hold of the complicated looking seatbelt, nimble fingers expertly tugging and snapping at the straps and buckles. Once satisfied, he gave me a thumbs-up, before falling back out onto the field and closing the door, shutting me inside.

  A twist of panic surged to the surface again before I could stop it. I was strapped in the passenger side, and I was going to be sitting next to some pilot who I hadn't even seen yet for the entirety of this sightseeing tour. Leopold was probably in the back seat already, happily sprawled across a bench reading his textbooks or taking a nap. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself screaming.

  A moment later the pilot's door flew open, and my stomach flipped. I had been wrong; it wasn't some unknown pilot I was going to be sitting next to; it was Leopold.

  I watched, both terrified and fascinated, as he pulled on a headset and aviators and started flipping switches. He was talking, though I had no idea what he was saying, and after a moment he nodded before turning to me.

  I stared back at him with wide eyes. Did Leopold even know how to fly? I mean, wasn't that what his test was for on Wednesday, so he could be a pilot?

  I went to voice my question but Leopold shook his head. He tapped his headset and then pointed across to my side of the cabin. Sure enough, there was another headset that I hastily tugged on.

  "You alright, Cat?" Leopold's voice crackled in my ears.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "Flying," he stated simply as he passed me a pair of sunglasses.

  "How? Isn't that what all the studying is for?" There was a slightly hysterical edge to my voice now.

  "Do you trust me, Cat?" he asked, ignoring my question.

  I nodded slowly, "Yes."

  Leopold smiled and began flipping more switches, checking dials. "Let me take off and then we can talk."

  Holding tightly to my harness, I pursed my lips, but I didn't argue. If we had any hope of getting in the air safely, it was probably a good idea to let him focus. I had missed my opportunity to escape anyway; there was no way I would be able to untangle myself from my seatbelt let alone get the door open.

  Leopold's disembodied voice crackled in my ears again, "Romeo Foxtrot Sierra seven six tree, holding at palace. Prepared for takeoff."

  Another voice responded in similar gibberish, "Romeo Foxtrot Sierra seven six tree, DuMont Tower, palace cleared for immediate takeoff. Will standby."

  "Roger," Leopold replied, before the ground fell out from beneath us.

  I held my breath as we became weightless, my ears popping as we steadily rose higher and higher. Soon we were above the roofs of the castle, and I could see the orchard, the forest, even the fields slowly being thrown out before us.

  "DuMont Tower," said Leopold as we leveled out. "Romeo Foxtrot Sierra seven six tree, now at one two thousand."

  "DuMont Tower confirmed. On standby for landing, over," replied the voice.

  "Wilco, over and out," Leopold said.

  There was a faint click, presumably our connection with the air traffic controller cutting out.

  My fingers slowly settled out of their vise grip. We were fine, we were up in the air and nothing bad had happened. It was kind of nice actually.

  "I'm impressed," I told Leopold.

  He smiled brightly back at me. "Great, is it not?"

  "I thought you weren't allowed to pilot yet though," I said.
<
br />   "I have been able to fly for quite some time. I have my license. It is a different level of flying I will be graduating into. Search and rescue missions require a different skill set than your average flight," he said.

  I suddenly felt a lot safer. If he was going to be certified to fly in hurricanes, and do aerial acrobatics in all sorts of situations, then this must be a piece of cake for him. It was perfect out today, not even a single cloud around us in the sky.

  "Did you borrow the helicopter from the base?" I asked. Was that even allowed? I felt like people weren't supposed to use military vehicles for recreational purposes. I wouldn't put it past Leopold to have sneaked it out somehow though, or to have been given special permission.

  "It's mine," he said, making my eyes grow large. Then he corrected himself: "the family's. One of three. We have a plane as well."

  I should have guessed. Why wouldn't they have helicopters and airplanes? How else would they travel? I couldn't picture Felip on a commercial airplane munching on a bag of peanuts.

  I went with the most obvious question next: "Where are we going?"

  "Around," was Leopold's reply. He grinned crookedly, "Thought we might go and check on my island and maybe fly over Sinclair Castle if you are interested?"

  "Absolutely," I said all too eagerly. My experience of Solis and Arcadis was very limited to nonexistent outside of Dumasville. I knew a lot about the other places, but I had never been to or seen them. Part of Leopold's title declared him the Duke of Mortimer, which was the smallest of the three main Solisian Islands. He had an estate there, with his own residence. As far as I knew, no one visited it very often.

  Leopold pointed things out to me as we flew. He showed me battle fields, mineral-filled caves, historic ruins, and glassy mountain top pools. By the time we made it to Mortimer, the sun was beginning to set.

  "There," Leopold said, pointing off into the distance. I followed the line of his arm out towards the sea. We were passing over a small town now, but after that, there was nothing, just fields on rolling hills, striped through by a road. I followed its path, my eyes finally catching on a dark outline on the horizon where the path ended. "That is Mortimer Cottage."