by A. Kingsley
“But she loves him more, like you said, he’s perfect for her. But anyways, I didn’t come to talk about that. May I come in?” he asked.
She opened the door wider for him and he made his way inside. The sound of the door shutting behind him was soft, almost silent.
He sat down in one of the leather chairs and crossed his legs. “Holidays are hard when you’re away from the people that you love. I was just thinking about my mum. I had a feeling that you might be thinking about Wade or Jesse.”
Gracielle sat back down in her chair. “You would be correct in your assumptions. I’m sorry that you won’t be going home for the holiday, but know that you are always free to leave, please know it is not you we have to keep here.”
“No, I won’t be leaving, my mum has already said she feels it’s safer for me here. He has been getting more violent, she doesn’t want me at home right now. I do worry about her safety though, I hope she’s alright.”
“I hope she’s alright too, but she’s a very strong woman, she can handle him,” Gracielle said. “I thought about inviting Jesse to the palace for the holiday, to make things right, but I made a promise to Antoine. I don’t know if he is truly trustworthy or not, so I held off on inviting him for the boy's safety. I always miss Wade, but times like these are harder. I think about when you know ... never mind, I don’t need to bore you with my stories.”
“No please tell them, I could use a distraction.”
She told him about the holidays that she spent with Wade and how he would spend hours making the girls presents. He always mixed together the rarest paints for Clare and made the perfect cleaning solutions and sharpeners for Sage’s blades. Of course he sharpened and cleaned them for her, but she enjoyed watching. For Gracielle, he would always knit her a dress. He never bought anything too expensive or lavish, his gifts came from the heart. She told him how on the night before the holiday, Sage and Clare would sleep in between them and when the sun came up, the children would pester them to open gifts. Once they had their coffee, they all sat by the fire and exchanged gifts. They’d feast and play games all day and when the girls napped, Wade would give her extra kisses and snuggle up against her. She explained to Cassius that Wade was always so warm, he was the perfect person to snuggle up against and that every holiday after his death seemed cold.
It was refreshing for Cassius to hear such stories. His holidays were nothing like the ones she had described or the one he had already begun to experience. He hoped that she wouldn’t ask him about his times as a child, but she did. Though she said he didn’t have to answer, he explained to her what his holidays were like. He explained how his father hated gifts so they never exchanged any, not all three of them anyway. He explained how there were no decorations and how his father practically ignored the day. There were only a few things that made the day special. Erebus required him to get down on his knees in the middle of the castle and pray out loud to Mallory and Oralee. If it wasn’t good enough, he’d strike him until he was satisfied with the contents of the prayer. Later on, his mother would come to draw his bath, there she would clean up his wounds if he had any and then they would exchange gifts in private. Normally he wrote or drew her something and normally, she bought him some candy from the marketplace, something his father never allowed him to have. He’d offer to share some of the candy with her and she would always decline. She would tell him holiday stories that were much brighter than his own. Then she’d have to leave him there when his father knocked on the door saying that she had duties to fulfill, he always found a way to interrupt. Cassius would finish the bath himself and then he would make his way to Cisily’s room in the new night clothes that his mum had hidden in his closet. The two of them would talk and then Theo would join them, dressed in his own new clothes. They’d all read holiday stories and pretend they were in another castle that was much more loving. It was always fun to pretend. The tradition continued for years, up until the current year because Cassius had left them.
Gracielle didn’t know what to say and she usually always knew just the right thing to do. It was hard for her to imagine a world where a child was treated so poorly. She had a feeling that there was something to blame for Cassius’s hard and sometimes cold behavior and this was it. Once she got the okay from him, she wrapped him in a hug and he stayed there, this time he was not even a bit uncomfortable. She apologized to him and he shrugged it off, he knew that there was nothing for her to apologize for. Leave it to Gracielle, to believe that she could have stopped the abuse.
“You’re here with us now, in a much better place, if only your mum could be with us.”
“I know … thank you.”
Clare and Sage normally had sleep overs the night before the holiday, but Clare had a new idea. “We should invite Cassius,” she suggested.
“Why would we just invite Cassius?” Sage asked.
“Because Antoine already told me that he had to add the finishing touches onto his gifts, so his room is off limits for the night. Plus, Cassius doesn’t get to do many fun things, so I’d like to include him,” Clare said as she stood up from the floor of Sage’s room.
“Fine, go get him,” Sage said.
Clare was surprised to see that Cassius wasn’t in his room. She was peering into the closet in an attempt to find him, when he came into the room, his face solemn.
His sad expression disappeared when he saw her check under the bed. “You really thought that I would be under the bed huh?” When she turned around to face him, he couldn’t help but laugh at her winded expression. “Why aren’t you near the fire?” he asked.
“We all had our own things to do I guess, but … Sage and I are going to sleep over in Sage's room and we want you to come!”
“You mean, you, want me to come.”
“Well, yes, I want you to come.”
“What’s in it for me exactly?” he asked. “Having to endure your sister when she’s not holding a sword isn’t exactly easy, you should pay me.”
“Well, you get to spend all night with me and rumor has it I might kiss you.”
“So you just get to kiss two blokes at once while you are engaged to one?” He hadn’t meant to say what he was thinking, but it just slipped out.
“Cassius…”
“I know, I’m only joking. You love me too or some other rubbish saying. Just know that I only let this whole thing slide because you were forced to be with me and I want you to be happy. But I guess I’ll accept a kiss.”
“I am happy,” she told him, though she was a little hurt.
“Eventually you’ll have to make a decision because I can’t handle you loving us both forever,” he said, putting air quotes around the word ‘loving.’
“I promise to do better.”
Cassius followed Clare to the sleepover despite their serious conversation. Clare promised herself that she would do her best not to kiss Antoine anymore. For Cassius’s sake, she would try to hold those feelings down and be loyal to him, forced engagement or not. He wasn’t like the typical man from her stories, the kind that she often fell in love with, instead he was the villain in her story, the third member of the love triangle, the one that typically lost. The loser would have to be enough to satisfy her.
The two of them were tense when they walked into the room, but Sage didn’t plan on keeping that mood up for the rest of the evening. “Well I had plans to paint our nails,” she said. There was a smirk on her face as she looked at Cassius, “can your masculinity handle that?”
“Obviously, Pax. I grew up with my cousin, Cisily, this isn’t the first time that my nails will have been painted.” He left out the part where he had to remove the nail polish immediately afterwards before his father saw it.
Sage and Clare painted each other's nails, Clare had chosen pink for herself and Sage went with a neutral cream. Clare painted Cassius's nails a solid black. Though he would never admit it, at least not in front of Sage, he liked the nail polish, he’d have to ask Clare to do his nai
ls again sometime, she was awfully good at it. She had even insisted on clipping them and massaging his hands with lotion and he agreed.
After all of their nails were dry, they took out a deck of cards and played card games until exhaustion hit them.
Sage was the first to go to sleep in her own bed. A small cot was made on the floor for Cassius and Clare, they stayed awake a bit later. They spoke in whispers, until Cassius had a better idea.
“How about we go to the garden?”
“Seriously? If Sage hears me leave our sleepover she will be furious.”
“Come on, that's where this all started right? I feel like we have some work on our relationship to do.”
“Well, alright then.”
The two of them snuck up to the garden. On the way there, they stopped inside of Clare’s room to grab two coats, both belonged to Cassius, he had left them in her room as a sign of affection. When they were snuggled in the warm bundles of fur, the cold of the garden was more bearable. They didn’t have to whisper there. Clare’s heart pounded as she thought over the self made promises that she had made just a bit earlier. She decided to share them with Cassius. “You know, it’s very unfair that I am doing this to you. It would be different if you were also unfaithful to me, but you’re not. Everyone says it's just because I’m young, but I am foolish. I am your fiancé and though you might not share my love of books or grand romantic gestures, I want to be faithful to you, I need to learn to be faithful to you. I can’t promise to you that my feelings for him will go away quickly, in fact I know they won’t, but I want to spend more time with you. I don’t want to break off our engagement, I truly believe it is for the good of our kingdoms. I shouldn’t kiss Antoine, I should be doing that with you.” She studied his eyes, hoping that he was relieved to hear her news. It was not his eyes that gave his thoughts away, but the slow rise and fall of his chest.
“If that’s what you want, then I am happy to hear it. I know we haven’t really kissed, but if you want to sleep with him, if he pleases you, then go ahead. You know, that sort of separation between partner and lover does exist, so I wouldn’t be mad.”
“Oh no, I haven't slept with him and I don’t plan on it either. I wouldn’t do that to you. You’ll be enough for me when the time comes.” She noticed him smile just a bit and she relaxed.
“I’m glad you’re choosing us and for this to work out. I want to be happy with you, I want you to be happy with me even if it’ll take years. I know I can be an ass and I started out as one, but you make me … not want to be an ass.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” she said softly. “Can you tell me about your previous relationships?” Her hand found its way inside of his.
“So you are jealous?” he teased. “Sure, but only if you tell me about yours, deal?”
“Well, I would, but I can’t. I don’t have any past relationships.” She watched him try to hide his smile which was growing bigger.
A part of him wished he had lied, so that way he could have told her nothing, but now he had to explain. “Well, I didn’t have any serious relationships either. I mostly slept with people after events. Mostly girls, but a few blokes. My father encouraged that behavior, of course he didn’t know that a few of those experiences were with men, but that wasn’t his business. My mum didn’t like it, it didn’t matter the gender, she didn’t want me sleeping around. She wanted me to find someone who I loved, not desired. She tried setting me up on some dates with a few girls, but that didn’t really seem to work for me. Then she decided that she would make my love life into a political strategy to get someone else on her side. I guess she failed considering that it’s now my kingdom versus Deus and Pax et Lux. But anyways, she thought you’d be a good fit for me. It was you or Maximus. Even though she secretly knew that he would probably refuse me, she let me pick. I picked you, I just thought we’d get along better, I guess I was both wrong and right about that one. My father agreed because of course you were a woman and you weren’t Sage and eventually, your mum agreed too. So now I’m with you. At first I thought you were a handful, well you are a handful, but I like you anyways,” he teased. “Does that satisfy you Rose?”
“I suppose it does. The law says we can marry at eighteen, but I am hoping for nineteen and if fate allows it possibly even twenty. How about you?”
“Twenty is good, it gives us time to work out some of our flaws. Maybe by then we will both be in love with one another. Believe it or not, but I am pretty lovable.”
“I don’t know about all that, you give people odd nicknames,” she giggled. “I’m just kidding, I don’t mind it when it slips.”
“Whatever. Do we really have to go back in there?” he asked.
“Do you want a black eye on a holiday morning?”
“No.”
“Then let’s go,” she told him.
They went back into the room and both of them managed to get a decent amount of sleep. Like a child, Sage woke them up bright and early that morning. “Come on, Julius and Maximus are going to be here soon,” she urged, as she ran out of the room and down the stairs. Clare stirred, sitting up, her hair frizzy. She rubbed her eyes and when her vision cleared, she looked to her left, Cassius was still there. He too was just sitting up, stretching his limbs. “She takes this rather seriously doesn’t she?” he asked tiredly,
“Oh yes. She’ll do anything to feel like a child again, funny how girls are expected to grow up so quickly. Told to be dainty and soft, but they can’t be childish and they must marry young and keep their virginity until they’re married. It’s all a whole whole bunch of rubbish and Sage knows it. I’m glad she doesn’t care, I just wish I had her mindset.“
“One day things will change Clare,” Cassius said, as he glanced at the engagement ring on her finger that she had forgotten to take off. She hadn’t pulled it off as soon as she had the chance and he took that as a step in the right direction. He stood up and helped her up off of the floor, he watched her mumble a ‘maybe’ underneath her breath.
The two of them fixed up their hair before heading down the stairs. Gracielle was already in the sitting room with a cup of hot coffee in her hand, Antoine was sitting beside her and Sage was sitting on the floor, shoveling down biscuits. The door rang and when the guards informed Gracielle that it was the Demetrias brothers at the door, they were let inside. The usual hugs were exchanged. The two brothers emptied a sack of presents onto the pile and took their seats on the sofa. Stellan, who everyone had thought was just for display, but had been Maximus’s boyfriend all along, was coming as well, but the guards had stopped to search him. When he was clear, they let him inside. Antoine would be safe around Stellan, after all they had lived together before the death note was sent. Gracielle greeted the extra company happily and beckoned for Phoebe and Esmeralda to join them. Once they were all together, Maximus stood up.
“I know that the gift giving is about to commence, but I wanted to make an announcement. I’m sure that you have all been guessing about my relationship status, so I am glad to inform you that I am settling down, hopefully, for forever. Stellan is my official boyfriend. I haven’t told the citizens yet, but we have been dating for a while and we finally want to put a label on things and become public because we love each other. He is family now and I hope you’ll welcome him with open arms.” He looked over to his left where Stellan stood. The two of them were smiling at the happy reactions and cheers. With a kiss on each other's cheeks, they sealed the news and then sat back down.
“We are so happy for you and on that good note, the gift exchange can commence!” Gracielle exclaimed.
Clare decided to go first. She had spent hours working on all of her paintings. She handed out her gifts which were neatly wrapped in brown parchment and told everyone to open them. At the same time each person opened the paintings.
Maximus and Stellan opened one together as it was a joint gift. Their painting was a portrait of themselves, where Stellan was hanging onto Maximus’s shoulder, the paintin
g was so realistic, that it looked exactly like them. The background was a bright red and would look great in the royals home.
Phoebe and Esmeralda got a joint painting of the two of them kissing. Since they shared quarters, there was no need to make two.
Julius got a painting of him and Sage shooting arrows together.
Gracielle’s set of three included one of her, Wade and the girls when they were babies, one of Wade and the girls when they were six and then finally one of Gracielle and the girls at their current age. She was a mess of tears.
Sage’s paintings varied, one was of her and her sword, the other was of her and Clare and the other was of her and Julius.
Cassius who had never been given such thoughtful gifts was also full of emotion when he opened his. One was of him and his mother and one was of all three of them on horseback during their journey, the other one was of Clare curled up next to him.
Antoine’s gift also included a painting of them on horseback, along with a painting of their adventures in the library where they were both reading and finally, one that pictured them running in the grass the first day that they met.
He pushed up his spectacles to get another look, his smile bright. “I love them,” he said happily.
Antoine was the next to give his gifts out. He apologized in advance for not having a lot of materials available and everyone hushed him, his situation was by far the most difficult. For everyone except Clare, he had made a card with his dearest thoughts in cursive and a few doodles that reminded him of them.