The Sinful King: By New York Times Bestselling Author

by Contreras, Claire

  Chapter 23

  He was gone when I woke up. I’d expected him to be, but it didn’t diminish the pain in my heart. I turned the television on and watched as the news anchors covered the king’s death. They were barely keeping it together as they spoke about it and it occurred to me how much people genuinely cared about the royals. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn’t really grown up here or that my father was always at odds with everything the Crown did, but I always figured everyone was waiting for King Alexandre to pass away so they could take the country into their own hands. That wasn’t the case, or at least not the one they portrayed on the screen. My phone rang beside me and I answered it upon seeing Etienne’s name flash on the screen.

  “Have you heard?”

  “Yeah. I’m watching the news now,” I said.

  “I tried calling Aramis, but got no response. I assume Eli isn’t in the villas.”

  “I don’t think so.” I looked toward the window, though I couldn’t see anything from where I was sitting. “I haven’t even looked outside today.”

  “I guess your basket duty is over.”

  “I guess so,” I said absentmindedly. The news screen cut to a news anchor standing outside the wing of the palace where the cabinet met. My father was standing beside him. It shouldn’t have been a shock to see him on there, but it was.

  “Monsieur Bouchard is looking sharp,” Etienne said.

  “And old.”

  “He does look older. Have you spoken to him?”

  “No.”

  “Seeing him on the telly must be weird.”

  “It was bound to happen.”

  “Addie.” He sighed.

  “It is what it is.” I shrugged even though he couldn’t see me.

  Looking at my father right now I didn’t feel the sadness I expected. I felt anger. This man was supposed to love me unconditionally and one slip up from me had him pretending he didn’t even have a daughter. I knew he was busy, but that didn’t excuse him of his fatherly duties.

  “I’m going to have to go to the funeral,” Etienne said after a moment. “Do you want to go with me?”

  “Sure. I should pay my respects to the family if I can. I’m sure it’ll be a madhouse.”

  “Probably so. I’ll keep you posted when I know more.”

  We hung up the phone and I turned up the volume. My father was still being interviewed and I was curious as to what he was saying. Was he paying his respects or was he berating the Crown as he normally did?

  “It’s too soon to tell, of course,” my father said in response to whatever they’d asked him. “But we expect to meet with the king soon and see what he has in store for us.”

  “Do you think he’ll want to involve the cabinet more than his father did?”

  “I can’t speak for the Crown. I have no idea what he has in mind, but I look forward to working with them to better the country.” He waved at the camera. “Thank you. We’ll talk soon.”

  The camera stuck with him for a second before turning back to the main reporter. They continued talking about what this all meant for France. I wondered what it meant for Elias. He seemed so unsettled last night, so sad. I wished there was something I could do to help, but I knew I couldn’t. Tomorrow I’d go back to London and leave everything that happened here behind. He wouldn’t come back here. Not tomorrow, not next summer, or the one after that. His years of relaxing were over at least for the time being. It hit me that it was all he’d done since he’d arrived. He had one party and then barely left his villa. I’d called him lazy, boring, but in retrospect, that was exactly what he wanted to be.

  Chapter 24

  The funeral was unlike anything I’d seen before and we weren’t even inside the Basilica of Saint-Denis yet. It made me wonder why the queen had asked me to plan the wedding at all when they obviously had a prepared in-house system. I turned to Etienne, beside me, and asked him that very thing. He shrugged as he looked at me.

  “My guess is she wants the wedding to be more like the soirée you put on for the engagement and less like this.” He nodded up at the church we were walking toward. “Less stuffy.”

  “Well, this is a funeral. It’s supposed to be stuffy.”

  “Depends whose funeral it is.”

  “The same can be said for weddings.”

  “Exactly.” Etienne smiled. “God forbid the planning was left to Elias. It would be as stuffy as you can get.”

  “He’s not stuffy.” I frowned. “Their parties are insane.”

  “Aramis’s parties are insane. Elias is bored by them, remember?” He smirked.

  I glanced back up as we reached the church doors and let go of Etienne’s arm as he opened the door for us. No one looked back at the sound of our entrance, which was good since the priest had already started talking. We took the first empty seats we could find, right in the back, near the door, and listened as the priest spoke about life and death. I stared at the larger than life coffin. It had a red cape draped over it with a red and gold crown up top. It matched the outrageous flower arrangements that lined the long entrance to the chapel. I leaned out in hopes of catching a glimpse of Elias, but there was a sea of suits and dresses in front of us and I couldn’t see him. Knowing I was in the same room as him would have to be enough for now. My heart sank. Was that how things would be from now on? I’d have to be glad to just be breathing the same air as him without being anywhere near him? It shouldn’t matter. I didn’t even live in this country. But it did. It did matter. My mother received a call from the queen’s secretaries to tell her the wedding had been postponed, but they hadn’t given an indication of a date and we didn’t want to pry under the circumstances. Even Joss hadn’t dared to ask Pilar, so we simply assumed they’d let us know when they were ready. Personally, I hoped it would be canceled altogether. And for what? So he could find another princess to marry in a couple of years? I needed to stop thinking about him as if he was just someone who was hard to get and come to terms with the fact that he was impossible to get.

  The service seemed to go on forever. When it ended, everyone stood and watched as the casket was rolled forward, everyone turning toward it and bowing to pay their respects as it passed. I finally caught sight of Elias. My pulse instantly quickened. I hadn’t seen him in a week and even though I did miss him, I hadn’t realized how much until this very moment. All I wanted to do was break protocol and run up to him and hug him. He was walking on one side of the casket while Aramis walked on the other. They both looked stoic. A far cry from the Elias that showed up at my villa a week ago. As he walked by, his gaze cut to mine and held for a long moment. I could’ve sworn I saw relief or maybe gratitude in there somewhere, despite his expression merely changing. Maybe it was what I wanted to see. Nevertheless, I felt seen and that was enough.

  “Where will they take him now?” I asked Etienne.

  “He’ll be buried here. I guess they’ll take the casket to a waiting room and do that when it’s family only. His heart will be buried elsewhere.”

  I blinked and looked at Etienne. “What?”

  “His heart. His organs were . . . ” He paused, frowning at me. “You didn’t learn this in school?”

  “I went to boarding school in Connecticut. I learned about the Revolutionary War and Rosa Parks.”

  “I know about the Revolutionary War and Rosa Parks.” He rolled his eyes. “Leave it to America to only teach about American history.”

  “Will you just tell me about this heart thing?”

  “All the kings have their organs taken out. Their hearts are buried wherever their wills state, but it’s always in a place important to them. It’s a way for them to make their political mark in the land.”

  “With their hearts?” I felt my brows pull. “Why couldn’t they just have a sculpture made or something?”

  “They do, but this is different.”

  “So all of them have done that?”

  “Not all, but I know he chose to.”

  “How do
you know?” I met Etienne’s eyes again. He smiled and brought up his hand, waving something in it.

  “Because it’s in the pamphlet as well as everything else I recited.” He cocked his head. “Do you really think I paid that much attention in history class?”

  “Probably just enough to annoy people with tidbits of knowledge.” I took the pamphlet from his hand.

  * * *

  Afterward, we went to the palace. I didn’t want to go, but Etienne insisted, and I knew Joslyn would be there so that gave me the push I needed. I hadn’t expected to see Emily, the Princess of Austria there, but there she was in all her pretty glory. She said hello to Etienne, and since I was beside him, to me as well. It was the first time we’d really spoken at all directly to each other. As she shook hands with Etienne, I stared at the ring on her finger and focused on not reacting.

  “Everything has happened so fast, I don’t think we got a chance to formally meet,” she said to me. “I’m Emily.”

  “Adeline.” I shook hands with her.

  “I heard you’ll be planning the wedding.” She smiled. She said the wedding, not our wedding.

  “Do you plan to be involved?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure I can or should be. The queen knows what she’s doing. I’m sure everything will be handled.”

  “But it’s your wedding,” Etienne said. “Surely you can’t be the only woman on the planet who doesn’t care much about a wedding.”

  “Well, I guess I am. I’ve never given it much thought.” She shrugged, still smiling. “I figure it’ll be grand and beautiful regardless of my input. I’ll see you two around.”

  “Admit it, you think she’s nice,” Etienne said.

  “She is nice, but I still don’t like her. That’s allowed, right?”

  “Hey,” Joss said as she came up to us.

  “Where have you been?” I asked, giving her a tight sideways hug before she moved on to Etienne.

  “Around. With Pilar. She’s sad, poor thing.”

  “They all seem pretty put together,” I said. “I haven’t seen the queen.”

  “She’s as stoic as the rest of them right now, but they’re all sad.”

  “Maybe they should show it a little,” I whispered. “Wouldn’t that be good? For the people?”

  “That’s not like them, you know that. They show as much as they absolutely need to and that’s not much at all.” She shrugged, then brought a hand up to twirl one of the ends of my hair that had lost its curl already. “How are you doing? Things have been so crazy I haven’t even run into you at home.”

  “You’ve been here most of the time,” I reminded her.

  “I was in our flat on Wednesday and you weren’t there at all.”

  “I was running errands with my mother. Wednesday is only one day of the week you know.”

  “I’ve been sorting things with Pilar’s current secretary.”

  “Right.” My jaw clenched tightly. I didn’t want to discuss the fact that I would be losing her to the Crown as well. Not now.

  “Have you spoken to him?” Joss asked after a moment.

  I looked up quickly, and the moment I did, my gaze landed on Elias and I found that he was looking right at me. I felt my cheeks warm as I forced myself to look away.

  “I haven’t. Not today. I should pay my respects though. To all of them,” I said, raising an eyebrow so they knew I didn’t just mean him.

  Etienne grabbed my hand and started leading me in that direction. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to call my bluff or just walking over to pay his own respects, but I wanted to slap him for forcing me into this. I needed another hour or five years to get into the headspace of seeing Elias in public. Everything was fine when it was just him and me, but having people around us hadn’t been our thing. For many reasons, starting with the fact that there was a photographer in our face as I reached him and Aramis. I shook Aramis’s hand first and as I expressed my condolences, the only thing I heard was the snap, snap, snap of the camera. When I reached Elias, I did the same thing, shook his hand, but my insides became jelly and warmth spread through my entire body. I knew it would show on my face. Snap, snap, snap again. I ignored it though and kept my gaze on Elias as he leaned in. He brought his mouth to my ear.

  “Thank you for being here.”

  “Of course.”

  “My coronation is set for three days from today. Will you be there as well?”

  “If I’m invited. I wasn’t planning on it.”

  He pulled back, but my hand was still in his and I didn’t need anyone to tell me that this was definitely the longest handshake of the night or that I’d be on the news by tonight. My father would be livid, I wouldn’t know how to explain it, and this would set my relationship with him back once again. Did I care? I wasn’t sure. A part of me always would, but a bigger part of me just wanted Elias to never let go of my hand at all, tradition be damned.

  “Have you thought about what we spoke about?” he asked. This time, I let go of his hand and smiled sadly.

  “I can’t. You know I can’t.”

  I felt a hand at my back and nearly jumped before realizing it was just Etienne. He shot me a look and then turned to Elias and shook his hand.

  “You two are taking entirely too long and there’s a line,” Etienne said under his breath.

  “There’s always a line,” Elias said. “I’m trying to catch up with an old friend.”

  “An old friend that’s going to end up in the headlines if you two don’t stop flirting.”

  “We’re not flirting,” I whisper-shouted. We weren’t.

  “Well, half of the women are pregnant now just from the looks Elias has given you these last two minutes, so you’re welcome.”

  My jaw dropped. Elias’s mouth moved, just barely, and I knew he was trying to fight a smile, which made me bite the inside of my cheek to not smile at all. It was a disaster.

  “I need to leave,” I said.

  “Yes. I’m taking you home after you say bye to Pilar and the queen,” Etienne said.

  Elias and I shared one more look, filled with sadness and so much longing I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I walked away.

  Chapter 25

  Elias

  The word chaos wouldn’t suffice in describing the state of my life at the moment and somehow, I hadn’t stopped thinking about her. It could never happen. That was what I kept telling myself. I was set to marry Emily, and Adeline’s event company was planning the entire thing. The wedding itself was a scheme, a distraction, a way to get the people to take their minds off my father’s death and focus on a happily ever after. It was for that reason that Pierre wanted to schedule public events with Emily and me. It was because of Adeline that I continued canceling the events and setting others in their place.

  Part of me felt like maybe if I could buy some time I could delay the wedding, delay everything and sneak off with Addie. But the date was looming and with it the burden I’d shoulder for the rest of my days. It was in times like these that I wished my father was alive, not only so that he could continue doing this job, but so he could give me advice on the matter. I didn’t know who else to turn to, and I found myself turning to the most unlikely person I ever expected to receive relationship advice from—Aramis.

  “Just spit it out already,” Aramis said across from me. We were having scotch in the tea room of the palace. The expensive kind, meant to be savored with each sip. We’d been sipping for a long while. Long enough for me to gather the courage to admit this aloud.

  “I think I’m in love with someone and it’s not Emily.”

  “Not what I was expecting.” His brow raised as he lowered his glass slowly. “Who is she?”

  “Adeline.”

  “Bouchard?” He sat upright. “Are you insane?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” I sighed, setting my glass down and bringing my hands to my face to shut my eyes behind.

  Most days I wondered just that. Was I insane? I must have been
to fall for a woman who not only could I not have because of traditional reasons, but could also be the one person people would blame for the demise of the Crown, should things go wrong if we made things public. It was the reason I didn’t argue when she demanded our date be in private and was glad she didn’t complain that we kept things behind closed doors.

  “She could end you, you know?” Aramis waved a hand around. “End all of this.”

  “She wouldn’t be to blame for that.” I looked up at him. “It wouldn’t come to that.”

  “Eli. I know you.” He shot me a serious look. “If you’re even admitting this to yourself, and to me, it’s because you’ve reached the point where you can no longer hold this in and I’ll be honest, being that you’re the responsible one in this family, that terrifies me.”

  I took in a breath and exhaled heavily. “I’m not saying anything will come of this.”