by Emma Lea
“Sleep in?” Jeanette asked with a raised eyebrow.
I smiled over my shoulder at her. I would rather they thought me a slug-a-bed than find out the real reason for my tardiness.
“I’ll never tell,” I said, plopping a strawberry in my mouth as I took my seat.
“Is this all of us?” Alyssa—Queen Alyssa—asked, looking around at the four of us.
“Yep,” Priscilla said.
These breakfast meetings were only a new thing. There had been so many changes since we had all originally been summoned to fill the positions of ladies in waiting to the newly elevated princess. And our numbers had dwindled as, one by one, the women around me fell in love. Alex had been the first to desert our ranks, after the queen, of course. Marrying the Earl of Avonlea, more affectionately known by all of us as Freddie, made her position in the palace inappropriate. Priscilla was the next to fall, but unlike Alex, she remained within our ranks, as did Jeanette who had fallen for a rowdy Australian in Freddie’s employ. The biggest blow came when Meredith fell for her fellow Royal Guard partner, Jamie, who turned out to be a prince in his own right, although in exile. He was now a king and Meredith was his queen and they lived on a small island in the Aegean Sea.
The only two unattached ladies in waiting remaining were myself and my assistant Margaret. I had no intention of changing my relationship status and Margaret was so timid I doubt she’d ever have the courage to even talk to a man let alone fall in love.
“Well,” Alyssa said, blowing out a breath. “It seems we have some vacancies in our ranks.”
I looked at Jeanette and Priscilla. They seemed just as shocked as I was about Alyssa’s announcement.
“You want to replace Alex and Meredith?” I asked.
“It’s more of a necessity than a want,” Alyssa said with a sigh. “I already have a new guard.” She grimaced. “But she will not be an appropriate substitute to my retinue. So we have two vacant spots. Any suggestions?”
“You’re asking us?” Jeanette asked.
Alyssa shrugged. “I trust you. I know you have my back and whoever we pick will need to fit in with you.”
“I’m sure Dom and I can pull together a suitable list for you to go over,” Priscilla said, although she still sounded a little shocked.
“That would be great. I’ve asked Alex for her input too.”
“What about Georgie?” I said. Georgina Darkly was the prince’s sister and the queen’s sister in-law.
Alyssa smiled. “I would love to extend the invitation to her, but now that she is a duchess with an estate, she doesn’t qualify.”
“So what are the requirements?” Jeanette asked, looking between Priscilla and the queen.
“From a titled family but not necessarily with her own title,” Priscilla said.
“Preferably unattached,” Alyssa said, “although I wouldn’t discount someone who you all agreed fit in with us.”
“Is there a reason they have to be single?” I asked.
“It’s just tradition,” Priscilla answered.
“Why, do you know someone?” Alyssa asked.
I shook my head. I was more asking for my own benefit. I wasn’t attached, not anymore, but I had wondered if my secret ever got out if it would negate my selection as a lady in waiting. “Just wondering,” I replied.
“I might know of someone,” a timid voice said from the end of the table. All eyes turned to Margaret and she blushed furiously. “Um, maybe not.”
“No, no,” Alyssa said kindly. “Come on, tell us who you were thinking of.”
Margaret looked at the four pairs of eyes looking at her and blushed a deeper red, if that was possible, obscuring her freckles and I swore the bright red flush even travelled into her hair.
“Hadley,” Margaret said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Lady Hadley Winchester.”
Priscilla nodded. “I recognise the name.”
“How do you know her, Margaret?” Alyssa asked.
“We went to school together,” Margaret replied, gaining a little more confidence. “We boarded together.”
Alyssa nodded. “I’d like to meet her,” she said.
Priscilla made a note on her ever-present tablet. “I’ll set it up.”
“Now, the Winter Ball,” Alyssa said, looking at me. “How are the dresses coming along?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you even have to ask?”
Alyssa smirked. “Yep. It’s written right here in front of me and you know what Priscilla is like when I don’t follow the agenda to the letter.”
I hid my smile behind my hand as Priscilla narrowed her eyes at each of us. I cleared my throat and forced down the laugh. “I decided on a white, silver and blue theme.”
Alyssa shot a look at Priscilla who nodded slightly.
“Yes, I got Priscilla and Dom’s approval first,” I said with another roll of my eyes. Seriously! Did no one trust me to do my job?
“I’m going to be adding a few small dinner parties to the agenda in the lead up to the ball,” Alyssa said, and we all groaned. I think even Margaret groaned softly. Alyssa smiled. “I know how much you love them. But there is a method in my madness. I think it would be a good way to meet some applicants for the open positions amongst us. We don’t have to tell them why they’re there and we can observe them without them knowing they’re being watched.”
Priscilla grinned. “I like it.”
I huffed out a breath. It was easy for her to say, she wasn’t the one who would have to make sure they were all suitably attired.
“How many dinner parties?” I asked.
“Five, I think,” Alyssa said. “No more than five, anyway.”
“That’s one a week until the ball.”
Alyssa nodded as if it wasn’t news to her.
“Great,” I mumbled, and Alyssa raised her eyebrow at me. I smiled back, although it was more teeth than smile. “Great,” I said again, forcing cheerfulness into my voice.
“Where were you this morning?” Margaret asked as she jogged after me down the corridor toward our shared office.
"Nowhere," I replied, not slowing down to make it any easier for her to interrogate me, not that Margaret would interrogate me.
Margaret had begun to open up to me in the time that we had been working together, and we’d even become friends of a sort. But around everyone else, she was still a timid mouse.
“You're never late," she said, finally catching up to me as we arrived the door to our office.
“I was this morning," I said.
I unlocked the door and stepped across the threshold to my home away from home. To anyone else it might look like the room had been recently ransacked, but to me it was perfectly organised. I knew where everything was…mostly.
Margaret followed me into the room and crossed to her own desk, which was as neat as a pin. She tried her best to keep me organised and tidy, but my creativity would have no fences. I needed chaos to create.
"I'm worried about you," she said.
I didn’t turn to look at her but kept my eyes steadfastly in front of me as I sat at my desk and scanned over a few sketches that were in front of me. “What on earth for?" I asked. "There's nothing for you to worry about.”
“Of course there is," she hissed, stepping closer to me and lowering her voice. “If anyone finds out —"
“Nobody is going to find out,” I said, flipping my hair over my shoulder and smiling up at her.
She didn’t look convinced. Margaret was the only person in the palace who knew about Papa and Archer. I’d had to tell someone and Margaret was with me more than anyone else. She’d even covered for me on occasion. I knew there was no way I could continue to keep the secret and my job without her.
“I promise,” I said to her, making eye contact this time. “No one is going to find out. I just need a little bit more time and then I can find a place for Papa and Archer.” Not that I wanted to find another place for them. Having them live in one of the cabins on the palac
e grounds meant I could slip away easily from the palace to spend time with them. I had my own suite in the palace, with all the other ladies in waiting, and if I could smuggle my father and my son into it, I would have. But it wasn’t feasible or probably even possible. It was a miracle that we had made it this far without being discovered. That was all over now, thanks to Jed.
Margaret huffed out a breath and nodded, but I could see in her eyes she was still worried. She turned away and walked toward the wall at the far end of the room, which was stacked with bolts of fabric.
“I’ve heard a rumour,” she began and then stopped.
I got up from my desk and joined her in front of the stacks. “A rumour? About me?”
She started to shake her head and then stopped. “Sort of, but not what you think.”
I waited impatiently for her to go on. Margaret wasn’t a gossipmonger but because she was so quiet and unassuming, she tended to hear things the rest of us didn’t. The palace staff were notorious for fuelling the rumour mill and whereas they would stop talking when one of us walked in the room, most times they didn’t even notice Margaret. It meant she heard a lot of whispered conversations that we wouldn’t normally be privy to.
“Okay, so?” I prompted.
She shot me a look and her cheeks flushed red. “I think these dinner parties have more than one objective.”
“Alyssa said as much,” I replied with a huff.
“Even beyond what she said this morning,” Margaret said. “I heard that she intends to set you up.”
“Set me up?” My stomach turned over in fear. “Set me up, how?”
“With a man,” Margaret said, practically whispering.
I snorted indelicately. “What?”
Margaret shrugged and turned back to the fabric as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.
“You’re the last single lady in waiting—”
“There are two of us,” I snapped, irritated at the thought of someone trying to match-make me, even if it was the queen.
Margaret’s cheeks coloured more. “People don’t see me like that,” she said.
My gaze softened on her. I knew Alyssa appreciated her but I didn’t think anyone knew just how intelligent and sweet Margaret really was. She was intensely private and incredibly shy and if I hadn’t been working closely with her every day for two years, I don’t think I would have gotten to know her as well as I had.
“Regardless,” I said, “I don’t want or need a man in my life.” It was true. I already had more than enough men taking up time in my life, not that I wanted to get rid of either my father or my son. It was just complicated and the last thing I needed was for another man in my life complicating things even more.
“From what I’ve heard, the queen will be inviting a few eligible bachelors to these dinner parties in the hopes of someone taking your fancy.”
I scowled even as a vision of Jed popped into my brain. No. Nope. Non. The man was already a complication and I couldn’t afford to start daydreaming about something that had no chance of becoming reality.
“I think the queen just wants to see you as happy as she is,” Margaret said.
“I am happy,” I replied. I pulled out a bolt of fabric, the image of a gown forming in my mind as I ran my hands over the soft material.
Margaret may know about Papa and Archer but she didn’t know the full story. She had never asked me how I had become a single mother or why I was hiding my father and son in an old hunting cabin in the woods. She accepted what little I told her and had kept my secret.
What Margaret didn’t know—what none of them knew—was who I was before being abandoned by the father of my unborn child. I’d been a lot like Margaret. Innocent, wide-eyed, and a staunch believer in true love and happily ever after. But now I knew the truth. I was happy for Alyssa and the others who had fallen in love, but I knew it wasn’t for me. I’d been there, done that and had the maternity dress to prove it. I had no intention of opening myself up to that much heartache ever again.
“I suppose we should get started,” I said, changing the subject awkwardly. "The first dinner party is in less than a week and we have to come up with fresh outfits for all of us and we need to look fabulous.”
Chapter 3
Jed
“Who’s the kid?" Cliff asked coming to stand beside me in the tack room.
"What kid?" I replied, turning to look at my boss.
“The little boy standing outside Mistborn’s yard. Who is he?”
I had an inkling who it could be but I didn't want to give away Savannah’s secret, even though the idea of lying to Cliff soured my stomach.
"No idea," I said. “But I'll go and check it out."
I hung up the leather bridle in my hand and turned to leave the tack room. Cliff side-eyed me curiously.
"What?" I said. “He could get hurt. You know what Mistborn’s like."
Cliff nodded slowly but I could see his mind turning over behind his eyes. That was always the way with Cliff. You never quite knew what the man was thinking. He kept his own counsel most times and wasn't talkative. I liked working with him. I liked that he didn’t ask questions.
I left the tack room and walked down the long corridor of the stable passing the stalls of all the queen's horses. They were the reason I came to Merveille…well, part of the reason. I needed to get away from the mess my ex-fiancée and my best friend had made of my life and Cliff offered me the perfect escape. There was no better horseflesh around and I was thankful for the opportunity.
The sky was clear blue when I stepped out of the stables, but the air was cold. I strode across the yard towards Mistborn’s corral. We had to keep him away from other horses because he thought himself above the rest of them, even though they were all thoroughbreds. He was the only Arabian and he thought that made him special somehow. He didn't socialise well with people or with other horses, no matter how hard I tried to socialise him. He was lucky Cliff even kept him around with all his finicky and persnickety ways.
I saw the tow-headed boy standing back from the fence gazing up at Mistborn. The horse stood on the other side of the fence watching the boy. I'd never seen Mistborn so calm and I didn't trust him for a moment. The horse was wildly unpredictable and cantankerous and stubborn. He had no compunction about biting the hand that fed him or any hand that got too close for that matter. I watched them silently and had to admit that for some unknown reason the stubborn mule seemed to like the kid. I couldn't understand it and I wasn't willing to test it.
“Archer,” I called.
He turned his head toward me and his eyes widened with surprise, but he didn't run.
“Archer,” I said again, “what are you doing?”
He shrugged his shoulders and turned back to look at Mistborn. Mistborn lifted his head to look at me and I swear he narrowed his eyes at me. I turned my attention back to Archer.
“Does your grandfather know you're here?"
"No," he replied.
"Does your mother know?”
Archer shook his head without answering, his gaze riveted on the horse.
“Maybe we should get you back home?" I suggested, stepping closer to the boy.
“I don't want to,” he said. “I want to ride the horse.”
I chuckled. "He’s too big for you," I said.
“Is not,” Archer said, turning his big blue eyes up to me.
I didn't know how old he was, probably not old enough to be in school. But there was something about his eyes that made him look older than his years.
“I really like him,” he whispered.
“I think he likes you too.”
Archer grinned and turned back to Mistborn. “Do you think he’ll let me ride him?”
“He barely lets me ride him,” I said with a chuckle.
“Archer!” a voice called.
“I have to go," Archer said, taking off at a run.
I watched him run from the stable yard and down the hill. Should I b
e worried about him? Should I go after him?
I looked around and saw Cliff leaning against the door of the stable, his arms folded, looking at me intently. I ran my hands down my thighs, feeling the rough denim under my palms. I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders before ambling over towards Cliff.
“So who's the boy?” he asked.
“One of the palace staff kids,” I lied. It didn't sit right with me but I justified it by telling myself it wasn't really a lie. Savannah was palace staff, technically.
“Never seen him around here before,” Cliff said.
“Me either.” I turned back to Mistborn. “The horse seems to like him.”
Cliff snorted. “Stupid animal,” he said. Cliff ’s distinct dislike for Mistborn had a lot to do with the man who had gifted the stallion to the queen and even more to do with the fact that the horse had thrown the queen the one and only time she rode him.
He took a breath “We need to have a chat,” he said.
“A chat?” I asked, my gut squeezing.
“Had a guy contact me about some horses.”
I nodded. The palace had a lot of horses but it didn’t stop Cliff always looking for more. Cliff wouldn’t admit it, but there was a rivalry between him and the stable master to the Earl of Avonlea and the Earl’s last purchase had edged their stables in front of ours. It didn’t sit well with the palace’s Master of Horse.
“You might even know him,” Cliff said. “American.”
While it was true that I was American, it didn’t mean I knew everyone who lived in America, but something about the way Cliff looked at me had my heart pounding. I knew a lot of horse people. I’d grown up on one of the best horse farms in the state, if not the entire country.
“Who is he?” I asked but I had a terrible feeling I already knew.
I stood on the dock and let the cold wind buffet my face. After to speaking with Cliff about the guy who had contacted him, I had to get out. I used the excuse that I needed to see the doctor, but really, I needed time to think.
I came to Merveille because I couldn’t deal with the mess at home. Caroline and Chase. I didn’t think I would ever get the sight of them together out of my head. It was two years ago but it still felt like it was only hours ago. The pain in my chest was acute and I sucked in a breath of the freezing air.