Alex laughed to see the bath was steaming as if it had been prepared just before he woke up. He dropped his robe and was delighted to see that Amelia had as well. He reclaimed her hand and dragged her into the bath, kissing her with a single-minded intent as they sunk into the hot steaming water.
Alex wasn’t sure how long they spent in the luxury of the bath, except that it wasn’t steaming by the time they stepped out, dried off and pulled on the clothes laid out for them on a nearby rack. His staff, it seemed, knew him and his regular sleeping patterns better than he thought.
Making their way back out through the closet, he paused before the floor-to-ceiling mirror and ran his fingers through his still-damp hair, before heading once more into his bedroom.
“So as much as I hate to admit it, I have a feeling I’m late for my appointment with the dressmaker. My mother is insistent that I have a new wardrobe, although Jessalan has had a hand in it so some of them are at least practical for fighting. Well, as practical as a dress can be.” Amelia looked up at him with an impish grin at his sudden woeful expression. “You can be cute! I will see you later on. Try not to get into too much trouble.” Her eyebrow arched and she laughed.
Alex concentrated, pulling in a little of the power. He grinned. He could feel both Kyle and Jess; they were in the next room, awake and waiting for him. He remembered that they had arranged to meet up and explore their new world when they woke up.
“Well I can try to not get into any trouble but I cannot guarantee it, as much as I’d like to. Trouble always seems to find me even when I don’t seek it. As much as I hate to leave you, Kyle and Jess are waiting.” Alex leaned in for one last kiss. “Until next time.”
Keeping his fingers entwined with Amelia’s, he opened the door, making his way through the inner sitting room into the outer rooms to find both Kyle and Jess waiting for him. Both looked up and smiled as they entered.
“About time, Alex. We’ve been waiting ever so patiently for you to get up and come join us so we can explore our new ‘wing’.” Jess laughed at his indignant expression
“Oh, like you’ve been up long. You rushed your bath and got out here sooner than I did!” Alex laughed and looked around the outer room, realising that they all shared a common reception area.
Kyle laughed outright and stood, kissing Amelia on the cheek and murmuring a greeting.
Jess grinned at Amelia. “Aren’t you late for your dressmaker appointment? Don’t let your mother bully you with the dress selection.”
Amelia rolled her eyes and, with one last stolen kiss from Alex, she left at a hurried pace, hoping her mother hadn’t had too much influence with the dressmaker while waiting for her to show up.
“Now if my memory of getting here is anything to go by, that door there leads to the reception and dining area. I think.” Alex paused, looking around. “Those would be the doors to your rooms. That leaves that one. Shall we explore?” Alex raised one eyebrow and grinned as his friends leapt from their respective lounge chairs.
“Thought you’d never get to the point, Alex. Let’s go!” Kyle and Jess almost pushed him out of the way as they all made a direct line to the door that led into the unknown—they wanted to explore.
24
The Ball
Amelia couldn’t help the small smile that seemed permanently on her lips, or the flutter of nerves that ran through her as a veritable horde of servants fussed around, getting her ready for her first formal appearance in the Royal Court with Alex.
She eyed her appearance as the maids fussed with her hair and applied the finishing touches to her makeup. They nodded and stepped back as she stood and went to examine herself in the full-length mirror nearby.
Her maids stepped forward to remove her dressing robe, then halted, startled, as Amelia flicked her eyes toward the reflection of the door in the mirror as it opened to reveal her brother, Kyle. He strode in, a simple hand gesture keeping his ever-present guards outside her dressing room, although they didn’t look too thrilled to be ordered to stay put or that there would be a door between them and the lord they were bound to protect.
“Please, James. I think I’ll be fine in my baby sister’s dressing room, the hardest thing I’ll face is likely the glares from her maids. I won’t be long.” He didn’t even pause or check to see if he was obeyed. He was confident enough to know they would.
Amelia stifled a giggle as her maids formed a human barrier between her and the guards outside—and, she suspected, her own brother—since she stood there in her undergarments.
Kyle grinned at their protective barrier. “While I appreciate you protecting my sister’s dignity, you should note we gave our mother, father and nursemaids severe stress as children, divesting ourselves of clothes every chance we got, including running into the great hall here at the palace while the King was holding a court session.”
Kyle ignored the glares from the maids and placed the boxes he was carrying on a low table side by side, opening their catches with practised ease, paying no notice at all to the glaring maids. Satisfied, he turned and assessed the human barrier between him and his sister.
“Ladies, I suggest you move before I call the guards in and have you removed. Now.” Kyle’s gaze turned serious.
“Please, it’s all right. I’m sure my brother has a reason for this intrusion. He’s also right, you know, and while I’m not fully dressed, I’m not exactly standing here naked. In fact, I’m certain he is more adept at unfastening all of the clasps on the undergarments than I am.” Amelia smiled at her big brother while several of her maids gasped in shock. She flicked her hands at them and they moved back to stand by the wall.
Kyle, satisfied, drew what Amelia recognised as a sheath, although with an intricate design and pattern. Amelia gasped and stepped forward, reaching out with one hand and tracing the sigils stitched into the leather. Her family’s crest, the Royal Family’s and the Crest of the Fourth. Her eyes tracked the sigils and her hand raised to her mouth as she gasped, startled, her eyes flicking wide-eyed up to her brother.
“Kyle, what, I …” Amelia took an involuntary step back before stopping herself. Kyle chuckled and smiled.
“I’m not sure you understand the world you are entering, little sister. Until now you’ve been on the fringe, peeking in—that was a simpler world. You had the protection of being in the inner circle of the Royal Court with little of the cost. Alex is a son of the royal blood, the Fourth Child. When he petitioned the King and our Lord Father to acknowledge you, well let’s just say, it’s not just dating a random minor lord’s son. It comes with baggage, a lot of baggage. You’re not quite Alex’s Consort Elect yet, but you are not that far off either, if I know Alex.” Kyle threw his head back and laughed outright as a blush flamed up his sister’s cheeks.
Amelia spun and flipped her hands once more at her maids. Their startled murmurs stopped as she gestured for silence. “Enough. I need to speak with my brother. Please wait in the sitting room with the guards until I need you.”
Amelia waited while her startled maids exited the room. She watched them until the door closed, before meeting her brother’s eyes in the mirror.
“I don’t understand, Kyle, you’ve always mixed in the inner circle of the Royal Family and it’s done you no harm. What could be negative about being Alex’s Consort?” Amelia was puzzled at the thought.
Having pity on her, Kyle paced forward and kissed her on the forehead before he positioned the sheath for her and tightened the buckles. “Alex is a target, Amelia, just from being the son of the King, let alone the crap about the Fourth. He lives in a glass cage with everyone watching and judging his every move, as all the members of the Royal Family do. You are moving into the world, I’m sure you noticed that, even though we’ve been casual since your relationship with Alex was made public.”
Kyle shook his head before picking up another of the sheathes and buckling them into place. The silence stretched between them as he positioned the rest of them before flippin
g the second case open to reveal an assortment of fine blades, all bearing the dual crests of her family and the Fourth.
“These blades are all ceremonial but functional. I left a set of everyday court weapons for you out in your main room.” Kyle picked up one of the small blades and handed it to her, with one eyebrow raised.
Grinning, she grabbed the blade and slipped it into the breast sheath. All her concealed sheathes were new, concealed by her new court clothes. She’d been thinking her normal blades would have paled by comparison. She’d wondered at the time at the array of new sheathes and now guessed it was Kyle who had arranged for them to be made.
Kyle grabbed twin daggers and again just looked at her without saying a word. Amelia lifted the fabrics of her underskirts and, with an elegant pace forward, placed one foot up on a small footstool. Kyle placed one of the daggers in her palm and she slid it into the boot sheath, then repeated the process with the twin blade in the other boot.
The time passed in an almost companionable silence; Amelia had almost forgotten the tone of the conversation they had been having.
“Alex, Jess and I became friends not just through circumstance, Amelia. If we were not born to the parents we were, we all would have been killed in early childhood due to the risk we pose.” Kyle paused, looking at Amelia to see her reaction.
Amelia gasped in shock at Kyle’s blunt assessment, one small delicate hand raising to cover her mouth. “Kyle, no. Father would never consent to that.”
“I have enough of the veil running through me, we all do, that I stand the chance of becoming one of the Sundered.” Kyle’s laugh was bitter with a hint of mockery. “Alex, Jess and I are no extra risk to each other. We all have the same risk. You, though—think about the position you are putting yourself in. If Alex breaks, you will still be in the gilded cage after tonight. There will be no going back.”
Amelia looked at Kyle wide-eyed, unable to think of anything to say.
Kyle sighed. “I am close to Alex, he is like a brother. I also know he loves you but that doesn’t mean he’s not conflicted about this. I also know Alex is not the first man you’ve slept with, although he is the one you vowed you would marry when he saved you from that disgrace of a lord on your first appearance at court.” Kyle paused and looked Amelia in the eyes. “Don’t hurt him, Amelia. He’s not the carefree womaniser that most in the court think he is—he has enough pressure on him right now.”
Amelia smothered laughter. “Isn’t that speech meant to go the other way around?”
As he turned to leave, she reached out, grabbing his hand. “Kyle, wait.” Amelia closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. “We never meant for this to happen. I was just an infatuated child back when Alex became my hero. Alex never saw me that way and I’d given up all hope he would. It’s just, when you were sick, we spent a lot of time by your bedside and well, things just happened.”
Amelia paused and chuckled as she thought back, her lips twitching into a smile. “I worked out that I somehow have more experience than Alex does in the bedroom. I’m aware of the risk you all face with becoming Sundered, Kyle. How could I not be? The healers say I’m borderline myself.” Amelia turned to face Kyle, the smile slipping off her lips as she looked at her brother. “I would never hurt him, Kyle.”
Kyle considered her for a moment before opening the door to her dressing room and waving her maids back into the room. They skirted around him to fuss over Amelia. Carissa, Amelia’s head maid, rolled her eyes in Kyle’s direction.
She took one look at the addition of the extra sheaths and weapons, assessing the addition before flicking her hands at the others and sending them running with a series of orders.
As the maids surrounded his sister in a flurry of activity, Kyle moved to one side and perched on the edge of the chair, watching as they finished dressing her. He’d gotten ready himself earlier, so he didn’t need to sprint back to his own rooms.
At Amelia’s nod, Carissa stepped forward with another maid, who held a jewellery box. Smiling, Carissa placed the necklace adorned with the green gemstones from her family’s holdings around her neck, then the matching bracelet and earrings. The complete set had been commissioned by Amelia’s mother and father for this moment.
Once again, her maids stepped back so she could see the full effect in the mirror. Her dress was a dark green of the deepest forest. It hugged her upper body, showing off her figure, flaring from her hips to drape down her full length. It also had the effect of concealing the blades they had just put in place moments earlier.
Amelia watched Kyle through the mirror as he inspected her and, with a smile, he gave her a half bow. “You look beautiful, Amelia.”
Amelia lost all her newfound ladylike dignity and giggled, spinning around so that the skirt of the dress twirled around. “When Elizabeth introduced me to her dressmaker, I never would have believed the difference—you know, I can’t believe the lady looking out of the mirror is me!”
Kyle took the remaining blade, an ornate silver hunting blade he’d been twirling in his hand and, with a grin, handed it to her. Amelia accepted the blade with due courtesy and slipped it into what she’d thought was a decorative silver chain and leather waist belt. The silver links sparkled with small emeralds across her slim waist and the weight of the blade made the whole belt drape perfectly.
Alex did his best to smile at those around him and pretend that he was happy to be at the ball. Yet, as always, he found it tedious with the only bright spark on his horizon being that when Amelia showed up, he would have the rather perfect excuse to give most of his attention to her rather than the sycophants in the court. Kyle wasn’t in attendance yet either, still, he knew it was because he would escort Amelia from her rooms to the ball. He’d toyed with the idea of escorting her in himself, yet his sister had informed him in no uncertain terms that this moment, appearing at the ball after the official announcements he was courting her, was Amelia’s moment. Not his.
Alex felt his lips twitch at his sister’s exasperation with him, pointing out to him that if he escorted her in it would all be about him. He didn’t get why it was different but it was and even Jess backed up Elizabeth on that one. He trusted them both so he conceded to their judgement. Amelia was to have her entrance, then he’d claim her for himself.
Alex looked over, sensing that Jess had just made an appearance that had caused whispering among the ladies and some disgruntled looks from the lords. He spotted her from across the ballroom, incredible in a white and green dress with silver thread, glittering with the ballroom lights. Her hair was piled in an intricate design on her head, held in place with what was likely to be hundreds of pins. What he knew was that what looked like decorative combs in her hair were stilettos. Despite appearances to the contrary, she was a walking arsenal.
Alex choked on his wine and covered it by coughing. A hovering waiter handed him a napkin and he covered his mouth, blotting his lips while he was at it. Jess herself wasn’t causing the chatter; well, not all of it, anyway. It was her companion, the mystery man on her arm, who was making the various lords very disgruntled—not that any of them ever stood a chance—and causing the ladies to speculate. Half of the ladies looked like they were wondering if they would stand a chance of stealing him off Jess.
What they didn’t know or realise was that mystery man was Damien Harper. Jess’ hunter friend who had rescued her from the kidnapping attempt and led the guards back to retrieve him and Kyle. He knew they had kept in contact during the progression between the Winter and Summer Palace, keeping a rather discreet liaison going. He knew the court had not picked up on it. He also knew Damien, for all his appearance right now, was a common hunter.
Evening, Jess, you look lovely. Does William know you brought Damien to the ball? If not, since he knows who he is, well, I want to see his reaction. Alex kept his tone light.
Yes, Alex, William knows and so does your father. He plans to reward Damien for his efforts in coming to our aid during the kidnap
attempt. Jess’ mind voice was threaded with amusement for not only his reaction but also the reaction and speculation of the courtiers.
While the kidnapping attempt was public knowledge due to the King’s announcement and swift justice for those involved (at least those they could get their hands on), Damien’s involvement had been kept under wraps. Until now.
Alex, in a rare show of behaviour, took her hand and kissed her fingertips. “My Lady, you look lovely tonight.” Jess grinned at Alex and murmured her thanks as he turned to her friend. “Damien, it’s good to see you again.”
Damien smiled at Alex and bowed, causing Alex to wonder if Jess had been giving him lessons.
“Thank you, Your Highness, it’s more than I ever expected.” Damien’s careful response showed that perhaps he wasn’t a simple woodsman—he obviously knew that all eyes were on them and listening to every word.
Kyle walked through and acknowledged Damien’s presence after greeting Jess and Alex. Damien bowed to Kyle, which caused him to grin.
“Heads up, Alex, my sister is about to make her appearance, her first time appearing in the ball from the private entrance and her first ball with everyone knowing you guys are seeing each other.” Kyle grinned at Alex’s response as he turned to watch the doors that led to the private waiting room only the Royal Family members and their closest advisers used.
Shattering Dreams Page 23