CHAPTER 13

VIENNE

After Caulder declared that Brentley and Allera’s wedding would take place in four days’ time, the kingdom turned to planning the royal affair.

Meanwhile, I grew so heavy and awkward with pregnancy that every time I tried to help, someone would merely usher me to a chair so I could sit out of the way.

It was as humiliating as it was relieving. My ankles were so swollen it actually hurt to stand on them. Yet I craved involvement.

“Are you sure there isn’t ~anything~ I can do to help?” I nearly begged when the latest person—Allera—shooed me into a big, comfortable settee in the corner of the ballroom, where the reception after the wedding would take place.

“Yes, you can sit there and take a nap for me,” she instructed sternly.

I rolled my eyes. “Take your own nap.” My answer was as moody and insolent as I felt. “I want to ~do~ something.”

When Allera opened her mouth, no doubt to dash all my hopes and dreams, I rushed to add, “Certainly there’s something I can do from this chair. Address announcements? Work out a seating chart? Anything?”

The bride-to-be started to shake her head, only to pause when her brain finally digested my offer. “Actually, yes, that’s a brilliant idea. I hate letter-writing. And the idea of writing the same announcement, draft after draft, was giving me a headache. Would you mind terribly taking over the task?”

“Not at all,” I said, since it’d been my idea in the first place. “I’d be delighted.”

“Oh, good. I’ll just run and fetch you the box I have all the parchment in, and—~Drat~!” she muttered, her gaze catching on the four men carrying a table into the room and setting it down. “That wasn’t where I wanted them to put the refreshment buffet. ~Gentlemen~,” she called, waving to get their attention as she stared away, only to stop and remember she’d been talking to me. “Right. I need to get you the…”

Her words trailed off as she scowled around the room before she spotted something that made her eyes light up.

“Urban!” she called, motioning toward her brother across the room where he stood on a ladder, hanging the royal wedding banner with Brentley. When he paused what he was doing to glance her way, she cupped her hands around her mouth. “Could you fetch the box of stationery off my bed in my chambers? Please and thank you.”

He only seemed to scowl at her, so she stamped her foot and shouted, “~Now~!”

I could practically feel him roll his eyes. “Yes, dear heart,” he called back, the sarcasm in his voice thick.

Allera muttered a dirty word about him under her breath, only to race off in the direction of the servants carrying the table, nearly plowing over Nicolette, who was decorating an urn full of flowers in the process.

The High Cliff prince said something to Brentley that made the Donnelly prince laugh, and then he slowly started to climb his way down the ladder.

I’m not sure why I watched him make his descent. Maybe it was because it was his errand I was waiting for him to complete before I could get started on my own duties, but it probably had more to do with the fine figure he cut. From the back, he was flawlessly proportioned, his shoulders wide, hips slim, and his backside tight and sloped to perfection. He didn’t look any worse from the front, but it was easier to look at him when his back was turned… or when he was out training with the soldiers.

I wasn’t sure how long he’d been doing that, but I’d been up in the East Salon last week and caught a commotion going on down in the training bailey.

Three men were taking on a single form. The single swordsman had been so talented I’d found myself wandering closer to the clear rock to watch him in action. He had moved like liquid art, every swing and leap flowing gracefully as if the sword were a natural extension of his arm.

When I realized who I’d been watching, I gasped and drew back a step, only for him to look up at the very window I’d been standing in as if he’d heard me—which was impossible.

We’d been so far away from each other, I was unable to see what the expression on his face had been, but his stare had rattled me.

Every day since, I caught him down there with the soldiers. Sometimes he seemed to be giving them tips, sometimes he was in the thick of the action, sparring, and sometimes he checked on the wounded who’d gotten hurt in a fray. But he was always a majestic sight to behold.

As he stepped off the ladder, he looked over his shoulder in my direction, and I quickly turned my attention away, diverting it to where Allera was showing the servants precisely where she wanted the buffet table to sit.

When I dared to glance back toward the ladder, the prince was gone. I felt warm and embarrassed for watching him so much. But Nicolette had been right that first day; Prince Urban was just about one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen. It was hard not to appreciate such a magnificent sight.

Allera suddenly returned to me, breathless and laughing. Her appearance made me jump and clear my throat, though I’m sure there was no way she could guess I’d been ogling her brother.

“Goodness.” She pressed a hand to her heart and blew out a vigorous breath. “I never realized there was so much that went into planning a wedding. With my first one, we simply ran off and married in secret the day after we met. But this is kind of invigorating.” Laughing again, she grinned at me. “Now, where were we? Oh, right. You’re going to help me with announcements, and Urban’s fetching the parchment and ink. Good.” She paused suddenly and frowned at Nicolette. “Do you think it would be rude of me to ask her to be my attendant at the ceremony?”

Her sudden shift in topic made me blink. “Nicolette?” I asked. “Not at all. I think she’d be honored to have the task.”

Her brow continued to pinch with concern. “Yes, but would Yasmin be insulted that I ~didn’t~ ask her?” Rolling her eyes, she leaned closer. “I’m sorry, I know she’s the queen and your sister and all, but she’s just not to my taste. And I can’t readily ask ~you~; you can barely walk—or, more aptly, waddle—these days without wincing through every step.”

I opened my mouth, not sure how to even respond, when Allera brightened, totally forgetting what we’d been discussing. “Oh! There’s Urban with my stationery. Good. It’s about time.”

As she clapped and waved him forward, I shook my head. Bridal fever had hit her hard. She was going full bore, micromanaging everything and worrying about even more. It was actually endearing to watch, because to me, it meant she wanted her marriage to Brentley to be a success.

“What took you so long?” she demanded. “Did you get the ink and quill as well?” Snagging the box from Prince Urban’s hands, she peered inside for herself. “Oh good. You did.” She started to turn away, ignoring him.

In return, he quirked a single eyebrow. “You’re welcome.”

Allera didn’t even hear him as she kept digging through the box to make sure she had everything she wanted.

I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my smile. The prince’s attention veered to me.

Embarrassed to be caught grinning over his quip, I quickly looked away, but when I turned my attention back to him, he’d already turned away himself. A little disappointed in myself that I’d been too much of a coward to try to share a simple smile with the man, I watched him stalk toward another chair and then bend down to fetch a small ottoman next to it.

When he returned to us, the footstool in his arms, I gaped in shock as he set it directly before me to rest my feet on. I lifted my gaze from the stool, but he’d already straightened and swung away, walking off without saying a single word.

Beside me, Allera chattered on about what I needed to write in the announcements and where to find the list of people they were to be sent to. Suddenly, she paused. “What’s wrong? Do you ~not~ think we should send an announcement to Far Shore?”

“What? Oh, no,” I said, flushing. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking about that at all.” My stare wandered back toward her brother, who was climbing the ladder again to assist Brentley.

Allera followed my gaze slowly, only to whip her attention back to me, her eyes wide.

Feeling caught, I flushed and blustered with the need to say something to distract her from my ogling ways. “Your brother’s quite an enigma, isn’t he?”

“Urban?” Allera asked in a high, worried voice. “What makes you say that? I’ve always found him to be one of the most forthright and open people I’ve ever known.”

“I…” Realizing I didn’t have a ready answer for my assumption, I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure ~why~ I said that. I guess I just haven’t had much contact with him yet to form a valid opinion. I… Huh. Actually, I don’t believe we’ve spoken together at all since you two arrived. Not even once.”

How curious.

Allera nodded, almost humbly, and set the box of stationery on my lap before she began to turn away without comment, which was all so very unlike her. Especially today. It made me want to keep addressing the subject because it left me even more intrigued.

“It’s just…” I lifted my voice, making her pause and turn back, her eyebrows raised. Leveling my tone back to normal, I said, “I get the strange sense he avoids me on purpose.”

“I…” Something wide-eyed and almost panicked entered Allera’s expression before she shook her head and sent me a puzzled look. “I don’t… I mean…”

“Of course, I’m probably only imagining it,” I rushed to add, feeling as if I’d misspoken. “It’s just that I’ve seen him speak with everyone, even Soren and Yasmin, but I don’t think he’s ever said a single word directly to me. It made me wonder if he didn’t like me for some reason. But then he brought me that stool to rest my feet on just now without any kind of prompting, which I found to be uncommonly kind, and now I worry that he and I have never spoken because ~I’m~ the discourteous one who never approached ~him~.” I bit my lip, glancing after the puzzling prince. “Have I been terribly rude and unwelcoming?”

“What? Oh, no. No, of course not!” Allera laughed as she covered my hands I didn’t realize I had started to wring. “I promise you, my sweet Vienne, he doesn’t dislike you. And you’ve been a bit preoccupied, preparing for your first child’s birth to worry about other new arrivals to the castle. Urban hasn’t expected anything from you at all. I swear it.”

I nodded, even though something told me more was going on with him than I thought.

As if sensing my unsettled thoughts, Allera admitted, “He… Urban hasn’t entirely been himself lately, either.” After an uneasy pause, she lifted her face from our connected hands and looked into my eyes. “You’re aware he met his one true love recently, right?”

I nodded. “Yes, of course. I remember him telling Nicolette on the first night you two arrived. He said she was already married to someone else, if I recall.”

Allera smiled softly. “That’s right. She’s not… available to him, which has taken quite a toll, I’m afraid. He’s still not sure how to deal with the fact that he can’t be with her. So… any moodiness or standoffish behavior he has exhibited as of late is no fault of yours, I assure you. He’s just dealing with an inner battle at the moment that is far different from any other he’s experienced before.”

I gazed toward the prince, my heart going out to him. And I actually felt a little guilty for doing nothing but appreciate his fine appearance from afar when all the while he’d been going through… well, whatever misery he was going through.

“I should speak with him more,” I decided. Surely pleasant contact with others would help soothe whatever troubled his soul. “Make him feel included.”

Except Allera cried, “No!” with such passion that I snapped a startled blink her way.

She flushed and pressed her fingers to her lips before pulling her hand away and saying, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so forceful. I just… Urban doesn’t really work that way. I think it’s best if he deals with his…his misery in his own way, without anyone bringing attention to it.”

I nodded, respecting her wishes since she certainly knew him better than I did. “Do you think he’s suffering much without her?” I had to ask, though.

My friend lifted her eyes and looked at me directly before admitting, “Yes.” She said it baldly enough to shock me. “I think he’s suffering a great deal without her. She’s an incredible, kind-hearted woman. And he knows it.”