Jacinda's Challenge (Imperial 3) (16 page)

“Captain Deffand?” Jacinda’s tone was welcoming.

“Madame Michelakakis?” Deffand’s eyes ran from her to the woman who was quickly pulling away from his grasp. She was beautiful and he knew he had never seen her before.

“How wonderful to see you again. Stephanie, this is Captain Deffand, Captain of the King’s Guard. Captain Deffand, my daughter, Stephanie.”

“Captain,” Stephanie gave him a cool nod, silently cursing.

“Miss Michelakakis,” Deffand nodded to her slightly.

“It’s Lieutenant actually.”

“Excuse me?” Deffand’s eyes widened in surprise.

“It’s Lieutenant Michelakakis, sir. I serve in the Coalition. Security.”

“Security? Which ship are you serving on?”

Stephanie stiffened as Deffand ran a disbelieving eye over her.

“I just finished my tour on the Retribution. I’m now investigating other options for my skills.”

“I see.”

Jacinda raised a brow, her gaze going from Deffand to her daughter. “Captain, we were just about to go to Pittaluga’s for coffee. Would you care to join us?”

“Thank you, Madame Michelakakis, but I’m afraid I can’t. Maybe next time?” He bowed and turned to go.

“I’ll hold you to that, Captain. And Captain,” Jacinda waited until he looked at her. "Please call me Jacinda.”

Stephanie watched as the King’s Captain blushed. “Of course. I apologize… Jacinda, but only if you call me Nicholas.” Deffand gave her a boyish half smile.

“I would be honored, Nicholas, and I will hold you to that coffee.”

“Lieutenant Michelakakis,” Deffand bowed again then left.

Jacinda let her gaze run over her daughter as Pittaluga himself sat them at her favorite table. It was in a sunny but private corner of the restaurant which still allowed her to people watch.

“It is wonderful to have you with us again, Madame Michelakakis. You also, Miss Stephanie. Will you be wanting a piece of my Dobos Torte?”

Stephanie found herself laughing at how Mister Pittaluga addressed her and was unwilling to correct the man who had been serving her Dobos Torte since her fifth birthday.

“I will be, Mister Pittaluga. It’s been too long.”

“I agree, Miss Stephanie. Would you like me to place your bags behind the counter so they’re not in your way, Madame Michelakakis?”

“Thank you, Mister Pittaluga.” Jacinda smiled at the man as she handed him her bags. “That would be wonderful.”

“Anything for you, Madame Michelakakis. I will be right back with your coffee.”

Jacinda settled herself into her chair and looked at her daughter. “So? Are you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what, Mother?”

Jacinda smiled slightly at her words, knowing her daughter’s defense mechanism that had her call her ‘Mother’ instead of Mom.

“Why you were so cool to Captain Deffand?” She watched Stephanie look away, another tell.

“I don’t know what you mean, Mother.”

“Don’t you ‘mother’ me, Stephanie Anne. I know you. I remember every word of what you told me your ‘dream’ man was.”

“MOM!” Stephanie quickly lowered her voice when she realized the attention they were drawing. “I was only a ten-cycle when I told you that!” she hissed.

“Well has it changed?”

“No, but I have.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’ve grown up and come to realize I can’t always have what I want. Not if it interferes with what I really want.”

“What?” Jacinda frowned at her daughter.

“Mom… you don’t understand.” Stephanie leaned back and forced herself to smile at Mister Pittaluga as he brought their coffee and inhaled deeply. “Thank you, Mister Pittaluga, this smells wonderful. No one makes coffee like you.”

“You are most welcome, Miss Stephanie. Your Dobos Torte will be out shortly. When I informed Luis who it was for, he stated he would make sure it was perfect.”

Jacinda took a sip of her amazing coffee and waited until Pittaluga was out of hearing range before she turned her gaze back to her daughter. “Tell me what I don’t understand, Stephanie.”

Stephanie sat back in her chair and assessed her mother. She knew that look, had received it too many times in her life to not know that in this her mother would not let her fib her way out.

“Captain Deffand is the head of the King’s guard,” she began.

“Yes, I know that.”

“Did you know that he was the youngest ever to assume that position?”

“No. No, I didn’t.”

“Also in the entire history of the House of Protection, a woman has never been allowed to guard the King.”

“What?” Jacinda looked at her daughter in shock.

“Never has a woman been allowed to be a member of the Royal Guard. King or Queen’s, even though over a third of the Coalition’s Security forces are women.”

“I… I didn’t know that either.”

“Well I want to change that and I can’t if I’m anything but professional with the Captain of the King’s Guard.”

“Stephanie…” Jacinda put her hand over Stephanie’s.

“I can’t be like you, Mom! I can’t give up all my dreams, let myself become the one thing I never wanted to be, all because of a man.”

Jacinda jerked her hand away at her daughter’s criticism of her life. She forced a smile on her lips as Pittaluga approached with two pieces of the cake Stephanie so loved.

“Thank you, Mister Pittaluga.”

“You are most welcome, Madame Michelakakis. Enjoy.”

“Mom, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” Stephanie waited until Pittaluga was out of earshot before speaking.

Jacinda took a small tasteless bite of her Torte, giving her mind time to process what her daughter had just accused her of. Did she truly think she had ‘given up her dreams’ to be with her father? That she had become the one thing she never wanted to be? She was right… to a point… but only to a point. It was true she had never wanted a life in politics, had wanted a life out of the public eye. If given a choice, she would never have chosen it, but it was Stephan’s dream to serve and it was no hardship, no sacrifice to help him achieve his dream. She silently and vocally thanked her mother for preparing her for the world where she seemed to know she was destined to live.

“I think you did.” Jacinda turned hard eyes to her daughter. “I believe you owe me an explanation. Just what makes you think I ‘gave up all my dreams’ to be with your father?”

“Mom. Aunt Palma and I would talk when I’d go to visit. She told me how all you ever wanted was to serve in the Coalition, to never be involved in politics again.”

“And because of that, you believe I resented my life with your father?”

“I wouldn’t say resent, but it couldn’t have been what you really wanted!”

“No. It wasn’t.” Jacinda agreed, her eyes pinning Stephanie. “It was more! More than I could ever imagine! Your father and I were a team. We worked together, raised a family, and in the end he gave me a dream I didn’t even know I wanted. How dare you think you have the right to judge my life!”

“Mom! That’s not what I’m doing.”

“Sounds like it to me.”

“I’m just saying I want to fulfill my dreams, not support someone else’s.”

“Then what?” Jacinda demanded. “When you achieve this goal of yours to be the first woman in the King’s Guard, what then?”

“What?”

“There’s more to life than work, Stephanie. It’s something your father never truly understood because he loved what he did. In that, you and your father are alike.”

“What do you mean?”

Jacinda eyed her daughter. She was a full-grown woman, no longer her daddy’s little girl who thought the suns rose and set in him, that he was perfect.

“You're right to a point, that I would have preferred to not be involved in politics. If I hadn’t loved your father, I wouldn’t have been, but I don’t regret it. My only regret is that I allowed your father to serve so long.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There is so much about your father’s and my life that you don’t know, Stephanie. You’ve always viewed us through the eyes of a child or as your parents. You just assumed we were here to serve you and your brothers. Its only now, that
you
are older that you realize we were more than that. You see me as a woman who gave up her dreams for a man, but what you don’t understand is… he
was
my dream. Was it a perfect dream? No, but that’s what made it special and ours. Your father fully understood what he was asking of me when he asked me to be his wife. It’s why he promised me he would not serve past his sixty-fifth cycle if he were still serving then.”

“But…” Stephanie looked at her in shock, knowing her father was still serving at seventy.

“It’s the only promise he didn’t keep to me.” Jacinda gave her a sad smile, “and it was my fault. I should have pressed harder. I knew he was tiring easier, but he was so happy to serve, to be involved in shaping the world his children and grandchildren would live in. Maybe if I had…”

“Mom,” Stephanie reached out and gripped her hand. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“No, but I should have taken better care of him. Should have made him see that it was time to slow down.”

“Dad never slowed down.”

“No. He didn’t. He always insisted that life was for living.”

“He did say that. It was some of his last words to me before I left on the tour before he died. He said,
Stephanie, life is a wonderful thing. Live it. Don’t be afraid to risk yourself, to risk others judging you. Take the path it sometimes makes no sense to take and when you do, you will find you are where you were always meant to be. That’s living, Stephie, not just existing.”

Jacinda let her tears run unashamedly down her cheeks as she listened to her life mate’s last words to the only other woman to have captured his heart. His daughter.

“Good words.” Jacinda gave her a watery smile. “I hope you follow them, Stephanie, because he gave you the secret to how he lived his life, even when it was hard. And he had an amazing one.”

“He did, thanks to you and your support.”

“He gave as much to me. Maybe you don’t see it that way, but the truth is, he was the one who allowed me to travel that path I was sure I didn’t want to take and by doing so I got him, my children, and an amazing life. I got to become the person I was always supposed to be. Not the one I thought I was.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I should have realized…”

“It’s fine, Stephie.” Jacinda used Stephan’s pet name for her letting her know she was forgiven. “I said the same things to my mother, only I was much younger than you when I said them and was much more adamant I was right.”

“You did?”

“Yes, before I left for the Academy. She wanted me to stay and go to a school within the House of Healing where I would be accessible to those she considered ‘worthy’ of her daughter.”

“Really? Did she have someone in mind?” Stephanie found herself asking.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Jacinda grimaced remembering.

“Who?” Stephanie’s eyes sparkled with curiosity after her mother’s reaction.

“It was ridiculous. I mean he was a child and a whiny one at that. How she could imagine, I might one day be interested in him…”

“
Who
mother!”

“Prince Yusuf,” Jacinda whispered.

“Prince Yusuf!” Stephanie nearly shouted drawing the attention of nearby tables.

“Stephanie!” Jacinda hissed. “Lower your voice.”

“Sorry, Mom.” She immediately lowered her voice. “But
Prince
Yusuf? Who is now
King
Yusuf?”

“Yes.” Jacinda rested her forehead in her hand at the memory. “What could my mother have possibly been thinking? He’s nine cycles younger than me!”

“Dad was twenty cycles older than you,” Stephanie reminded her.

“Yes, but that was different.” Jacinda bit out.

“Really?” Stephanie smiled at her mother’s reaction. It was a rare thing for her to see her flustered. “How?”

“Your father and I were both
adults
when we met. Yusuf was
five
when my mother started her plotting. I couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t even out of school when I met Stephan. How would you like me trying to get you interested in Athol Allerd when you were fourteen.”

“Ewww, Mother! Athol Allerd! He was the neighborhood terror!” She leaned across the table and whispered. “He was always picking his nose!”

“So you understand.”

“Are you saying….” Stephanie’s eyes widened.

“I would never
say
such a thing, Stephanie Anne! Yusuf is the King of the House of Healing and deserves my respect.”

“Oh, Mother,” Stephanie eyed her mother with new respect. “You are soooo bad.”

“Thank you, my dear,” Jacinda smiled benignly at her daughter. “Now let’s enjoy this amazing Torte then finish buying out Pechora.”

Chapter Ten

“Majesty! Majesty!”

Jotham absently waved at those that were calling out his name as he entered the Assembly Hall for the first session of the new Assembly. Assembly Guards were holding back the yelling crowds. While he wore his crown, he had foregone the Royal robe. It was something he now only wore for the most formal of occasions that included meeting the Kings and Queens of the other Houses.

Moving through the Hall, he paused before the closed doors that separated him from the Assembly that waited for him to officially open the new cycle. This was the fortieth time he had done this and he wondered when it had become routine for him.

He could still remember how anxious he had been that first time he addressed this Assembly after his father’s death. He’d been twenty, just returning from his second tour with the Fleet, and newly wed. He stood before that Assembly and saw the doubt in so many eyes. Doubt that he would be able to step into the role he had suddenly been thrust. Doubt that he could take command of this Assembly and live up to those that came before him.

He, himself, had doubted it. Lata hadn’t. She had proudly walked beside him as they entered that Assembly. He remembered how it had filled him with such pride to see her sitting there, so regally. She let no one intimidate her. She was his Queen and she had only been eighteen cycles.

He still remembered the first time he had to address the Assembly after her death. He couldn’t look to where she should have been. If he had, he never would have made it through that speech.