Once Upon a Romance 02 - As The Last Petal Falls (31 page)

“Belle?”

“It’s quite the brilliant strategy, actually.” Her calm tone was wildly at odds with her frantic motion. “He consolidates his hold on the royal bloodline
and
ensures that my father will stay out of it.”

“I would have said diabolical.”

“It’s the same thing really, when you’re talking politics.” She waved her hand impatiently. “With my mother and his own daughter in the castle, the only person of royal blood that he
doesn’t
have his hands on is me.”

“Which brings me to the next thing I need to say.”

Suddenly she stopped pacing.

“You need to go home, Belle.”

“What?!” She stared at him. She didn’t know if she was more hurt or outraged.

“Hear me out!” He held up his hands. “If you had been any other noble daughter of Albion, you would be relatively safe. Even if Brannon found us, you could claim ignorance and he would send you home. But if he gets his hands on you…”

A spike of fear went straight through Vivienne’s heart. “If he got his hands on me, he would want to keep me.”

“Yes.” He took her hands and rubbed them gently. “That’s why you have to go home. It’s not safe for you here.”

A thin thread of anger burned away some of her fear. “But it’s safe for you? It’s safe for my
mother
?”

“Of course not! But neither of us is the heir to the throne! If we die, people will mourn us.” She pulled away, but he captured her hands again and held them fast. “
You
will mourn us. But a king will not be left without an heir. A royal line will not end. A country will not fall into collapse. Belle—
Vivienne
! You
must
go home.”

“I can’t.” The anger melted away, but that didn’t change her answer. “I can’t, Fain. He has my mother.” Her whole body shook as the enormity settled on her. “My
mother
. I thought she was dead. For thirteen
years
, I thought she was dead! I ran away from home, just on the chance that I would find out something about her, some clue as to what had happened, and now you’re telling me that she’s
there
, held
prisoner
, and you want me to
go home?!
” She clapped her hands over her mouth to stop yelling. Her chest was heaving and her breath came in sobs, but no tears fell. Her eyes burned in their sockets.

“What else can you do?” Fain was holding her, trying to steady her against the onslaught of emotion.

“I can go
get her
.”

“You can’t be serious.” There was a growing anger in his voice.

“And why not? It’s where I was headed to begin with. All of Albion knows that. It isn’t as though he can keep me there in secret.”

Fain grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “All of Albion knew where your
mother
was! That didn’t stop him from keeping her there. With you under his roof, his hold over your father only grows. You
cannot
go.”

“I
have
to!” she cried, rigid in his grip. “I thought she was dead, Fain. Now you tell me she’s being held hostage, and you just want me to leave her there? If you discovered that your father had survived the attack in the mountains, would you just leave him to rot in Inisle?”

“She wouldn’t want you to go!” Fain was yelling now. “She’d never want you to risk yourself like that!”

“And how am I to know that ? !” Vivienne screamed back. “I don’t know her! She left when I was six! When she left, she gave me a new doll and told me she’d be back soon, and she never came back!” The tears that had been burning her eyes for so long finally fell. “Do you know how long I cried? How many nights my nurse found me calling for my mother? I
can’t just go home!
”

They stared at each other, and Vivienne saw the effort he made to rein in his anger.

“You know I could keep you here. Or better yet, send you home under guard.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” She was deadly serious.

“I
would
dare, to keep you safe.” She started to rage at him, but he forestalled her. “
But
—I won’t.” He wrapped his arms around her, and Vivi sagged against him. “I’ll go with you.”

“No!” She pulled away, eyes wide with worry. “He’s been looking for you. If you walk right into his hands, he’ll have you killed.”

“So I should let you go alone, unprotected? How can you ask me to do that?” He let go of her and slammed the wall in frustration. “I watched that man kill my father! What do you think it would do to me if he locked you away?”

“Listen to me, Fain.” She caught at his shoulders and turned him to face her. “He has my mother as leverage; he doesn’t need me. It would be foolish to risk pushing my father too far. If he tries to keep me there, I will tell him the simple truth: that Albion has allies, and they will answer a call to arms if the heir to the kingdom goes missing. He’ll
have
to let me go. He doesn’t know that I know your story! What reason would he have to risk war, when he already has one hostage?”

“
I don’t know.
That’s the problem, Belle, I don’t know. I didn’t know he would stab his own brother in the back, either. If you go, and he hurts you, I could never live with that.”

“I could never live with myself, if I went home without seeing my mother.”

“Please, Vivienne, please,” he took her in his arms again and begged. “Don’t go to Inisle.”

She leaned into his embrace and her shoulders trembled, but her voice was firm. “I have to, Fain. I’m sorry, but I have to.”

By the following morning, Vivienne was ready for the journey to the capital. Her friends in the laundry had cleaned, pressed, and repacked her clothes in saddlebags that had been scrubbed free of mud. Food and supplies for the ride were also added, but only the most generic travel rations, such as could be purchased in any of the small mountain towns. Connelly and Fain spent time going over maps with Vivi, helping her fix towns and the more prominent features in her mind. The hardest thing was deciding on her cover story.

“Ye canna say ye were on yer own, lass, he’d never believe that.”

So they picked a small town that would have been on her route through the mountains, and the men who were familiar with it told her stories of the innkeeper and his huge brood of children, as well as the other locals. They told her how the townfolk celebrated Yule, and their traditions for the first week of the new year. Vivienne felt as though her head was crammed with tidbits of information, but she didn’t doubt she could convince Brannon that she’d spent a winter in his mountains.

Somehow, in the midst of the preparations, she found the time to pen two swift notes. One was to Max.

Dear Max,

You are the best friend anyone could ever hope to have, and I am an idiot. If I make it home in one piece, I promise to treat you better, at least some of the time.

Love, V

P.S. Of course, you should burn this. I don’t want you using it against me when I’m back in my right mind.

The second was harder to write, but finally she bit her lip and scrawled it before she could change her mind again about what to say.

Dear Father,

I am not going to ask you to try to understand why I left. I know you understand, you just disagree, and you have your reasons. I’ve even come to agree with most of them, and I cannot apologize enough for all the worry and fear I must have put you through.

Which makes it even harder to tell you that I am not coming home. Not yet. I have heard that Mother is still alive, and before I return to Albion I need to see her with my own eyes. Once again, I know you will understand, even if you don’t agree.

I really am sorry, Father, and I hope you’ll forgive me.

All my love and affection,

Vivienne

She gave the letters to Connelly and asked him to see them delivered.

“I’ll try, lassie, though it might be a wee bit slow. Ordinarily I’d hand ’em over ta the Dame, but she’s not in Albion at the moment.” He gave her a significant look. “Seems she’s sloggin’ through the mountains, in search of a headstrong princess.”

“Oh.” Vivienne felt chagrined. “Will she be in Inisle?”

“Who can say, lass? Storms bein’ what they are this year, ’tis a fair chance she willna arrive ’til spring.”

Vivi felt comforted at the idea that the Dame was coming. Of course, she’d have to take a sound scolding for being so silly, but Fae Merriweather was a formidable ally. She was bound to be able to help if Vivienne got herself into a scrape.

The men of the keep rallied around her with a spirit that warmed Vivi through and through. One and all expressed their regrets that she was leaving, and then each man in turn offered to help as he could. Benjamin was clever with a needle, and managed to repair her riding jacket well enough for her to wear it again. The Shapherds baked her travel breads, laced with honey given for that purpose by little Billy Notter out of the supply sent him by his mother. And that night before the fire, they took turns telling their favorite tall tales.

When she finally excused herself with many thanks to every man, Fain came with her. They walked through the barren hallways, hands linked, not speaking. Vivienne finally broke the silence.

“You’re still angry, aren’t you?”

He sighed. “Some people are such fools, they get angry instead of just admitting the truth.”

“And what truth would that be?”

“That I love you. And I am so very scared for you. I want to beg you not to go, but I know it’s useless.”

They’d reached her door.

“Stay with me tonight?” She wasn’t sure he would agree. Maybe he was too—

Her mind fell silent when he leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss.

“This may be my last chance to hold you, Princess. Of course I’m staying.”

Hand in hand they entered the room. Fain turned to shut the door, and Vivi slipped her fingers from his and glided over to the fire. She stood there, staring down into the flames, letting her mind dwell on nothing. Fain came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back to rest against his chest.

“Did you know that the day you and Marlplot cleaned this room, I snuck in and cleaned out your chimney while you were off in the kitchens?”

“You did?”

“Yes. You’d left a bird’s nest in there. You could have set the whole keep on fire.”

“How did you know I had forgotten to check the draw?”

“I’d been watching you.”

She turned in his arms so she could look up at him. “You were watching me?”

“I watched you for days.” He had a little smile on his face. “I kept telling myself it was ridiculous, but I watched anyway.”

“If I’d known, I would have washed my face more often.”

“Ah, but then I would have missed the sight of the Crown Princess of Albion with soot from here,” he gently kissed her brow, “to here.” This time he bestowed a kiss on her nose. “No matter what happens, that is a memory I’ll treasure.”

“Fain…” Vivienne’s voice shook, and she was suddenly on the verge of tears. “I promise—”

He stopped her with a kiss. “No, don’t promise me anything. You don’t know what will happen once you ride away from me tomorrow.” Reaching up, he brushed her hair back from her forehead. “Let me have tonight as another memory to cherish.”

She moved into the circle of his arms and stretched up to meet his lips with her own. Tomorrow would keep. For tonight, they had each other.

They moved together in the dim glow of the dying fire. Hands touched skin, caressed, and clung. Lips pressed fevered flesh, parted to emit sighs of longing, and came together again to graze their lover’s body. Eventually they found the bed, rocking together in the growing darkness, joining their bodies as though it could wed their souls for all time.

When they collapsed, limbs entwined, bodies too full of sweet lassitude to move, Vivienne buried her face in the side of Fain’s neck, breathing in his scent, listening to the pulse that was slowly calming just below his skin. They lay for a long time, and when finally he stirred, she clung to him.

“Not yet. Hold me a little while longer.”

He settled back and pulled her closer to his side. “As long as you’ll let me, love. As long as you’ll let me.”