“Good morning, Prince Charming,” Willa said through a mouthful of pancake, and Piper looked up to see Aldon breezing over to the table. At the sight of him, warmth flooded her, washing away the discomfort from the valet’s insinuation.
“Well, hello, Willa. How are those pancakes treating you?”
“Yummy,” she said and shot him a thumbs-up.
Aldon sat beside Piper and gave her hand a squeeze under the table, where Willa couldn’t see. She couldn’t help but sense that there was something off about him this morning. Although he was smiling, he seemed stressed.
“Are you okay?” she asked after Willa had excused herself from the table to play outside.
“Fine,” he said and dug into a plate of scrambled eggs.
Piper placed a hand on his knee. “Aldon, you know you can talk to me.” She wanted to be there for him, not to be nosy or pushy, but for him to know he could share his troubles with her.
He looked into her eyes for a moment, seeming to be weighing whether or not to open up, then wiped his mouth with his napkin. After a pause, he began talking.
“My father called this morning,” he said.
“Ah.” She didn’t push. She knew from what he’d told her last night that his relationship with his father was a source of pain in his life. She wanted to let him share his story at his own pace.
“He somehow caught wind of everything that happened yesterday.”
At this, Piper couldn’t mask her shock. Her eyes stretched wide, and she felt her stomach drop to her knees.
Aldon shook his head. “Well, not everything!” he said quickly.
“Phew.” Piper exhaled. “I was imagining spies at the window, or in your bedroom closet,” she said and took a sip of her coffee. “Or worse—in the library!”
Aldon laughed for a moment, and she was glad she could at least lighten his mood a little.
“No, I don’t think he knows those details,” Aldon said. “But he seems to have found out about yesterday’s activities at the shelter and the restaurant, and he’s upset. He doesn’t want me making promises to the people of Thistledown. He basically told me to stay out of it.”
Piper sensed that there was more to Aldon’s frustration with his father.
“And what else?” she asked.
Aldon’s face clouded over. “And he wants me to get back together with Carrie.”
Piper swallowed, trying to push down the cold lump of sadness that was in her throat. “I assume he must have heard something about us?”
He avoided Piper’s eyes but nodded.
“Someone must have noticed we were affectionate with each other at the restaurant,” he said.
“And I’m guessing your father is not pleased with his son, the prince, cavorting with someone of my social rank.” Piper’s tone was sarcastic, but it hid a deep hurt. She pushed it away, choosing to focus on the dictate about the town. “Well, you’ll just have to work on him,” she said, and Aldon looked up at her like she had two heads.
“Work on him?”
“Yes. You’ll have to convince him that providing aid to Thistledown Valley is his responsibility as leader of our country.”
“He’s so stubborn, Piper.” Aldon ran a hand through his hair and blew out a sigh.
“So, what then? Are you going to just give up and forget about everything you told the townspeople yesterday?”
Piper’s voice was getting louder, her anger inflating by the moment. She was so tired of the monarch failing to do what was right for his people.
“Piper, I never made any promises that I’d be able to fix all the problems. I said I would try.”
“Well, then try,” she said. She knew her tone was getting out of hand, but at the moment, she didn’t care. “And us? What about us?”
“He’s wrong about you,” Aldon said. “He doesn’t know you. Doesn’t know us.”
He squeezed Piper’s hand and kissed it. She felt a little better then, but something about Aldon’s manner rubbed her the wrong way. He didn’t seem confident or sure about anything—not even their relationship.
Aldon had told her he’d spent his entire life trying to gain his father’s approval, and the king obviously did not approve of her. Would Aldon truly stand up to his father? Piper couldn’t imagine that Aldon would go against the king’s wishes, even after the few days of bliss they’d shared.
Perhaps this prince would become just another man in her long line of disappointments.
10
When Piper pulled up the driveway with the groceries later that afternoon, she noticed Aldon and Willa coloring with sidewalk chalk in the driveway. It was a tender sight. When he’d offered to keep an eye on Willa while Piper ran into town to do some errands, Piper hadn’t been sure. What if Willa behaved badly or got hurt? Would he know how to react?
“Look, Mommy!” Willa exclaimed when Piper opened the car door. “Prince Charming made a rainbow.”
Aldon had pink chalk smeared on his cheek and in his hair. Piper tried not to laugh.
“Wow, I didn’t know you were an artist,” she said to Aldon.
“I’m a man of many talents,” he teased. “How was your trip into town?”
“Not great,” she said. She hated to be the bearer of bad news on this sunny, chalky afternoon, but somebody had to break it to him.
“What’s wrong?” He left Willa to her drawing and approached Piper.
“It’s Brickton bridge,” she said. Brickton was the main bridge in town. It had been in disrepair for years, surviving on patch jobs up until now. “It’s developed a fairly large crack that will need to be repaired soon or the bridge may not stand for much longer.”
“That sounds serious,” he said. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Thankfully, no—or at least, not yet.” Piper began unloading bags from the trunk while she spoke, and Aldon helped. “Really, it needed to be replaced a long time ago, but there was never any money in the budget. It’s a major route for a lot of the people in the surrounding area to drive to and from work, and a major access point for the town.”
“Is that where the Sovalon river cuts through?”
Piper nodded. Thistledown’s economy was already extremely fragile, and the destruction of this bridge could put it over the edge of downfall.
“There’s going to be a town hall meeting tonight to discuss options.” Piper went to Aldon and looked him straight in the eyes. Part of her hated asking for his help, but she knew she needed him. Besides, he was a Prince of Sovalon. Wasn’t it his duty to help his people?
“I could really use your support right now.”
“What can I do?” he asked.
She gave it to him straight.
“You can make a plea to your family to allocate the funds to get the bridge repaired.”
She watched his face carefully as she made the request, but he revealed nothing. Instead, he put his arm around her shoulders.
“We’ll figure something out,” he said. Piper didn’t miss the lack of concrete promise in his words. Although he hadn’t shown it on his face, she could tell he was filled with uncertainty about speaking with his family.