“Invitations have already gone out and it will be in two weeks.”
“What? No one will be able to arrange that with such short notice!”
“When the almighty King Farthing gets up from the dead, you don’t think people want to see it for themselves? They will find a way to get here, mark my words.”
He puts his arm around my shoulder and we walk into the living room.
“You probably didn’t purchase something suitable for a ball of this magnitude on your trip,” he teases. “We can have a selection of gowns brought in for you to consider…in the next few days, if you’d like.”
“I can’t believe you’ve done all of this in such a short amount of time.” My eyes well with tears and as we sit on the couch, I take his hand. “Just a month ago, I thought I was losing you.”
“I have at least six lives left,” he says, laying his other hand on top of mine.
I look at my father, grateful that the color is in his cheeks, that he doesn’t seem feverish, and that his body is beginning to fill out again after months of emaciation. His recovery is nothing short of remarkable.
“Thank you for fighting this sickness, Papa,” I whisper, my words catching in my throat. “And for getting the best care. I-I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d be just fine without me. I’ve made sure Caulder knows the ins and outs of what will be required of both of you. You can lean on him for whatever support you need whenever the time comes.”
“Hopefully that won’t be for a long, long time. You’re still young, after all.” I smile when he makes a face. “I’m glad Caulder’s here, but it’s not the same as having you. He still thinks of me as his pesky younger cousin who is always trying to be in his business.”
My father chuckles and looks so much like he used to in that moment. I study his features, trying to imagine the man Jadon thinks my father is…the monster he portrayed in his few words about him. The father I know is, at worst, overprotective and somewhat old-fashioned, but he could never be as evil as Jadon made him sound.
“Caulder will show you the proper respect when it’s time,” he laughs again, “but I think you’re right, in his mind, you’re still tattling on him for smoking behind the bushes.”
“I haven’t smoked behind the bushes in ages—are you still dredging up my past, Delilah?” Caulder walks in looking the part of a regal aristocrat, not a hair or thread out of place. He winks and pulls out a cigarette case from his pocket. “I don’t have to go hide behind the bushes now, scared you’ll rat me out again.”
I get up, snatching the case out of his hands. I wave it in front of him. “These will kill you. I can’t help it that I want the two men in my life to live forever.”
He smirks and holds out his hand for the case. I roll my eyes but drop the case in his hand and he puts it back in his pocket.
“You’re not queen yet…you’re not the boss of me,” he says it playfully, but something in his eyes makes me take a step back and I sit down by my father again, unsettled.
Caulder laughs then. “The two of you are a serious bunch today. We have a ball in two weeks. We should start drinking and being merry now…so it’s not a shock to our system then.” He goes to the bar and pulls out two glasses. He lifts an eye to my father and grins when he’s rewarded with a brisk nod.
I frown and look at my dad. “The doctor said you shouldn’t—”
“Oh, let the man breathe, Delilah. He’s been laid up in that bed for months. Let him live a little.” Caulder fills two glasses with brandy and when he brings my father his and doesn’t hand me the other glass but clashes the glass with my father’s and then finishes it in one gulp, I scowl at him.
“Thank you, that was so sweet of you to offer,” I grumble. I stand up and walk to the bar. “Guess I’ll get my own.”
“There will come a day when I do all your bidding,” Caulder says. “But as I said, that day is not here yet.”
My face heats as I pour myself a drink and lift it to both of them. He’s always saying things like that and it gets under my skin every time. I didn’t ask to be the next in line. I wish it could be Caulder and he lets me know in these small ways all the time that he wishes the same thing. But in the next glance, he’s grinning and sticking his tongue out at me and I relax; my cousin has always known how to push my buttons. Even more than my brother used to.
“To Papa’s health.” I lift my glass to them and let the liquid slide down my throat, enjoying the burn.
Again, Jadon’s words about my father being behind the threat to his life and the murder of his father fights its way to the surface and I try to push it back down again. Jadon is my father’s biggest enemy; of course, he’d try to plant doubt.
My cousin sits where I’d been sitting and he and my father resume a conversation they must’ve started the last time they were together. My mind wanders back to Jadon. I didn’t like all the things that came out of his mouth, the seeds he tried to plant against my family, but the way he seemed to instinctively know I was in over my head and didn’t throw me out…the forthcoming way he spoke to me…that’s something that is sorely missing in my life. Having that for even the briefest amount of time was addicting.
And I’m craving more.
Chapter Six
Jadon
When I return, the pup I left behind is waiting at the door, tail thumping like a drum stick against the floor.
“Well, look at you. You’re looking much better.” I bend down and pet her and her tail thumps faster. She stands up and circles around me, licking my face and when I stand up, she jumps up, her paws on my shoulders. “I’d never know you were hurt…” I lower her paws. “Sit, girl.” She stares up at me and sits, tail resuming its steady beat. It’s hard not to smile when she’s so damn cute.
Jonz, who has recently done double duty as a guard and sometimes housekeeper, walks by and stops when he sees me with the dog. “As soon as I brought her back to the house from the vet, she ran to your office to look for you and then stationed herself in front of the door.” Jonz shakes his head. “This is the most active she’s been. I’ve actually been worried about her. She’s hardly eaten.”
As he says that, the dog goes to the nearby bowl that’s sitting by the door, and starts chowing down. I laugh and she turns to stare at me, tail wagging again.
“Aw, sweet girl, you are hard to resist.” I reach out and pet her. “What should we call you?” Her snowy white fur is cleaner than when I left. The vet must have cleaned her up before sending her home. “You look like a snow queen, white as a ghost. I’d name you Ghost, but you deserve something more beautiful…” Delilah comes to mind and I’m tempted to name my dog Queenie after her, but it would make me think of the future queen even more than I already am.
I can’t stop thinking about her. Night and day. She invades every brain cell. I’m supposed to be running the damn kingdom and I can’t get her beautiful eyes and lips out of my head. The way her breasts curved with the light of the stones on the cave ceiling casting just the right brilliance across her…