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“Ivetta? Did you drown?”
Theresa’s voice startled me into opening my eyes and sitting bolt upright, then sinking back into the tub and peeking over the edge to ensure she wasn’t in the bathroom with me. The bathwater sloshing around me was now warm and bubble-free.
“Theresa! What are you doing here?” I called back to her.
“Making sure you didn’t fall asleep in the tub,” she replied from the bedroom. “You did, didn’t you?”
I relaxed and let out a sigh. “I was just dozing off.”
“Well, get out, then. If you drown in the bathtub, who knows what Chevalier will do to me? No, wait, I do know. He’ll drown me in a bathtub. And then ban bathtubs from Rhodolite. We’ll both be dead, and the country will reek to high heavens. Do you want that to happen?”
I smiled. “No, I guess not. I’ll be out in a minute.”
She sounded like she was in a good mood, I thought as I leaned forward to pull the plug from the drain. I hadn’t heard her joke like that since she ended her relationship with Leon.
The smile slipped from my face. I needed to tell her the news before she heard it from gossiping tongues.
“Ivetta?”
I stepped out of the tub and grabbed a towel. “Yes?”
There was a pause. The water swirled and gurgled down the drain.
“The round table meeting was about Leon, wasn’t it?”
This time, it was my turn to pause. “Did he tell you something?” I asked carefully.
The silence stretched so long that I poked my head out of the bathroom to check on her. She was sitting on the bed, looking forlornly down at her lap. I wrapped a towel around me and came out to sit beside her.
“You’ll think I’m awful,” she started.
“I doubt that.”
Her fingers fidgeted with her skirt. “Well, I am.”
“Theresa…”
“He told me.” She looked up at me then, her green eyes conflicted. “He told me the truth about where he came from. That’s what the round table was about, wasn’t it?”
I nodded.
“Yeah, I thought so.” She dropped her gaze to her lap again. “He told me the biggest secret in his life, something he’d never told anybody except Belle and Chevalier, and I… broke things off with him.”
I put my hand over hers to still her fingers. “Why?”
She shrugged. “Because I wouldn’t have told him if it were me. Because it proved he loved me, and I didn’t love him. I mean, that’s a huge secret. Telling the wrong person could have gotten him killed.” She gave a harsh laugh and looked up at me again, a wry smile on her lips. “Isn’t that a laugh? I’ve always had men lie and say they loved me so I wouldn’t leave, and for once, I had one who lied and said he didn’t love me for the same reason.”
I bit my lip, wondering what to say. She’d been struggling with Leon’s deepening feelings for her almost from the start, and even though a month had passed since this happened, one look at her slumped posture and miserable expression told me she was still struggling.
“Go on. Tell me I’m awful.”
I squeezed her hand. “You’re not awful, Theresa. If you were, this wouldn’t bother you so much. You just didn’t want to string him along if things weren’t going anywhere.”
“Yeah, well, I should have broken up with him before he told me that.”
That was probably true. But I’d told her she should give it more time, so I felt partly responsible.
“Did you tell him?” I asked.
Her brows furrowed. “Tell him what?”
“Why you broke up with him?”
She nodded. “I’m not that heartless.”
“How did he take it?” I pressed on.
“How do you think he took it? He’s Leon. He smiled, laughed, and said he was pulling my leg.”
That sounded like Leon. I expected a similar reaction from him when the stuffier among the nobility began raining insults on him.
Thank goodness I’d managed to talk Clavis out of springing his matchmaking scheme tomorrow.
Which reminded me that Theresa and Jin had been avoiding each other, too.
I stood and went to my bureau for a nightgown. “Well, that explains you and Leon. What about Jin?”
“Oh, so you want all the dirt?”
“Well, since you’re unburdening yourself to me…”
She half sighed, half groaned as she flopped back onto the bed. “It’s a lot more fun when I’m just rehashing a hot date. Hey, about you take a turn? Tell me something juicy about you and Chevalier.”
Normally, I would never have indulged her. But she sounded and looked so unhappy that I felt bad enough to throw her a bone. I stepped behind the dressing screen to change and braced myself for the embarrassment.
“Before Chevalier walked me back here,” I began.
She sat bolt upright. “Wait, you’re actually telling me something for once?”
My cheeks were already burning. “Clavis and Nokto walked in on us… kissing. In his office.”
“Kissing?” She smirked at me, the mischievous sparkle back in her eyes. “Is that all you were up to?”
“Well…”
“Ivetta.”
“It, um… I may have been… sitting on his lap.”
She squealed. “You were making out in his office? Ivetta! I didn’t realize you could be so naughty!”
“What was naughty about it?” I protested. “We’re married. It’s his office. And we’re the king and queen! If we say it’s okay, it’s okay!”
“Your face is so red right now. How far did it go?”
I stepped out from behind the dressing screen, now clothed in a modest, soft, silky nightgown, but I still felt exposed under her knowing look. “Theresa, I already told you one juicy thing. If you want more, you have to tell me about Jin.”
“Oh, well, after he heard about Leon and me, he asked me to spend the night with him,” she replied matter-of-factly.
My eyes snapped from the floor to her face in an instant. “He what?”6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrpLwgH4XDP
“Asked me to spend the night with him. The same stupid way he asks every woman he likes, with the same three stupid rules.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “No date. One night. Never again. Some nerve, huh?”
I winced. Jin’s aversion to long-term relationships had always been the reason Theresa admired him from afar instead of making a move. As much as she enjoyed the physical aspect of her relationship with a man, it was just that: an aspect of a relationship. No relationship, no physical relations.
“What did you do?”
She shrugged. “What did you expect? I slapped him as hard as I could. Then I told him exactly what I thought of his rules and exactly what he could do with them, and I slapped him again. We’ve known each other for how many years, and he thought I’d go along with that?” She fell back on the bed and glared up at the ceiling. “I wouldn’t go out with him now if he came crawling back to me on his hands and knees. With his shirt off. On a hot summer day. After he’d been working out, when he was dripping with sweat and—”
“I get the idea, Theresa,” I interrupted her hastily.
Her eyes shifted to me, and she smirked. “Oh, come on. As if you haven’t drooled over Chevalier when he comes back from sword practice.”
I avoided her gaze and focused on pulling the covers back. “Move. I’m tired, and I want to go to bed.”
“You owe me one more juicy story.”
I bit my lip, looking everywhere except at her. “Um… well… now that you mention it…”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her sit up.
“Oh, so you have drooled over Chevalier after he works out.”
“Yes, okay?” I blurted out. “In fact, earlier this week, he came back all hot and sweaty one evening, and I practically jumped him when he walked through the door. May I go to bed now?”
She stared at me for a moment, mouth agape, eyes wide. Then her eyes narrowed again, and her lips curled into a smirk.
“Why, Ivetta, I never pegged you for the aggressive one.”
“I’m usually not. Theresa…”
“Okay, okay.”
She hopped off the bed, laughing, and I dove under the covers, burning from the tips of my ears to the soles of my feet. I decided right then and there I wasn’t talking Clavis out of his scheme for Rhodolite Foundation Day. Theresa could hang upside down from a tree, bound and tethered to Jin, and she could say all she wanted to about hating it, but I knew better. And I wanted her to feel as embarrassed as I felt right now. Leon would be in the city enjoying the festival, anyway, so he wouldn’t have to see it.
With any luck, he’d meet someone new there, too.
“Hey, Ivetta?”
“You’re fired,” I grumbled from beneath the covers.
“We should have a girls' night like this more often.”
I sighed and emerged from the blankets reluctantly. “Yes, we should.”
“Um…” She stood awkwardly next to the bed, hesitating, and then she asked in a timid voice, “So… what’s going on with Leon?”
I sighed again. That was the entire reason for our conversation, and I’d nearly forgotten. “He told everybody. Chevalier is issuing an official proclamation to announce it to Rhodolite.”
“Why?” she asked, frowning. “Did somebody find out?”
I nodded. “I think so. But Chevalier already pardoned Leon, and his brothers still accept him, so nothing will really change for him with the royal family. Just public perception.”
Theresa exhaled her relief. “Good.”
I waited a moment, but she seemed to be lost in thought. “Um, Theresa? I’d still like to sleep,” I reminded her.
“Oh.” She focused on me again. “Sorry. About that. Should I stay with you until Chevalier gets back? Since you had really bad nightmares last night? Or… don’t you still get them a few nights in a row?”
I did, but they were usually less severe after the first night now, and I didn’t know how long she would have to wait before Chevalier returned. It would also be awkward if she fell asleep here. So I smiled at her and shook my head. “No, I’ll be fine.”
She pursed her lips. “You’re a lousy liar, Ivetta.”
“I’ll be fine,” I repeated. “Chevalier is tired, too, so I’m sure he won’t be long. You can go.”
She held eye contact with me a moment longer before she sighed and nodded. “Fine. Goodnight, Ivetta. Thanks for listening. And…” Her lips curved into a smirk. “Thanks for filling me in on what you and Chevalier get up to in his office.”
I covered my face with my hands. “It was just once!”
“Yeah. Right. Keep telling yourself that.”
“Goodnight, Theresa!”
“Goodnight.”
She left, laughing, and I waited until I heard the door close to drag my hands down my face. I let my arms fall beside me, spread wide as I stared at the ceiling.
A smile tugged at my lips.
It wouldn’t be just once.
And oh, was she right about the appeal of sweaty muscles.
I closed my eyes and sighed. Sometimes, I missed sharing a room with Theresa. I missed our late-night conversations and her joking comments that made me blush. But I had only to imagine Chevalier’s arms around me to be content right here, wrapped in the warmth of a comforter that smelled like roses and lilacs in the bed we shared.
Sleep came softly. Nightmares encroached on the edges of dreams.
I tossed and turned, trying to get settled, fading in and out of sleep, until the bed shifted beside me.
“Mm… Chevalier?”
“Go back to sleep, little dove.”
“I missed you,” I mumbled, cuddling up to his side.
I felt his light touch on my face, brushing my hair back and trailing lightly down my cheek. “Likewise.”
“Did you… have fun?”
“You’re half-asleep, Ivetta.”
“Mm… You’re so warm…”
I could barely feel his lips touch the top of my head. “Goodnight, Ivetta.”
The nightmares didn’t return.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNmB4Zb1drk
