The Princess and the Bard (Royals of the Realms #1)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Confession

The palace staff were busy preparing for supper, their bootsteps echoing over the stone floors as they scurried up and down the backstairs. In a stroke of luck, Alori found Melbak, one of the younger footmen, bustling through the main corridor. Her father had mentioned over lunch that the butler had assigned Melbak as a stand-in valet to the bards.

She waved him down as he approached.

"Your Highness." He stopped and bowed a half-courtesy, thin red hair falling across his forehead at an angle.

"Good evening, Melbak. Have you seen Taelan?"

"Your fiancé?" The footman's rosy cheeks and twin dimples offset his crooked smile, giving him an endearing if somewhat goofy appearance. "I believe he went out for a walk some time ago. He asked about the gardens this morning. You might find him in the pleasance."

Alori pressed her hands together in thanks, then started down the hall in the opposite direction. She felt Melbak's gaze on her back and wondered if everyone knew Taelan was her fiancé.

Did they also know she'd been avoiding him today?

Retracing her steps to the exit to the pleasance, she tried not to ruminate on how humiliated she would feel if the entire queendom found out she'd been rejected. Conjecture was tantamount to fairytales, and fairytales had no place in her reality.

That said, she'd always been partial to a romantic happily ever after.

She stopped at the coat room and threw a hooded cloak over her shoulders, tying it loose around her neck. The pleasance was one of her favorite places, but she tended to visit more often when the weather was warm. During winter she preferred the solarium, which was green and in some phase of bloom year-round. She couldn't deny the outdoors held a certain charm in winter, though. The evergreen hedges that boxed in the expansive ornamental garden provided a feeling of privacy and seclusion, and there were plenty of red berry bushes brightening the frosted landscape.

The tall filigree iron gates to the garden were ajar when she arrived. She clasped the fur lining of her cloak close, drawing on a touch of elemental magic to help the garment hold its temperature, and entered the snowy pleasance. 

The last long rays of sunlight slipped over the tops of the hedges. Soon the garden would be a sea of shadows, but now it was awash in rich amber light. 

It didn't take her long to spot Taelan, standing before of one of the topiaries trimmed to resemble a rearing stag. He turned at the sound of her approach, his smile brightening his pale, chapped cheeks.

She hoped he hadn't been outside as long as she'd been sleeping.

"Good evening, my lady. Did you have a nice nap?"

He knew about that?

"Yes and no," she said. "I fell asleep in the solarium. By accident. On a stone bench."

"Ouch. I see what you mean." He slid his hands into his coat pockets. Tiny clouds hovered in front of his lips.

"Are you cold?" It was a silly question. It was freezing, and he looked it. She stepped close to him, holding out her ungloved hand. "Small conveniences," she murmured as their fingers twisted together and her heart leaped beneath her breast.

"Indeed. A man could get used to this."

It was true, they'd have a lifetime of moments like this to look forward to, if he still wanted her after today. Goddesses willing, there might even be a child or two running ahead of them through the hedges someday. If Alori squinted, just so, she could almost see their sweet little faces giggling as they picked holly berries for winter garlands, or made snowballs to toss at each other, like she used to do with her siblings when she was little.