A Dove's Tale

Chapter 34

It was easy to get lost in the palace. I had my routine, and I knew how to get to where I needed to be within that routine, but the seamstresses were in a part of the palace I’d never explored before. Getting there had been a problem, and I got so mixed up in the process that I was now having difficulty reorienting myself to get back to Prince Chevalier’s room. It seemed like the always busy palace was suddenly empty everywhere I turned. How was it possible that I consistently ended up in deserted hallways in a palace full of people?

I sighed, expressing my frustration at the silence, since it was the only thing listening, and resigned myself to wasting more time wandering around. Eventually, I would come across somebody who knew where I was, or I would come across something I recognized. Eventually.

This palace was unnecessarily large.

“Hey, Ivetta!”

Thank goodness.

I looked back to see Prince Luke heading toward me. He wore his usual boyish grin, and at that moment, I thought it was the best thing I’d seen all morning.

“Good morning, Prince Luke.”

“Have ya seen Chevie?” he asked, easily catching up to me with his long legs.

I loved that nickname. It was childish and cute and decidedly not Prince Chevalier.

“Not since he left his room, and that was fifteen or twenty minutes ago, your highness. He said he wouldn’t be in his office today.”

Prince Luke frowned. “Huh. Clavis said to get Chevie for a big meeting with some important people or whatever. Wonder where he’s at?”

“Have you checked the library, Prince Luke?” I suggested.

That’s where I was expecting to find him.

Prince Luke shook his head. “Not yet. I was gonna check his room when I saw ya and thought I’d ask.”

“Oh, good, so I’m going in the right direction,” I said, relieved. “I got a bit turned around, your highness,” I added in explanation.

“It’s real easy to get lost here,” he agreed. “I’ve been here over a month, and I still get lost all the time.”

“Where were you before, Prince Luke?” I asked curiously.

Prince Leon had said something about Prince Luke not being with the rest of the princes on Bloodstained Rose Day, but surely he would have been too young to fight then. I didn’t think he could be much older than me.

“I was a commoner. Didn’t even know I was a prince until the day I came here,” he said casually.

That explained a lot. Being with him wasn’t like being with a prince at all. Everything about him was casual - his speech, his clothes, his posture. The only thing that marked him as different was the giant broadsword strapped to his back. That and his size, of course. The king must have been a tall man. Prince Yves was of average height, but he seemed short compared to his brothers. Prince Luke had to be six feet tall, and the rest weren’t much shorter than him.

“How do you like it so far, your highness?”

Silly question. Being a prince had to be better than being a commoner.

“I dunno,” he said, shrugging. “The food’s better, and the bed’s more comfortable. But I gotta take all these lessons with Sariel to learn how to talk and act right, and I’m supposed to dress different, too. I don’t get it. I’m a prince, so why can’t I do what I want?”

He had a point.

“I guess people expect more from you because you’re a prince, your highness.”

“Yeah, well, I hate it. That’s why I hide from Sariel all the time. He’s ‘bout ready to pull his hair out ‘cause of me.”

“Is that what you were doing a few days ago when I saw you asleep in a tree, your highness?” I asked knowingly.

He grinned sheepishly. “Ya saw that, huh?”

I giggled. “You did look comfortable, your highness.”

We’d arrived at Prince Chevalier’s room, and although I didn’t think he’d be there, he’d surprised me yesterday, so I knocked just in case before I let myself in. The room was dark and empty, as I’d expected.

“King Highness?” Prince Luke called, poking his head in but staying in the hallway.

“He’s not here, your highness,” I said, hanging the new cloak up on the coat rack. “And it’s okay for you to come in.”

“Ya sure?” he asked, taking one hesitant step across the threshold.

I giggled again. “Yes, I’m sure, your highness. There aren’t any state secrets lying around.”

Prince Luke scanned the room with curious leaf green eyes. “Ya keep it real neat in here,” he commented. “Maybe I should have ya clean my room sometime.”

“I’m not the only maid in the palace, Prince Luke,” I reminded him as I headed back to the door. “Do none of you let maids in your rooms?”

“They don’t come in without us asking them,” he replied, following me into the hallway and shutting the door behind us. “Guess they’re worried ‘bout seeing something they shouldn’t see. I’m kinda surprised Chevie lets ya in his room.”

“He’s really not as bad as everybody thinks, your highness. He likes his privacy, and he wants peace and quiet. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” Prince Luke repeated. There was a note of suspicion in his voice, and when I looked up at him, I saw doubt in his eyes, too.

“Well, I guess I could add that he highly values a strong work ethic, your highness. I think he likes that I don’t need direction all the time. He pretty much leaves me to do whatever I want.”

“So…that means ya can clean my room,” Prince Luke said, his grin returning easily to his lips.

I laughed. “If it means that much to you, then yes, I can do that later, Prince Luke. But it probably won’t be until this afternoon. I have to catch up on some work I didn’t finish yesterday, thanks to Prince Clavis’ interference.”

“I don’t get it,” Prince Luke said, frowning. “If Chevie didn’t tell ya to do it, then why do ya feel like ya have to do it? Sounds like ya can just skip out on it and come back to my room now.”

He didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I hoped. This was Prince Luke, after all, the fresh-faced kid who became a prince overnight. He didn’t talk and live a life of hidden meaning and veiled innuendo.

Did he?

But even if he did, there was an easy way out of this.

“I don’t skip out on work, Prince Luke.”

“Never?” he asked incredulously.

“Never,” I confirmed. “I’ve quit jobs before, but I never skip out on work if I’ve decided to keep the job.”

Prince Luke opened the library door for me. “So, what makes ya quit, then?”

I walked past him into the library, contemplating how to answer that question in a way that didn’t result in him following me around like he did after he saw the bruises.

There were people who thought if they paid you, they owned you. Not many people, but enough to warrant caution whenever I took a new job. I learned early on how to identify and handle those people from watching Mother when she took me to work with her. She didn’t tolerate abuse of any kind - verbal, physical, or s****l. One insult, one curse, brought a gentle but firm reprimand from Mother, and if it continued, she walked out and never came back. She was wary and quick, always on guard and ready to dodge an unprovoked strike. Almost always, anyway. If I was the target, she was quick to take the blow for me. Another instant walk-out. And then there were the men who wanted s****l favors, the ones who asked, and the ones who told. Both earned, at minimum, a slap on the face and a job vacancy.

We didn’t have food every night, but we had our self-respect.

“Not every job is worth it,” I finally said.

Prince Luke frowned and walked away, heading toward Prince Chevalier’s library, while I found my stash of cleaning supplies and got to work. By my own standards, I would have quit this job at the palace on the first day if it weren’t for my situation with Mother, but the benefits outweighed the risks. I got the hours and the pay I wanted, and I was willing to put up with Prince Chevalier’s threats and do whatever he asked of me if it meant I could care for Mother the way I thought was best. Even if that meant enduring verbal, physical, and s****l abuse.

The job wasn’t worth it, but she was.

Fortunately, I got to put food on the table and keep my self-respect.

“King Highness?” Prince Luke called, poking his head into the back room. He sighed, and then his heavy footfalls crossed the library toward me. “He’s not here, either.”

“The only other place I can think of is the gardens, but I doubt he’s out there today, your highness,” I said, glancing over at the steady rain outside the windows while I polished a brass lampstand. “If you don’t mind my asking, why do you call him King Highness?”

“Nokto started that,” he said, dropping onto the sofa next to me. “He’s gonna be the next king, anyway. May as well get used to it.”

“Isn’t that up to Belle to decide, your highness?”

He sprawled out across the cushions, interlacing his fingers behind his head and crossing his ankles over the arm of the sofa at its far end. “Everybody’s known it since he was born, and when he wants something, he gets it. Belle won’t make a difference - if Sariel ever finds one.” His head tilted back, and his leaf green eyes looked up at me. “Ya woulda made a great Belle, but I’m glad ya didn’t do it. I’d hate to see ya leave.”

“Leave, your highness?” I asked, still trying to decide if he was just being friendly or if he was subtly flirting. I was leaning toward the latter.

“Yeah. Belle has thirty days to make her choice, and when the time’s up, she has to leave the palace forever. It’s a new rule that got added after the last Belle, I think.”

Prince Jin’s mother. Her romance with the king ended in tragedy with long-lasting consequences that were still affecting the kingdom, but I wasn’t so sure a new rule would prevent that in the future. Emotions didn’t always play by the rules.

Was that why Prince Chevalier didn’t want me to be Belle? Because of that rule?

“Whatcha thinking?”

A rough, calloused hand touched mine, motionless on the lampstand, while my mind wandered elsewhere. I snapped out of my drifting thoughts to look at Prince Luke. He had reached back over his head to touch my hand, and he took it gently by the wrist, pulling it back toward him and holding it in the air above his face.

“Your hands are so little,” he mused, releasing my wrist and laying his hand on top of mine. It engulfed my hand completely. “And ya weigh next to nothing, ya know that?”

I swallowed hard, unsure of what to do. It was hard to tell with him if those were innocent observations or something more. He released my wrist and stood up, a massive man a foot taller than me and easily twice my weight, towering over me with that disarming, boyish smile.

“Guess I better keep looking for Chevie. If ya see him, let me know, yeah?”

I nodded. “Of course, your highness.”

He patted the top of my head and turned away. “See ya!”

I swallowed again and returned to my polishing. Maybe he was as complicated as the rest of the princes. Or maybe I was just overthinking things because of the other princes. Regardless, I had work to do, and I’d probably get it done quicker if I stopped thinking about princes altogether.