Where there's a Will, there's a Tiara | Complete (ONC 2021 Longlister)

18. A Lady's Decision

I wasn't even into the main hallway of my grandmother's house when I almost crashed right into Ezrah. Of course you are here right now! Because nothing in my life can be simple.

"Adelaide!"

I took a deep breath. I'll have to confront him sometime. "Ezrah. I think we should maybe talk outside where the whole house won't hear."

He winced. "That bad?"

"Outside, please. Or leave it for now so I can talk to Nora first. I have a lot to deal with."

He nodded. "Outside it is," he said and proceeded out the front door with neither a hat nor coat. Which was almost always a bad idea in this weather. I snagged a coat off the hook near the door and followed after him into the dim drizzle I had become accustomed to.

"Ezrah," I called. "You don't have to run away. I'm sure this will suffice." I pulled the jacket tighter around my stomach, as though the fabric of the coat would hold me together.

He turned around not ten feet in front of me and just stared at me. I clenched the edges of the jacket in my hands and pulled the fabric as tightly as the seams would allow. Neither of us spoke, but my anger bubbled up, warming me to the cold wind that blew the light rain onto my cheeks.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. "I know it was shitty of me not to tell you about Edward. It was maybe worse not to tell you I was here at the behest of the King to make sure Edward remained in line. And it was definitely the worst of all how I treated you."

Even I have to admit that was a pretty good apology. His whole body seemed to tense as he awaited my reply. I'd wanted to yell at him, but after that I was more hurt than angry.

"What, exactly, did you report back to Edward and the king about me?" I asked the one question burning in the back of my mind. Well one of the two questions.

"Almost nothing," he said finally, taking a small step toward me and then stopping dead in his tracks. "Okay, not nothing. But I never told Edward, I promise. He's probably just as mad at me as you are. Maybe more."

"You deserve that," I snapped before thinking.

"I do." His head drooped down to look at his shoes and the rain droplets began to cling to his shirt and drip down his exposed skin. His hair was gluing itself to his face as he stood, staring once again at my face. "I do deserve that. And more probably. But I thought he was being foolish to enter into what sounded like an arranged marriage and when I met you, you seemed so much like you did not want to be here. I thought I was justified in my concern and told the king what I thought of you. But I'd rather not repeat that part now as it was a foolish assumption, I now realize."

"Did you tell him I was wholly unsuited to be a princess?"

He just cast his eyes down to his shoes again.

"Because if you did, you weren't wrong. I told Edward as much this morning."

"You..." He paused to look up at me, brows knitting together as water gathered on his eye lashes and brows. "You went to see Edward this morning?"

"Yes."

"Ah. Well, I hope you were able to clear everything up. I'll back you up and tell him the truth of course. That it's my fault you ran off."

"It wasn't your fault," I stated simply. "It was mine."

A year ago, maybe even a week ago, I wouldn't have even been able to admit that to myself. Somehow, saying it out loud lifted a burden off me I wasn't aware I was carrying.

Ezrah dared one more step toward me, eyes boring into mine as if trying to solve a difficult math problem. "You think any of this was your fault?"

I cut him off before he could disagree. "It is. I'm not saying you spying on me is my fault." That elicited a little wince from him as he continued to look me in the eye. "But I am saying that my choice to leave and not speak to Edward about it was entirely mine. I thought doing what my parents and grandmother wanted would get me what I wanted, but it didn't. It just made me explode and treat everyone around me probably worse than they deserved."

"Maybe about the same in my case."

"Yes, maybe about the same as you deserved." Why was I joking at a time like this?

"Do you think you can ever forgive me?" he asked. "I'd hate to part of bad terms."

"I'm not sure we'll be parting all that quickly. Unless you've convinced my grandmother to fire you, that is."

"No. No, I'm going to be staying on for a while. A lot to fix, you know."

I laughed again, remembering our first encounter. "Well, you've gotten somewhere. No shutters falling off this time."

"No. Not yet, anyway."

Neither of us seemed to know what to say as the rain grew heavier and started dripping off my hair directly down my face and into my eyes. I brushed my hair back and tried to pull the hood of the jacket up, watching as Ezrah did nothing to even attempt to slow the flow of rain now clinging to him.

"So what are you going to do now?" Ezrah asked finally, as the rain started to ease slightly into more of a damp fog.

"Well, I know I don't want to go back with Kat. There are some things I want to see through here and some new things I'd like to set up. Plus I have no money. So my ability to do anything kind of depends on if my grandmother will release any of my inheritance to me. And after the stunt I pulled—" I grimaced maybe more dramatically than I should have and then laughed, attempting to release some of the tension. "Well, let's just say I might be looking for a job if you know of any."

"I might have some leads," he said. "But I don't think you'll need them."

"Let's hope you're right."

Without giving it too much thought, I closed the space between myself and Ezrah and wrapped him into a hug. Only then did I realize that the coat I was wearing, the only one by the door, was in fact Ezrah's. Why had he let me stand there in the rain wearing his coat? Didn't he want it back?

And then, like the wind, Ezrah turned and was gone. His final 'good luck' still hanging in the thick, heavy air.