Of Heirs and Havoc ✔️ | Of Crimes and Crowns Book 2

thirty-two : of post and parents

Connor awoke to the sound of retching. A yawn escaping his jaw, he rolled out of bed and padded towards the lavatory, to find Natasha kneeling before the chamber pot. He joined her, holding back the hair that had escaped her braid and rubbing her back in what he hoped was a soothing manner. It must have worked; in a moment she was well enough to glare at him.

"I hardly require your comfort, Connor White." A roll of her eyes, a twist of her mouth into a sneer. She was so very irritable in the morning—yet he was foolish enough to adore it, to adore every spark of passion or annoyance in her, every blazing ember of emotion because they were what he provoked in her. And oddly, it gave him a sense of warmth, love and pride mingling in his chest. "That is the reason I did not wake you."

He shifted, the tiled floor hard against his knees. "You woke me anyways, because you forgot to close the door."

She stood, shooting him a glare with no real venom in it, and he kept his hand on her back as she did so, guiding her to the washbasin. Natasha cupped handfuls of water, bringing them to her mouth to rinse it. This routine was familiar to both of them now, in the month that had passed since the revelation of her pregnancy. They had decided to keep the secret between the two of them only—not trusting that this child may not have been as lucky as Grace. Any courtier might be cunning enough, cruel enough, to poison either one of them. The thought alone was enough to make him shudder, even in the warm room.

"I did not forget," she snapped back, splashing the rose petal-covered water onto her face for her daily ablutions. "I merely... merely wanted..."

"Thus, you intended to wake me, because you desired my presence beside you," Connor teased, taking his wife's robe and helping her into it as they returned to the colder bedchamber. She pressed a kiss to his cheek in thanks and then returned to her state of annoyance with him.

"What woman wants her husband to see her in the worst of states, before she has dressed and when she is vomiting?" Natasha retorted, her elbow nudging his ribs in contrast to her earlier gesture of affection.

"You are no ordinary woman, darling." Connor stripped down to his underclothes by himself, the both of them having dismissed their attendants for the day. For this day, the day that Natasha's parents' ship arrived in Arlea. "You are a queen."

"That I am." Her grin was smooth, easy, the tension deflating from her shoulders in a sight that buoyed his spirits. She shrugged out of her shift, shivering in the sudden onslaught of cold air. "Are you prepared to meet my parents, my king?"

"Somehow, I would prefer to face down another murderer—no offense to your parents, of course." He slipped his trousers on and buttoned his shirt to his throat, tying his blue silk cravat tightly.

Natasha tutted at him, dropping her overskirt onto a bench and crossing the room to open his wardrobe. "I beseech you husband, do not wear that one. It makes you look positively green and bordering on seasick."

She fetched his grey one instead, knotting it for him. It was such an ordinary, domestic gesture, that he smiled down at her, pressing his lips to her forehead. "Thank you, darling."

"Although that does not mean I have forgotten that you would rather risk being killed than meet your in-laws, Connor!" She yanked her cream overskirt on top of layers of petticoats, tying it at the back. "Do assist me with my stays, would you?"

He crossed the room, shrugging on his jacket, and then helped his wife with her own garments. "You ought to take it as a compliment that my nerves are wrought."

"And why is that?" She stiffened as he tugged on the laces of the corset, but made no noise.

Connor finished lacing her up, and tied a neat bow. She spun around to face him. "Any man would be nervous, meeting the former king and queen of Arlea. But not only do I have to contend with that, I also require the approval of the two people who raised the woman and ruler whom I am proud to call my wife."