Adelaide's gardens truly were beautiful. Briar could see, even from here in the room they'd given her, how much she cared for it. It wasn't safe enough to walk the grounds herself, not with rebels lurking in the woods in search of Lord Huntington and the princess he'd rescued. So she could not see them herself but still she could tell how much work Adelaide had put into them and hoped she might get the chance to enjoy them up close someday. Though perhaps the time for enjoyment of simple things had passed along with her false servant's identity.
There was a soft knock on the door and Briar bid for whoever was outside to enter. She didn't bother turning around as they did. If they wished to speak, they would make themselves known. If they were here to serve, they would do so in the silence they had been taught.
"Princess," someone spoke and she recognized the name and the title immediately. There was only one occupant of this household who addressed her as such. "I have sent your letter to Sir Alfred Hughes as requested."
"Thank you," she replied, turning to face him. "And thank you so much for taking us in. I hope we have not brought further danger to your door."
"It would be my honor to defend you from those who mean you harm."
"Why?"
She hadn't meant to ask it. It was impolite to question a man's beliefs or political opinions but perhaps all of these mannerly ways were standing in the way of real progress, perhaps politeness was the curtain these rebels had been able to hide behind. And she truly wanted to know. Setting aside all pretense, why had this man chosen her cause to throw his support behind? What made a man lay down his life for his sovereign?
"Because I made an oath to your uncle and I have no intention of seeing his family torn apart or his throne overtaken by scoundrels even if he no longer lives and breathes," the Duke answered. She heard more passion in his tone at this declaration than she'd ever heard from him before and thought that perhaps she was beginning to understand what Adelaide saw in him.
Briar opened her mouth to answer but got no farther when there was another knock on my door and she and the Duke both turned as she called for the visitor to enter.
It was Lord Huntington. He stood in the doorway, peering in uncomfortably. He held a tray in his hand loaded with biscuits and jams and bacon and he nodded a polite greeting to his cousin's husband.
"I've brought your breakfast," Lord Huntington said kindly, meeting Briar's eyes as he did, "Princess."
Something about hearing the formal title from his lips gave her sorrow. He still saw her as his sovereign. Maybe he always would. Maybe he was too respectful to ever love her in the way that she wanted him to. Maybe he could only love her as his princess, maybe he wouldn't allow himself anything else.
But she wanted him to.
She wasn't sure when she had realized it. Perhaps one of those days living beneath him in rags and shared dormitories off the kitchen. Or perhaps once he'd known who she truly was and they'd shared a kiss in the firelight. Perhaps it had even been the moment he had chanced upon her in the woods, when she'd just escaped with her life, and his men nocked their bows and aimed their arrows at her. She couldn't pinpoint the exact time she had fallen for him but fallen, she had. And looking into his eyes, questioning whether or not he had fallen as well, it was killing her.
"I will leave you to your meal," the Duke spoke then, clearing his throat in discomfort as Briar realized she and Lord Huntington had been simply staring at each other over the tray in his hands all the while.
"Thank you," she told the man again as he made his way to the door, "for everything."
He gave her a smile and a nod before exiting her room, closing the door tightly behind him. Then they were alone. That was becoming a frequent state of being for them.
"You're serving me now?" She joked then, just to relieve the tension. It worked. He chuckled and set the tray down on a nearby table.
"I suppose it's only fitting," he replied, turning back to face her, lips quirked into a smirk, eyes boring into her.
"I should thank you but I haven't the slightest idea how," she confessed. "What reward is appropriate for a man who saved your life?"
"You owe me nothing, Princess. It was my duty."
"Don't," she said before she could process what she was saying. He stopped talking and cocked his head to the side in question. She sighed. "Don't call me Princess. Please."
"What should I-"
"Briar. Just Briar."
He nodded but did not say it. Something about that broke her heart.
"You're nearly engaged," he said then, voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. Briar met his eyes and understood. Her title was an issue as she had expected but the bigger issue, it seemed, was that Briar Aldrich was all but promised to another.
"Nearly," she agreed, "But not. Besides, I told you about him. My uncle is dead. The arrangement means nothing. I don't need the strength of Baliene. I need to win back the trust of my own people."
She left the rest unsaid. Winning back the trust of her people could begin with marrying one of them, maybe even someone she loved, maybe even him. She wasn't sure if he was following her train of thoughts but she thought the little spark of hope that seemed to ignite in his eyes at her words might have indicated he did.
"Baliene could protect you," he told her logically. She hated that because he was right and she couldn't deny it.
"And give the rebels what they want, taking me away from my country, my people. Baliene may keep me safe, but the love of my people could save me."
Lord Huntington chuckled wryly before muttering, "Love saves us all in the end."
Briar froze, jaw going slack at the familiar phrase coming from his lips.
"Where did you hear that?" She asked.
"Love saves us all in the end?" He queried. "They're our words. The Huntington family words. They have been for generations."
Briar couldn't help but laugh at that. His family words, the man she had fallen in love with, spoken to her so long ago by her uncle on his deathbed as he told her to find love herself. The irony was thick but something about it felt fateful as well. As if her uncle had somehow known or as if the universe had always meant for this to happen, for them to find each other. And then suddenly, nothing in the world felt more important than this.
"If you ask me, I will say yes."
The words were out of her mouth before she realized she was speaking them or the truth behind them. They caught him off guard for a moment and he blinked back at her in surprise. His confusion made her worry, for a moment, that he hadn't understood what she'd meant but then he cleared his throat and took a step backwards, in retreat.
"You should get some rest, prin- Briar," he told her and then he was out of her room, closing the door behind him, leaving her standing there alone after having bared her soul to him.
She fell onto the bed once he'd gone, determined to revel in her misery, to truly feel the foolishness at having declared her desires so openly when, it seemed, they were not to be returned as she had expected. Lost in her pity, she did fall asleep, unaware of just how tired she had truly been.
She was awakened some time later by raised voices in the hall just outside of her door.
"-won't let you disturb her, Adelaide," someone was speaking. She recognized the voice at once as belonging to Lord Huntington himself.
"She needs to know, Sterling," Adelaide's harsh response came.
"She will. Once she awakes."
"Get out of my way."
"Adelaide-"
"They are demanding she marry, Sterling! That's the latest from the rebellion according to Sir Alfred's letter. They are saying that if Princess Briar were to take a husband to rule as King, they will stop this infernal hunt for her and leave her life in tact. This could save her, Sterling! Why don't you let me tell her?"
"I will, Adelaide. But later. She is resting now. Lord knows she needs it after the week she's had."
"Their terms are that she marries, Sterling. They don't specify who."
Only silence greeted Adelaide's words.
"It could push her to marry you," Adelaide spelled it out for him, as if his silence was due to the fact that he wasn't understanding what she had implied.
"Is that how you think I would want that to happen?" He snapped.
"But you do want it to happen."
No response but the falling of footsteps as Lord Huntington walked away from his clever cousin came in return. And Briar smiled then, experiencing another thrill in this roller coaster of emotions she had been living since she'd met Sterling Huntington. Still, as she fell back into her slumber, far more peacefully now, she could not help but be silently grateful for Adelaide Griffith's meddling wit.