The candles had burned low, the wax running rivulets over Genevieve's ornate candlesticks, before she finally insisted we all stop plotting and get some rest.
"But not you," she'd said in Pretanian, "I'd like a word, Tommy."
My gaze slid to Beatriz, who simply shrugged, as if to say I'd brought that upon myself. Frederico eyed the pair of us, then Genevieve, who flapped him away with a tsk and a swift, whispered chiding in Vareinnian. She finally succeeded in herding him towards the stairs when she instructed Rafael to carry him up if his two royal legs wouldn't. Much to Rafael and Beatriz's amusement and Frederico's affront, of course.
"Comtesse," I said, when we were alone, save for the servants hurrying past with the last of the dishes.
"I'd like to take the air," she said simply, "Suis-moi."
My rusty Vareinnian was enough for me to understand "follow me", and I grinned at her decision to use the less respectful suis instead of suivez.
"If I've offended with my penchant for nicknames, Genny, you have only to say so," I said, once the cool night air met us. Crickets chirped in the distant fields, where fires still glowed among the camped army.
Genevieve took a few steps into the town square before she turned to face me. "I could not believe it when Frederico sent word that you'd chosen to stay," she said, as if I hadn't spoken. "Why did you not flee home to the safety of Pretania?"
"Because Pretania will never be safe with Dulciana on the throne. She didn't hesitate to kill her own people to seize her crown, so I doubt she'd stop herself from killing Pretanians to keep it. Or to seize another from the man who jilted her. She's already tried to kill me to make sure she gets her way." I paused to gauge Genevieve's reaction, then went on when she did nothing but stare off towards the army's campfires. "This shouldn't come as a surprise, comtesse. Unless your husband dreadfully misled you about the state of his familial relationships."
She chewed her lip, weighing my words, before she seemed to remember herself and turned back to me. "I knew what I was getting into when I married him. I know what his sister is capable of." Her hand drifted to her embroidered bodice, lingering there for a moment before falling away. "But that still does not explain why you chose to stay here, in a hovel at the border of a dangerous kingdom, rather than go home to your palace to sleep soundly knowing you're safe."
"That's just the thing, though. Of everyone surrounding Frederico, you and I have the least the worry about. Dulciana tried to frame her attempts on my life in Relizia as accidents, but if I'm killed now, my father will have no choice but to retaliate. As for you...well, if I'm not mistaken, your uncle is King of Vareinne, is he not?"
"Oui, he is." She shook her head. "But he will not side with Frederico on account of me." This time, her other hand drifted to her bodice, the one with a ring to match Frederico's. "He will side with whomever is most likely to win, regardless of where I stand. My father had warned me not to get mixed up in Frederico's politics, and yet here I am." She sighed. "The things we do for love."
"Then I suppose it's a lucky thing I'm here to ensure your husband wins." I eyed her bodice. "And to ensure that the Vareinnian king stands with his niece...and her unborn child."
Her hand dropped from her bodice. She studied me, her pale eyes narrowed in consideration. "You're shrewd for a second-born. Have you no desire to go after your own throne instead of helping my husband win his?"
I smiled, shaking my head at the thought of stealing my brother's crown. "Andrew has always and will always be my future king. Unlike your husband, I actually love my elder sibling."
"How fortunate for us, then. And for Beatriz, especially." Her lips curved into a grin. "Which reminds me, you still haven't answered my question."
"Why I stayed?"
"Oui. Though I think I'm starting to piece it together myself." She inspected me as she ambled towards me. "I'm here because I'm in love with Frederico. From the way you kept looking at Beatriz during dinner, I'd say it's something of the same for you, non?"
Sneaky thing, I thought. I wasn't quick enough to keep such a thought from my face, if the way her grin widened into something devious was any indication.
"Don't worry, Tommy. Your secret is safe with me, so long as mine is safe with you." She pressed a hand to her stomach.
I sketched a bow. "Your have my word, Genny."
"Good." She offered another of her crooked-toothed smiles. "If we're being frank with each other, I must admit that normally I'd warn Beatriz away from a troublesome flirt like you. But I'm sure you know by now that she does what she wants. She'd probably enjoy it if you went and found her."
I didn't admit that such a course of action was already exactly what I was planning. Instead, I slid my hands into my pockets.
Genevieve paused beside me on her way back inside. "She hates how cramped the rooms are here, so she's probably up on the roof. Hopefully far enough away to be out of earshot."
She giggled as I glanced upwards, wondering how much of our conversation could have been overheard.
~*~
After knocking twice on what Genevieve assured me was Beatriz' door and not receiving an answer, I made my way onto the balcony outside of the tiny room I'd been assigned. It was barely big enough for the bed it housed, but I'd take a bed over a bedroll any day. Peering up towards the star-smattered sky, then down towards the ground, I blew out my cheeks and sought a hand hold on the rough stones.
It was nothing like climbing a tree. I made an almighty racket scrabbling against the stones a few times until I finally figured it out. But once I finally reached the rooftop, I nearly tumbled back down when a clay shingle I'd used as a handhold slipped free and sailed into the night to clatter onto the wooden balcony below.
A laugh greeted me when I managed to wriggle up onto the roof.
"Is this a secret assassin hiding place?" I asked, swallowing my qualms when one of the shingles slid out from under my foot and skittered away to shatter on the ground three storeys below.
Beatriz's teeth flashed in the moonlight as she sat up, reached over, and yanked my arm before I lost my footing again. "If it's so secret, how did you find it?"
"A little bird led me this way," I huffed as I pushed the hair from my face. "There's a balcony just below this, you know. I find the roof to be a bit dramatic."
She lifted her chin as she settled back against the shingles, still warm from the day's sun. "Are you afraid, idiota?"
"I've never been fond of heights." I considered the shattered shingle, then I considered her. "But there are things I'd choose over fear."
"Things?" Amusement lurked in her tone as I gingerly stretched out beside her, careful to keep from dislodging another shingle. Unlike me, she seemed as comfortable as a cat on a ledge, stretched out as if she didn't care that one wrong move could shatter a bone or two on the dirt below.
"People too," I amended.
Beatriz stared up at the open swath of star-studded sky above us. "What kind of people?"
I gazed down at her, at the planes of her face and their thin bands of scar tissue in the moonlight. "People like you."
She glanced over at me and the hint of a smile that curved her lips stilled the breath in my throat.
It wasn't a terribly large distance, the space between us, and my eyes had already fallen to her lips. I found that I didn't much care about the shattered shingle, or exactly what parts of me might shatter if I leaned in and she didn't take it well. Broken bones could take my mind off other broken parts.
But just as I was about to shift my weight to better angle my approach, her eyes left my face and turned towards the stars.
"I want you to tell me a story," she said, seemingly oblivious to my eyes on her lips and the thoughts ruling my actions.
I blinked, wondering how I could wrench this conversation back towards my own ends. "What kind of story?"
"One you won't want to tell me."
My mouth clamped closed as I considered. "I'll gladly tell you anything you want to know." Taking my life in my hands, I tested the waters by reaching over and tapping the tip of her nose. "But only if I get a story that you won't want to tell in return."
She didn't swat me away and I counted it as a monumental victory. Instead, she looked me over with that wicked, bemused smile on before she said, "Tell me about Adelaide."
**A/N - MORE TO COME TOMORROW!!! Don't worry, I wouldn't leave you with such a cliffhanger for an entire week! ;)
And trust me, you don't want to miss the next chapter...
As always, please take a moment to vote and comment <3***