Saving the Immortal

Chapter Twenty-Two: Instructions Before Leaving

He summoned Bess the following morning, before I had properly woken, and I learned of the conversation only afterward, when she came to help me dress and could not entirely conceal how thoroughly it had weighed upon her.

"His Highness spoke with me at length," she said, arranging the pins in my hair with rather more care than the task strictly required, the specific carefulness of a woman choosing her words as deliberately as she chose each pin's placement.

"About what," I asked, though I suspected, given the particular gravity of the past day, that I already understood well enough.

"About you, my lady," she said. "He asked that I remain close to you while he is away. That I keep you company, and see to your comfort, and—" She hesitated slightly.

"And what," I prompted.

"And that I make certain you have as little dealing as possible with his brothers' wives," she said finally.

I found him later that morning in the small library adjoining our quarters, reviewing what appeared to be maps of the coming campaign, and could not resist raising the matter directly.

"I understand you have been giving Bess instructions concerning my company," I said.

He looked up from the maps, something almost sheepish crossing his features — an expression I had not yet seen from him, and found, despite my mild irritation, rather endearing regardless.

"I have," he said, without apology.

"You did not think to consult me on the matter first," I said.

"I did not," he admitted. "Forgive me. I am accustomed, I think, to arranging protection for those I care for without pausing to ask permission first. It is a habit born of considerable practice, given how rarely anyone has ever cared enough to arrange such protection for me in return."

Something in that admission softened whatever irritation I had felt, though I did not let it entirely go unaddressed.

"You could simply have asked me to be cautious around them," I said. "I am not incapable of exercising my own judgment."

"I know you are not," he said. "But Delia's warnings and Marrow's cruelty have already shown you plainly enough what this family is capable of, and I will not be here to intervene should any of them decide your absence from my protection presents some opportunity worth pursuing."

"You believe they might harm me," I said, "while you are away."

"I believe," he said carefully, "that Fennick has spent his entire life preparing to secure the throne by whatever means prove necessary, and that his wife has shown considerably more interest in my fate — and by extension, yours — than simple courtesy would explain. I do not intend to leave you unprotected against whatever schemes they might consider while I am occupied on a battlefield three days' march from here."

I considered this a long moment.

"Bess is a maid," I said finally, "however loyal. What protection can she truly offer against a prince's schemes, or his wife's calculations?"

"More than you might expect," he said. "She has served this household longer than any of my brothers' wives have been part of it, and she knows this palace's every corner considerably better than they do. I have also arranged for two guards, personally loyal to me rather than to my father's court, to remain stationed near our quarters at all times."

"You have thought of everything," I said.

"I have thought of what little I am able to control," he said, "given that I cannot control the far greater matter of whether I return to you at all. Forgive me if I have been thorough about the smaller things, Ivy. It is, perhaps, the only comfort I can properly offer myself in the face of everything I cannot."

I crossed to where he sat and pressed a kiss to his forehead, something I had not done before, the gesture arriving before I had properly considered it.

"Thank you," I said quietly, "for thinking of me so carefully, even while preparing for war."

He looked up at me, something warm and startled both crossing his expression at once.

"I think of very little else," he admitted.

"Then promise me one thing in return," I said.

"Anything," he said.

"That you will think of yourself with the same care you have shown in thinking of me," I said. "I require you to return, Ruselon. Bess and guards and careful instructions will mean very little to me if you do not come home."

Something in his expression shifted at that, deep and quiet, and he reached for my hand, holding it against his chest where I could feel his heart beating steadily beneath my palm.

"I intend to," he said. "With everything I possess."