WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

17. Olivander-2

f**k. Things never went well when he referred to me as son, but I kept my voice casual as I set down my silverware and answered, “Of course.”

The king pointed his gravy-soaked bread at the servants and guards in the room and said, “Out! Now.”

I caught Erick’s eye as everyone but us seated at the royal table exited and shut the doors behind them. His grave expression told me he was just as worried about what the king had to ask me as I was.

Once only the Bjorn family remained, the king turned back to me. “Now…” His piece of bread aimed my way. “I’m going to ask you one last time; what was your purpose for going to Belle this week?”

I looked him dead in the eye, wondering what he knew. Then I said, “My intent was to travel to the village of Ashley. Not Belle. And I told you—”

“Hogwash!” he cut in, then paused to chew on his bread. After swallowing, he took a drink and motioned toward me. “I had a visitor arrive here from Belle the very day you left for there. Are you telling me you had nothing to do with that?”

A visitor? I squinted, not sure what he was referring to. I itched to glance Erick’s way and ascertain if he had a clue what this was about, but I refrained.

Shaking my head, I said, “Since I have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m going to have to say no. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Who was the visitor?” Erick asked, letting me know he also had no prior knowledge of this.

The king was silent for a moment. Then, setting both hands on the table on either side of his plate, he sat back in his seat and said, “He said his name was Ambrio. And he claimed he was my son.”

Erick and I exchanged startled glances. We knew our father had to have impregnated many women over the years, when he wasn’t married to our mother, but he’d never let any of those pregnancies make it to childbirth before.

“You mean, you have a living bastard?” my brother asked incredulously.

The king shook his head and concentrated on chewing a row of corn from the ear he was eating. “No,” he finally grumbled. “Claims he’s legitimate.”

“I’m sorry,” I spoke up, unable to stop blinking. “But what did you just say?”

“Your mother wasn’t the first woman I married, you know,” he told me as if that should explain everything.

“But that wife died before giving you any issue,” I blurted. He’d barely even been married to her a year, from what I’d read in the Bjorn history scrolls.

“She died in childbirth,” the king corrected. “And the babe supposedly died as well. I saw a dead infant with my own eyes. But this prick swears the midwife put a corpse in his crib and stole him away to be raised as a commoner in Belle.”

My mouth fell open. Then I shook my head in disbelief because—

“If he’s telling the truth, then he would be the true crown prince,” Erick surmised.

I turned to gape at him. Because no.

Erick had to be the next King of High Cliff. The only reason I had any hope for this realm at all was because Erick was supposed to take over after my father was gone.

I’m not sure if I could bear it if that changed.

So I turned to the king and demanded, “And if he’s not telling the truth?”

The king shrugged. “Then the liar will be hanged in front of all so I can teach the realm a lesson to never attempt to trick a king.”

“Where is he now?” Erick wanted to know.

“I have him in the dungeon until a blood-testing mage from Near Shore can make it here to determine his lineage.”

“And if he is the rightful heir?”

“Then we need to handle this delicately,” the king said, his face darkening over the very possibility. “We need to be able to discover who else knows about this and eliminate them as well.”

“As well?” Erick repeated. “You mean, you plan to kill this man, whether he’s of your blood or not?”

The king leaned toward him and pointed sternly. “That stranger was not raised by me. And if he’s telling the truth, he came from a b***h of a woman I married before your mother. I’ll tell you now, no one but a son from Odette’s womb is succeeding me to this throne. Do you hear me?”

“But if he’s the rightful heir—” Erick started.

“Then I will make it so he is not.” Glaring around the room at all of us, he added, “And I don’t want a word of this getting out to anyone. We need to appear as a united front if this scandal leaks. And the best way to divert attention from would-be rumors is to have a royal wedding. Don’t you think?” His attention veered toward me. “Which is why I’ve sent for your mate, Olivander. She should be here within the next few days.”

My stomach dropped.

But, oh hell.

What was he going to think when he heard back that Unity had evaded his men?

And here, I thought he still suspected me of foul play with the Indigo situation. Dammit. Now, he might actually start to grow suspicious of what I was doing behind his back.

“I don’t care if you’re ready to marry her or not,” he was saying. “You two will wed before the end of the moon cycle.”

I nodded, not quite able to catch a full breath. But when I answered, “Of course, Father,” I knew I sounded perfectly agreeable and on board with his plan.

Inside, however, I thought of Amara.

I hadn’t even known her a day, and yet a strange sadness filled me. Everything would have to change once Unity arrived.

But, God, how was I going to keep my young mate safe from my pursuits in breaking the curse? And helping Dori find a way home? And, damn...finding those R-generation Graykeys?

I’d forgotten about them.

I was going to have to leave tonight to fetch Unity and get her back here before the king realized something was wrong. But what were the two ladies currently residing in my bedchambers supposed to do while I was away? And how would Unity deal with their presence?

Dammit, this was a fine mess I was in.

The king belched loudly, dragging my attention from the spiraling thoughts swirling through me. “Well, that’s that, then,” he announced, slapping the table once and pushing to his feet. “I expect all of you to keep an eye out for any news of this leaking and report back to me immediately if you do.”

And he strode from the dining hall, done with us.

Once he was gone, Erick hissed out a long sigh, closed his eyes, and bowed his head.

“Are you sad, Daddy?” Ipsy asked as she crawled into his lap and wound her arms around his neck.

With her seat freshly available, Ianna immediately scooted over to take it so she could clutch Erick’s arm and lean toward him.

He leaned back, soaking up his wife’s comfort, even as he lowered his face to kiss Ipsy on the top of her head. “Not sad, baby. Just worried.”

When he looked up to meet Ianna’s gaze with a telling glance, she bit her lip and asked, “Do you think this man is an imposter or telling the truth?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted wearily. “But we definitely can’t let him die if he’s the legitimate heir to the crown.”

She grinned out a shaky laugh. “How did I know you were going to say that? But honestly, I’m not sure if I’m relieved by the possibility or frightened?”

He smiled softly, then kissed her cheek. “I’m the same. God knows it’d be nice if we didn’t have to bother with the headache of taking on this kingdom after the old man finally breathes his last, but I’d like to know that whoever does take over can actually handle such responsibility and won’t be even worse for our realm than who we’ve got now.”

“Well, I don’t agree,” I spoke up. “I hope he’s a liar. I can’t imagine anyone else running this kingdom but you.”

“Me too, Daddy,” Ulyssa spoke up as she took her mother’s abandoned seat in order to get closer to the rest of the family. “You’re going to be the best king ever.”

When she stretched a hand across her mother to reach him, Erick took her fingers and squeezed. His eyes crinkled with affection as he cast his gaze around to all of us still seated at the table.

“My champions,” he murmured fondly. Then he sighed and tugged his napkin out from underneath Ipsy, making her giggle in the process, and he set it on the table. “Either way, I want to meet this man. Right away.” He looked my way. “Olivander?”

I nodded immediately. “I’ll escort you to the dungeons, my lord.”

He inclined his head in thanks, then tickled Ipsy to get her to scurry off his lap, shrieking out a shrill laugh and diving toward her mother for safety as she went.

“Can I go with you?” Ashe asked, popping out of his chair to follow his father when both Erick and I stood.

“Not tonight, little man.” Erick set a hand on his shoulder and sent him a warm, trusting look as he added, “I’d feel safer if you stay with your mother and sisters.”

Ashe stiffened his shoulders and nodded as if he’d just been given the task of being the ultimate protector. He even slid a bejeweled dagger from his pocket that Unity had sent him last year for his birthday and discreetly flashed it at me, letting me know he was ready for danger.

It took everything I had not to c***k a smile as I bobbed up my chin in approval. Then I huffed out a surprised breath when Ulyssa unexpectedly dove against me and hugged me around the waist in greeting.

“Hey there, princess,” I laughed, hugging her back. “What’s this all about?”

“Pass that along to Unity for me, will you?” she asked as she pulled away to lift her hands to her hair. “She told me about a new hairstyle they have at the academy now, and I love it. They’re called buns.”

It looked like her hair had been coiled on either side of her head to make an extra set of ears to me, but I had to admit, they were adorable on her. “They’re lovely,” I said, which caused Ipsy to announce that she wanted buns too.

“Then let us retire to our rooms and put some buns in your hair as well,” Ianna suggested, rising to her feet with Ipsy still in her arms.

Then she kissed her husband goodbye before turning to me with raised eyebrows, silently commanding me to keep him safe. I bowed my head briefly, letting her know I understood, so she kissed my cheek next, murmuring, “Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials, brother. It’ll be nice to have Unity back again.”

I bobbed my head, without saying anything and managed to smile as if I agreed, even though my stomach knotted with tension over the very idea. “Yes,” I murmured vaguely. “It will.”

Trying not to think about weddings and child brides, I stood next to Erick and watched his family file from the dining hall before we glanced at each other and then left ourselves to start toward the dungeons together.

“Well, at least we know he wasn’t suspicious of you for any of the reasons he actually should’ve been,” Erick murmured, nudging my arm with a grin.

I sighed. “Yes. Except I received a message from Unity today at the library—”

“The library?” he repeated in surprise.

I shrugged, not sure how she’d trained a messenger to land there either. “She says the king’s men arrived for her last night, but she evaded them and went into hiding.”

“She did what?” His incredulous expression almost immediately broke into a grin as he shook his head. “I always knew that ornery little cuss was a clever girl.”

“Indeed.” I nodded. “Except when his men report back to Father with no Unity in tow, what is the king going to think?”

Erick slowed to a stop and faced me, his lips parting with concern. “He’s going to think you suspected him of ill will against your mate. And then he’s going to wonder what you’ve done wrong that would cause him to do any kind of harm to her. My God, we need to find Unity. Quickly.”

I nodded. “I’ll leave tonight to fetch her.”

But he shook his head, still agitated. “And what of the woman in your bedchamber? I assume she’s still there. Then there’s the situation involving Indigo you need to resolve.”

I inclined my head again, declining to mention that the one woman in my bedchamber had doubled to two.

“How can I help?” Erick asked immediately.

But I merely sighed. “No. I don’t want you involved.”

He sighed too. “Vander...”

“It involves helping more Graykeys,” I hissed, keeping my voice low.

My brother paused and sent me a sharp glance.

“I don’t want you involved,” I repeated with more force. “There’s no need to risk you, your wife, and the children when I can handle this.”

Except I had no idea how I was going to handle it.

Erick frowned at me a moment before shaking his head. “Just what the hell did Indy drag you into?”

A mess was what I wanted to answer. But all I murmured was, “Nothing I can’t control. Trust me, all will be well.”

And to help divert his attention, I bumped his arm. “Speaking of Indigo. Did you know we might share some ancestors with him?”

He blinked. “What’s that, now?”

I explained to him how my new assistant and I had been studying genealogies and that we’d stumbled across some Moasts in our tree.

“Oh, I can’t wait to tell Urban this,” Erick chortled, rubbing his hands together in glee.

I smiled. “My thoughts exactly.”

We reached the entrance to the dungeons then, but the knight guarding the door wouldn’t let us in.

Erick narrowed his eyes. “But I’d like to speak with a prisoner inside.”

The man shook his head. “Sorry, my lord. But I got orders directly from the king himself. No one goes in there, especially you two.”

The crown prince flashed his teeth and huffed out a breath but managed to rein in his irritation. “Well then,” he said, grabbing the lapels of his jacket and giving them a savage jerk. “I guess I better have a word with my father, shouldn’t I?”

The guard seemed to sag in relief. “Very well, my lord,” he said. “Thank you.”

Together, my brother and I turned away and started off again.

“Miserable son of a b***h,” Erick growled. “What did he think we were going to do?”

“Break our brother free and help him take over the crown?” I guessed on a lazy shrug. When Erick cast me a moody scowl, I added, “Well, we would have, wouldn’t we?”

“Only if he were actually our legitimate brother.”

“He must look an awful lot like the king,” I surmised, “if Father’s already taking these kinds of measures to keep us from him.”

“f**k,” Erick muttered and rubbed his face with both hands. “Why did he even bother to tell us about this if we’re not even allowed to do anything about it? And drag my wife and children and your Unity into the mess, too? I’ll never understand him.”

“I’ve come to think,” I started slowly, “that the only time Father tells us anything is to test our loyalty toward him.”

My brother sniffed. “If he wanted our constant support and allegiance, then maybe he should’ve become a man who deserved it.”

“If only.” I sighed and shook my head, unable to capture his level of frustration.

“That’s it,” he announced. “I’m going to go talk to him. Right now.”

“To Father?” I asked incredulously, only to reach out and grip his arm. “No. Don’t. Questioning him now will only irritate the situation. He’ll view your actions as insubordinate and treasonous if you do anything that doesn’t seem a hundred percent compliant. You have to appear completely loyal. Now more than ever.”

He huffed out an irritated growl and scowled. “Then what the hell are we supposed to do? This man’s life is in danger.”

“No worries,” I assured. “My soldiers will no doubt return home from Tipton before the blood-testing mage from Near Shore can get here. So I’ll have them dig around and see what they can discover. And if we need them to, they can break our possible brother out of the dungeon. And we can go from there.”

Erick blew out a relieved breath and inclined his head. “Okay,” he said. “That sounds like a good idea. Thank you.”

“Of course,” I returned, only to blow out my own breath that was anything but relieved, since I had other issues to worry about just now. “Meanwhile, I need to be going.”

He gave a distracted nod. “Yes, I understand. Godspeed, little brother. And take care. Give Unity a kiss for me.”

“I will.” We clasped hands, met each other’s gazes, then nodded, before parting ways.