C.J. Miller - The Secret King

“I was close to the princess during the massacre at her castle. I prevented one of the assassins from attacking her.” Short and to the point. No use drudging up the gruesome details of that night or saying “killing her.” Hearing him mention the tragedy had to be hard enough for Serena.

Serena looked at the ground and Casimir knew she was trying to compose herself. Grief was a brutal, unrelenting animal. He would have done anything in that moment to take away some of Serena’s pain.

Katarina folded her hands in front of her. “I see. Then allow me to thank you on behalf of my son for saving his bride’s life.”

Serena’s chest lifted and lowered as she took a deep breath. She seemed to be pulling herself together and when she lifted her head, her expression was calm. “Has His Highness arrived?”

“Not yet. Please, Serena, let’s have a little girl talk. What do you say?”

Before she could answer, Katarina turned to Serena’s guards. “You may wait inside.”

Serena straightened. “My guards stay with me.”

“The king has guards to protect his palace. You are not in danger while you are on the premises.”

“As you can imagine, after what I have been through over the past several weeks, I would feel better if my guards remained close.” Serena’s voice was saccharine sweet but there was no mistaking the edge in it.

“Very well.”

Casimir bowed to the women and strolled inside. Serena was timid in some ways, but when pushed, she wouldn’t hold back defending herself. He had thought Serena would be easy to manipulate, but seeing her strength in action was impressive. Made his plan harder, but notched up his respect for her.

* * *

Serena would not be shoved around by her future mother-in-law. Starting the relationship on that note would doom her marriage and Serena already had doubts about its future happiness.

“I know you are adjusting to your new position, but I should warn you, being alone with a man who is not my son is asking for trouble.”

It annoyed Serena to be spoken to condescendingly as if she were a teenager and the implication, that she had been doing something wrong by talking to Casimir, pissed her off. Her emotions were on a hair trigger, admittedly, but she thought Katarina had crossed a line. “Casimir is a man of honor. I am not ashamed to be seen with him in any context.” Maybe not naked with him in bed, which would certainly be inappropriate, but she was dressed and in view of her guards and the guests at the dinner party. But now that she was thinking about being naked with Casimir, she had trouble putting it out of her mind. Despite the coolness of the night air, heat flamed up her back and a new tide of arousal washed over her. Utterly distracting.

“I don’t say these things to chastise you, but if you read up on the history of the royal family of Rizari, you will find the implication of any disloyalty is not taken lightly.”

How would King Warrington react if she spoke to or flirted with another man? Behead her? “I will look into that.”

Katarina lowered her head, but Serena did not mistake the gesture for subservience. She would need to watch her back when it came to Katarina. Serena hadn’t planned to make an enemy of the king’s mother, but if she felt attacked, she would defend herself. She wished her sister was around to ask about the queen. The thought brought another wave of loss crashing over her.

“I will have my son send over some literature.”

“Speaking of your son, do you know where the king is?” Serena asked. Why invite her to a dinner party and then stand her up? He had to know she’d traveled a distance to be in attendance.

Katarina looked into the dining room. Stalling for time to manufacture a lie? “I know he had an important meeting this afternoon. Perhaps he lost track of time.”

“I see. That does not bode well for our relationship.”

“You cannot expect the king to be someone he is not.”

What did that mean? Expecting him to show up for plans he’d made wasn’t expecting too much. She was the princess and she had cleared her schedule. Serena had been second all her life. Everyone whom she’d loved had put her behind something or someone else more important. She could not live with being her husband’s second, at least not in his heart.

“I will keep that in mind in the future.” Serena walked away from Katarina, feeling daggers being shot at her back.

When Serena reentered the dining room, the same sense of dread and anxiety volleyed through her. Relying on her coping mechanisms, she found a chair in the corner of the room and sat, watching. Her gaze was drawn to Casimir. He was the most handsome man in the room. Apparently, the other women thought so as well. They fawned over him, touching the sleeve of his suit coat, practically stroking him to win his attention.

After several moments, he glanced toward the patio. Her heart thumped hard. Was he looking for her? Checking on her? He looked around the room and when he saw her, he said something to the woman he was speaking to and strode to Serena.

“Pleasant conversation with the king’s mother?” he asked.

“I’ve been warned that you could sully my reputation.”

“She said that?” He sounded incredulous.

“Not in those words. But apparently, I should have eyes and words only for women friends and the king. The king who is not yet here.”

Casimir’s eyes darted left and right. “Is this your first time in the palace?”

She must have made him nervous with her negative observation about the king. She had been thinking about Casimir so much, building him up in her head, she’d forgotten that she didn’t really know him. He had no reason to trust that she would not relate anything negative he said back to the king. She felt embarrassed for putting him in that position. “It is my first time in the palace. It is beautiful. My one complaint is that I can’t hear the sea.”

“The sea is a distance from the palace.”

“I won’t live here,” she said, thinking of the future.

“The king might be surprised when his bride moves to the beach,” Casimir said.

She hurried to explain, trying not to make him think less of her. “I used to fish and swim laps in the Mediterranean Sea and walk along the shore where the waves met the sand, letting the water cool my feet. I can’t give that up.” Not forever. She wished she were in her beach house now, listening to the water with Casimir.

“Marriage in any context is a negotiation.”

Except that in her case, she had none of the power and it entailed a lot of personal sacrifice with little personal gain in return. Acacia needed Rizari far more than the other way around.

On their first meeting as intended fiancés, the king was late. Was this an indication of how she would be treated during their marriage? Serena had a sense of foreboding. On the heels of that emotion was anger that the king thought so little of her. Would he have been late if he were meeting with Danae? Or perhaps the king was dreading this marriage as much as Serena was and looking for a way out. But if he offered an alliance without marriage, she would be turning Acacia over to King Warrington without any legal protection. That didn’t sit right with her.

Her father had always told Serena that she should not accept subpar treatment from anyone. She had tried to be pleasant and accommodating, despite the challenges she was facing. But the well of pleasantness was about to run dry. The last several weeks had depleted it.

A woman stumbled over to them and slid her arm around Casimir. She kissed the underside of his jaw. “I am so glad to see you. You make these dull parties fun.”

The woman took a big swallow from her glass of wine and glared at Serena. “Who are you?” The question sounded borderline hostile.