There was so much food. Side tables were piled with dishes and platters loaded down with all kinds of foods. Tureens of soups and stews, rolls shaped like small animals, cakes, pies, and so much more.
“How?” I gasped.
Verity passed me with a grin, grabbed some plates, and began to put them out. I wasn’t certain where they’d gotten all the chairs from; there hadn’t been this many before. “Surprise! We’ve been here all day while you packed and met with the streetrats. We did the shopping this morning, as part of our farewell present. The whole crew helped.”
“It’s more than enough, from all of you,” I said, placing the enormous bag of candies on the massive chair that bore a paper crown and a sign with my name, obviously written by a child. I ran my hand on the velvet-cushioned back of the chair that was almost a throne.Wait.Half the chairs were normal ladder-backed kitchen chairs like Haven had around our table at home. But the others… “Aren’t these the same kind of chairs King Rigol has in his study?”
“Had, maybe,” Verity muttered, her focus on setting the table perfectly. “Always thought that room was cramped with so much furniture.”
I sighed. “Please tell me you didn’t rob the castle for this party.” My crew had sworn to stop stealing from the castle, ever since a six-year-old Baby sent all of the queen’s consorts into a panic by nicking a box of taffies off the table in her room.
During one of her annual heats.
I cringed, remembering how angry her Alphas had been when Vali had gone into a weird Omega rage at the foreign scent in her room.
Now that I thought about it, the hams warming in the oven were in large pans that had the royal crest on the ends. “Verity. You stole from the king?”
Verity’s eyebrows flew high as she rounded on me. “Absolutely not!” I’d almost relaxed, when she finished, “I’m a princess, remember? King Rigol said it himself. It’s not stealing if you already own it.”
Amused, but trying to hide it, I sat on the big velvet chair just as a group of girls burst through the door, giggling and carrying wrapped packages. They approached shyly and placed them in front of me. “What’s all this?” Behind them came Peony, Dev andAugusta, all three of them pretending exhaustion and slumping down in chairs when they got to the table.
“This is your feast,” Dev said with a smile, though I noticed a suspicious wetness in her eyes. “The girls declared you their Solstice Queen. Put on the crown, Your Majesty.”
The room filled in minutes, the girls eating and everyone laughing, until Winna entered, with the younger boys of the crew right behind her. They looked like they’d been in a fight, their clothing rumpled and scrapes on their faces. “Is there room at the table for these miscreants?” Winna asked the room.
The women all smiled at King and Baby, as did most of the girls. One or two backed away, until Baby wandered over with a sticky handful of flowers, handing it to one of the girls. She was one of the most traumatized in the group. Her father, an Alpha, had intentionally burned her with hot oil when she was four to punish her mother for dying on him and leaving him to care for the children alone. Seven years later, her skin remained rippled and puckered all along her left side, and she hadn’t been able to speak to a male since.
Baby’s cheeks were bright as he spoke to her softly. “Hiya, Heather. Remember how I told ya your name was a flower? I brought you some. It’s heather.”
She reached out with one trembling hand, touching the purple-red flowers with a gentle finger. “Th-thank you, Baby.”
He blushed even deeper, and I realized that he was close to twelve now. Old enough to be thinking about girls, maybe? “Can I get you to help me do something, Heather?” She nodded timidly. “I need a new name. Baby isn’t… Well, I need a name other than Baby.”
I blinked back tears. His name was the only thing he had from his birth mother. Haven and I had wondered if he’d want to change it someday, but hadn’t pressed him to do so.
To the shock of everyone in the room, Heather reached out with her burned hand and took his, leading him to the side table. “Can I still call you that, though?” she asked. “I like Baby.”
He blinked, swallowed hard, and then dropped his gaze, suddenly fascinated with the floor. “I, ah, I wouldn’t mind being Baby to you.” Everyone forced their eyes away, though my crew all had expressions of wonder and surprise that they tried to mask before Baby noticed.
“What happened on the way over?” I asked King as he perched on the chair next to me.
In answer, he dropped a fancy velvet bag on my lap. “Had to get your Solstice gift.”
I opened the bag, and a bunch of Verdanian coins spilled out. “You stole it?” I guessed.
He scoffed. “I wouldn’t steal your Solstice gift, unlike some.” He squinted at Verity and made a face. “I won it in a dice game, fair and square. They got angry at losing to a ‘lad’ and came after me.”
“Fair and square?” Peony teased. “You’ve never played a fair game of dice in your short life, King.”
“I barely cheated at all!” he protested. When she asked if they might ask around and find out who’d cheated them, he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll just lay low until after the Solstice. They’ll be gone the day after tomorrow, anyway. I heard them talking about it.”
I sighed. “You robbed the Verdanian trade ambassadors I’m going to be traveling with?”
He shrugged. “Where else was I going to get you some walking-around money for Verdan? It’s not like I can make my own. Although, maybe… if I could get just enough gold to cover the outside of a penny’s worth of iron, Smith could help with the design…”
The room went silent as he screwed up his face in thought, dreaming of a counterfeit operation, then exploded into laughter. We were all still laughing when Winna appeared at the doorway and announced, “Ladies? We have two young men who would like to share our early Solstice meal. May I bring them in?”
Four of the women jumped to their feet and scurried out the back door. The rest stood, poised for flight. But when my two oldest brothers appeared in the doorway, Robert dressed as the Solstice King in blue and white velvet with a wide belt and tall black boots, and Trevor as his horse loaded down with dozens of bags, the tension vanished like a snowflake over a flame.
