Sleep over took her as Catherine realized something…
She’d fallen for the man she married.
EPILOGUE
Catherine stood on the side of the ball room floor and watched as dignitaries swirled around - ladies in gorgeous gowns, men in formal wear. A few wore the dress uniforms of the branch of the military where they’d served or led as a member of their royal family.
Technically, she was the leader of the Eastern Novigradian military, but she didn’t expect to issue any real orders during her reign. Natural disasters? Sure. Search and rescue? Of course. Send out a more specialized WLR team? A slight possibility, but she was far more likely to send the Water-Land-Rescue team into some sort of special rescue scenario than into actual combat.
It wasn’t just royals and military leaders on the dance floor. Elise Stephens laughed as she danced with Catherine’s father. His smile was genuine, but Mumeleine’s smile had to be pasted on as she danced with one of the leaders of the minority party.
Several of Catherine’s younger siblings danced with people she couldn’t quite place, so they likely weren’t royalty or even children of Parliamentary leadership. Guilt started to eat at her. She needed to get better about knowing people.
Before she could sink too far into the guilt, she felt someone come stand behind her, but even withoutknowingwho it was, she knew it was Jacob.
Her feeling was confirmed when he leaned closer and spoke softly, “May I have this dance, Your Majesty?”
The honorific didn’t annoy her the way she might have expected. Something in his tone precluded that.
Catherine turned her head and smiled. “That would be lovely.”
In a few seconds, they were out on the dance floor.
“Are you having a good time?” Once again, he kept his voice low meaning the other couples surrounding them couldn’t hear.
Fixing a public smile on her face, Catherine gave a slight nod. “It’s fine. I’ve been to a thousand similar events and will likely be at a million more in my lifetime.”
“Hopefully, we can make them a little less mundane. Surely, there’s a way. Maybe we could talk to your father or Madeleine to see what they’ve done?”
Catherine managed a slight shrug she didn’t think would be noticed by anyone else. “I think it’s just something I have to learn to live with. They just may not ever be my favorite thing to do. We all have to do things we don’t particularly enjoy.”
“It would be nice if they could be better.”
“It would.” Catherine didn’t hold out much hope and suspected Jacob wouldn’t either after a few more events like these.
When the music came to an end, they were near the door to the balcony off the ball room. Jacob didn’t ask if she wanted to sneak away for a few minutes, but held the door for her to slip through.
Without an outer layer to protect from the winter chill, she stayed close to the building and the heaters. She made a mental note to see if there was a way to extend the heat all the way to the railing in the future.
Warmth settled on her shoulders, and Catherine realized Jacob had placed his coat around her. “Won’t you be cold?” she asked even as she tugged the lapels together.
He shook his head. “I’m fine.” His hand rested on her lower back as they walked the rest of the way to the balustrade.
Catherine rested her hands on the top rail as Jacob wrapped his arms around her from behind and urged her to lean back against his chest. It felt a little more awkward than the other times he’d done so. The tiara she wore and the up do her stylist had done with her hair meant she couldn’t really rest the back of her head on his shoulder like she would have preferred.
“How much longer do we have to stay?” She could feel the words rumble in his chest.
“We can probably leave whenever we’re ready. The official events have been over for quite a while, but most of the VIPs won’t leave until we do.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
As they walked toward the door, Jacob put his coat back on.
With her hand tucked snuggly in the crook of his arm, they worked their way to the other side of the room. It took longer than it probably should have, but they were stopped by nearly everyone they passed.
At least until they reached her father and Mumeleine. Mumeleine took the spot next to Catherine while her father moved to the other side of Jacob, keeping conversations going so no one else dared to interrupt. The second half of the ball room went much faster.
The conversations remained mundane until after they’d turned a couple of corners so they couldn’t accidentally be seen or heard by anyone.
