“Encouraged, even.” He gave a languid grin. “Lanover has always been less formal than the northern kingdoms. It’s the heat.”
She gave him a suspicious look, but he appeared to be serious.
“Casual enough that royal princes take secondary jobs as hired hands?”
He laughed. “Not quite. But the people like to see the royal family pitching in and getting their hands dirty from time to time. And my job of choice has always been the orange harvest. I’m a quick hand at orange picking, if I say so myself.”
Natalie followed his gaze to where a small orchard occupied one corner of the vast palace grounds. It was tucked away behind a freestanding building that she guessed to be some sort of servants’ quarters.
Luca led her past the building into the first rows of trees. The scent of apple blossoms surrounded her, and she stopped to admire the beauty of the blooms. But Luca kept walking, going deeper into the orchard, past the apple trees, and she ran to catch up.
“It’s the last harvest for the oranges for this year,” he said, “so I couldn’t miss the opportunity.”
“And you thought I would want to join in?” She said the words with a faintly mocking lilt, but he just smiled at her.
“Wouldn’t you?”
She hesitated, not wanting to admit that he’d judged her correctly. But after a moment she laughed and nodded. Fair was fair.
The workers already spread along the rows of orange trees called greetings to Luca. They addressed him as Your Highness but didn’t stop in their picking for any other formalities. All of them wore large canvas bags, secured with wide straps to their waist or shoulders, and Luca retrieved two more bags from a pile beside the first tree.
He helped Natalie settle one across her shoulders and led her toward a tree laden with bright orange fruit. A simple wooden ladder leaned against the branches, and she eyed it dubiously.
“Don’t worry,” Luca said. “It’s your first time picking, so you can stay on the ground. We’ll work on the same tree—you can do the lower branches while I do the upper ones.”
“So I just…pick them?” Natalie asked.
Luca easily scaled the ladder, pulling an orange from its stem and dropping it into his bag. “Just like that! It’s easy! The hard part is getting anywhere near the speed of the professional pickers.”
He began to pick oranges so fast Natalie could barely follow his hands. Her eyes widened as she watched him, his head bare and his expression carefree as his hands flashed through the leaves. He was mesmerizing to watch.
But when he glanced down at her and raised an eyebrow, she hurriedly took hold of the closest fruit. It twisted easily off its stem, and she dropped it into the bag. Thankfully the canvas receptacle was large enough that its bottom rested on the ground, taking the weight of the oranges. She picked another and another, starting to get a rhythm going, although she was far from Luca’s speed.
“Leo and I used to have competitions when we were young to see who could pick the most oranges in a set amount of time.”He continued working as he spoke, raising his voice just enough that she could catch his words. “I always won, of course.” He winked down at her, and she rolled her eyes.
“I’m sure.” She picked several more oranges. “And I’m equally sure that if Leo was telling the story, his memory would be that he always won.” She shook her head at the exploits of small boys. Some things didn’t change between kingdoms. “I never had oranges growing up. I didn’t taste my first one until I was fourteen.”
Luca looked down at her in surprise. “Why ever not?”
Natalie nearly explained that the mountain kingdom didn’t grow them, so she hadn’t even seen one until the mountain passes were first opened, reconnecting her people with the rest of the kingdoms. But the words died in her throat as she realized her mistake. She was growing far too comfortable around Luca.
“I just…didn’t,” she said, knowing her words sounded strange and cold.
His brow furrowed, but he didn’t challenge her, returning to his work picking oranges instead.
“Well, you’re welcome to as many as you’d like while you’re here in Lanover,” he said. “As you can see, the royal family has plenty.”
“Are these all for the palace, then?” Natalie asked, amazed.
Luca shrugged. “Have you seen how many people live and work at the palace? You’d be surprised how quickly they go.”
They continued to chat as they worked, Natalie keeping a careful guard over her tongue to prevent further mistakes. It was hard to remember her assumed role while they worked side by side. For once, Luca seemed no more like a prince than she was a princess. But she would be wise to remember that for one of them it was only an illusion, while for the other it was a reality she would soon return to.
CHAPTER 12
The orange picking had taken all day, and she and Luca had joined the other workers for the evening meal at the end of it. Everyone had been in the kind of good spirits that only come from enjoying hearty food at the end of a satisfying day’s work. Your muscles might ache, but it was the kind of ache that reminded you you’d earned the chance to sit down and eat well.
Natalie had intended to make a second attempt at depositing the satchel the next day. But one of the girls from the orange picking had told her about a famous seamstress in the city who made gowns of unusual design and material. The girl only worked seasonally at the palace and did odd jobs for the seamstress in the other months, and she would be returning to the city now that the last of the orange trees had been stripped. She offered to introduce Natalie to Reya, the seamstress, and even negotiate a discount on a commission for her.
