King Alexandre Enzo Rodrigo Lidia was used to being told what to do. His father had ruled him with an iron fist, and Alexandre had learned how to develop his own sense of duty under the chains of that evil man thanks to his mother. So he liked to think he knew what to do with orders—how to determine if they were the appropriate course of action, if he should give the person doing the ordering the satisfaction of thinking they ordered a prince—now king—or if he would make it clear they had no say over him.
But he did not know what to do with his wife, standing here in this parlor, telling him what to do after Evelyne had trudged away.
“You must interfere,” Ines told him, with quite a bit of fire and determination he had neveronceseen from her in these near ten months of marriage.
She never told him anything. Never insisted upon anything. She was usually exactly as he’d expected she’d be, what King Enzo had wanted the princess to be. Beige. Malleable. Deferential. She was such a tiny little thing, Alexandre hadn’t given thought to the fact there might be any room for much else.
And now she stood, looking down at him in his chair. Telling him—aking—what to do.
He rather wanted to refuse her out of principle, but she was talking about Evelyne and… Well, it was all too clear his sister was miserable, and though he’d seen little of Gabriel, there was no doubt he was the same.
If he knew how to fix it, he supposed he would. The problem was the not knowing. He wasn’t about to admit that to his wife.
“And how do you propose I do that? Evelyne has made it clear she does not wish tomakehim do anything.”
Ines huffed impatiently. He’d had no idea she couldbeimpatient.
“You need to convince him he is not this danger he seems to think. It’s utterly ludicrous.”
Alex frowned. “Evelyne told you…”
“Evelyne has told meeverything. Because she is lonely and miserable and heartbroken. She needs a friend, and I have been that for her. And as perhaps the only impartial bystander here, I can tell you with certainty your friend is being an idiot. You must interfere, Alex. For your sister’s sake.”
She never called him Alex. He did not quite know what to do with this strange turn of events. And he always knew what to do, no matter the turn of events.
Ines inhaled deeply. When she spoke again, she sounded more herself. Her expression was calm, her words rational. “The truth of the matter is, we know what a loveless marriage looks like. We are quite happy to spend our time apart. Evelyne is miserable with Gabriel away. I would wager a guess Gabriel is miserablebeingaway. But they cannot quite see past their own misery.Wecan. We can help them. We must.”
She did not sayif we cannot be happy, at least they can be, but he felt it all the same.
“If I require him to come back here, Evelyne does not need to know it was at my insistence. Perhaps simply spending time together will…”
Ines was shaking her head. “You need to find some way to prove to Gabriel who he really is, not who he thinks he is. He isyourbest friend. You should know how to do this.”
Alexandre would not admit he didn’t have a clue. And he didn’t have to, because Ines whirled away, leaving him alone in the parlor. Chewing over her parting shot. And perhaps this new side of herself she’d shown him.
It wouldn’t do to consider that, though. Not when they no longer needed to create an heir. Thanks to Evelyne. And Gabriel.
So he focused on them.
It took him a little bit, but when he saw he had a meeting scheduled in the morning with the general, Alexandre began to form a plan.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The missive fromAlexandre was a surprise. Gabriel looked at the email requiring his return for a few days of “royal protocol” meetings and frowned.
Gabriel did not wish to return to Alis. The longer he was away, the more he worried his return would end in…poor choices on his part.
He missed Evelyne like a limb. He wasn’t sleeping. His work suffered. His personal assistant had asked—repeatedly—if he should set up a doctor appointment for Gabriel.
No doctor could cure thissicknessinside him. Nothing could. But if he went back to the palace, what might he convince himself would?
Luckily, though it felt nothing like luck, his reaction to being away only brought home one clear and important point. This pain and suffering proved everything he’d told her. Because if he had a reasonable, rational connection to Evelyne, if love could be normal and safe for him, wouldn’t he be handling a separation much better? Perhaps withsomepain but not feeling as though his very life had ended.
But he was dangerously obsessed, and he had to accept this pain and stay away. Forhersake.
Except Alexandre wasrequiringhis presence now.
What choice did Gabriel have? A king’s edict meant he had to obey, particularly now that he was an earl. If he found himself…energized by the flight to France, and perhapsenjoyingthe drive across the border…
