When she had said Edwin’s soul still remembered, she hadn’t been kidding. My Edwin was an incredibly practical man. The only whimsies he had were his romance books and fascination with regression and memories of past lives. Thankfully for me, he loved researching the topic, which I felt had helped himabsorb everything I’d told him. It was a relief, to be sure, because I hadn’t known what to say to convince him.
Now, finally, after nine years of loving this man, I was able to indulge in him. I could make him my entire world and not have to weigh his importance against something else. I could just bask in having him. He was able to hear from my own lips that I loved him. He hadn’t said it back, nor did I expect him to, as emotionally, he needed more time. Still, just saying those words to him was a relief to me. The fact that he accepted them made me over the moon with joy.
I found it entirely unfair that I still had to do my duties as a prince instead of lying about in bed with Edwin for the rest of the week. Month? Year, definitely year. He let me have a slow morning, which was something of a miracle and said without words how much he wanted to linger in the moment too. My Edwin loved his schedule, so his breaking it this morning to spend more time with me? Well, that proved how much he liked me.
Now we sat in his parlor, picking over the last of breakfast and enjoying a bit of time together before I had to go back into the office. Edwin still had three days off to handle his house’s reconstruction. I couldn’t even see him most of today since he wouldn’t be here.
I was a grown man. I wouldn’t whine about it.
I would sulk, though.
Edwin toyed with the last of his tea, expression thoughtful. “I think I can guess based on what you immediately did upon being adopted—Princess Helena was forced into marrying Gillespie in our first life, wasn’t she?”
Could I kiss him for being so smart? I loved watching his brain at work.
“Yes, she was. It was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish. It’s like he didn’t know what marriage was. Theyhad a large, elaborate wedding and that night he went back to his mommy’s house. Helena was utterly alone for the first six months of her marriage because he refused to move out. Eventually, Gillespie’s mother physically threw him out, but the man didn’t seem to understand that marrying Helena meant he had to go live with her. He instead ‘took himself on a grand adventure,’ or that’s what he said in his farewell letter to his mother, and boarded a merchant ship. It sank a week later in a bad storm.”
Edwin just about snorted tea up his nose. “Gods above and below, seriously? I mean, I knew he was stupid, but—”
“His stupidity’s not in question with anyone. Helena didn’t push him living with her, of course. She didn’t want to deal with him at all. I was told Gillespie refused to move into the palace because he didn’t want to leave his mother and he was perfectly comfortable in his room.”
Edwin dropped his head into his hand and groaned, loud and long.
“Worse, after his death, we learned how much trouble he’d gotten himself into. He was over three hundred and fifty million gold in debt, due to gambling and various bad investments. He had three bastard children, all of his mistresses clamoring for support to raise his children. He was also in bed with Victor in all the wrong ways, truly a crony in every sense of the word. It was a month of bad news after bad news with him. The whole thing embarrassed Beatrice immensely. She and her friend had a massive falling out. It was a relief when Gillespie managed to neatly take himself out of the world. I was going to hire an assassin if he hadn’t.”
“Whatever you need to help Princess Helena avoid the same fate, you have it,” Edwin promised. “That’s just ridiculous. Wait, did she remarry?”
“She did, and her second husband was a good man. Lucien Glass.”
“Oh!” Edwin sat up abruptly and smiled. “Gods, yes, he’s a much better choice.”
Lucien Glass was an earl, but he didn’t sit on his laurels. A businessman like me, he worked hand in hand with mages to create some truly amazing magical tools commoners could utilize. I’d known him since I was about fifteen, both of us starting our businesses within a year of each other, and we’d supported each other from time to time. I thought of him as a good friend.
“When I introduced them, they hit it off immediately and were married within a year. Helena exited the royal family upon their marriage and never looked back. I didn’t blame her. That was about, hmm, three years before the Demon King rose? They had an amazing marriage. I want to not only kick Gillespie to the curb but also reintroduce Glass to Helena.”
“I’m in favor of this. What happened with Prince Royce?”
“He became more of a medical advisor over anything health related in the kingdom. I think he’ll do it again in this life.”
“You did set him up for it.” Edwin was clearly taking mental notes and going through an internal checklist. “You said Victor killed himself off?”
“He was thoroughly wasted—not only with drink but a cocktail of drugs—and went on a rampage through the city. Yelling, hitting anything at hand, just generally throwing one of his temper tantrums. But he’d refused to take any knights or servants, as usual, and somehow wandered into Cabbage Patch.”
Edwin winced in immediate understanding.
Cabbage Patch was the one area of the city that was always a criminal hotbed. I’d often had ideas of how to improve the area, drag it back into a better place to live, but never had a chance in my previous life. Hopefully I could do it in this one. Thepoorest of the poor lived there, and with food prices being what they were, they could only afford very cheap vegetables and rice, augmenting what they could catch from the sea. It meant a lot of cabbage rolls and recipes made of cabbage, hence the prevalent smell of cooking cabbage. The name had stuck so thoroughly, no one remembered what the neighborhood used to be called.
Only the foolhardy or desperate went into Cabbage Patch.
“They found him dead in the street two days later. He’d been knifed several times, everything off him stolen. Even his hair had been shorn to sell.”
“Wooooow.” Edwin shook his head, speechless for a moment. “I figured he was heading toward a bad ending, but I didn’t see that coming. How did Their Majesties take it?”
“Heartbroken, because who wants to lose a child? But also resigned. Like they knew there was nothing they could have done to prevent it. To be fair, that’s true. I saw how much they tried to correct Victor, but he didn’twantto be better. He didn’t want responsibility, he just wanted power and money, same as in this life.” I said something I’d never said aloud to another human being. “Honestly, I sometimes wondered if part of my Task was to keep him off the throne. Just preventing Victor from becoming king likely saved many, many lives.”
“I have to agree with your assessment.” Edwin set his teacup down. “Something you said last night bothers me. You said Retazo’s Wrath originally didn’t happen until almost the end of monsoon season. Why did it happen so early this time?”
“I do not know.” I groaned. I set the last of my khavé aside as well. “I wish I did. It suggests that things can happen with different timing—even in a different order. Which unnerves me. I was so confident going into this life because I knew what to prepare for. Now, I’m less confident. Edwin, honestly, it’s half the reason why I confessed everything to you last night. If things are going to happen early or out of order, then I need you. I needyou like I never have before. You track things so much better than I do. You’re so much more organized. If we’re to stand a prayer, we must do this together and play to our strengths.”
