I groaned, already sick of the pair of them.
“Whatever for?” Princess Helena demanded, voice rising in outrage.
“That’s unfortunately the part I didn’t get to hear, but from how they discussed it, she’s to be payment for some service rendered by Prince Victor.”
And somehow this became even more disgusting.
“Who?” James demanded, his anger quiet, hands clenched into fists. “Did you get her name?”
Tremon didn’t look happy at all as he answered, contempt in the flat line of his mouth. “Julia Crovan.”
Somehow this just got worse. I threw up in my soul a little bit.
Everyone in the room made a noise of surprise and disgust at the same time. Julia Crovan was just a girl, barely fifteen. The only daughter of Duke Meltas Crovan, she was incredibly beautiful and, unfortunately, somewhat spoiled. Her interest in Prince Victor was well known amongst society, but still, even she didn’t deserve to be given to Prince Victor for his slimy pleasure.
“Girl’s not even of marriage age yet,” Jo Ann muttered behind me in condemnation. “Why her?”
I didn’t know why Victor had chosen her as a target, and it was likely a whim more than anything, so no point in guessing. When I realized something else, it put a chill over my heart.
According to James, in our first life, no one had stopped Victor from bedding Julia Crovan, which resulted in a child. A child absolutely no one wanted. Duke Crovan had demanded the prince marry his daughter and make it right or, at the very least, acknowledge the child as royalty. The thing was, though, this wasn’t the first son Victor had sired. Far from it, actually. The baby was, like, the sixth or seventh of his sons. None of those children had even been acknowledged except for the mothers being given a stipend for child-rearing expenses. Duke Crovan’s demand was a slap in the face to the other mothers, but also, this was very dicey terrain to cross. In order to legitimize the baby, Julia Crovan would have had to marry Prince Victor. If acknowledged, the baby would have been in the line of succession, and absolutely no one in the royal family wanted that. Having the Crovans tied to a prince would have meant backing Victor’s right to take the throne. A fate that must be avoided.
But not legitimizing the son had resulted in catastrophe. When the country next faced a serious problem—namely theDemon King rising—Duke Crovan had refused to send aid. Not money, supplies, or manpower. The dearth of his support had damn near ended the country.
My eyes met James’s, and I saw his remembered stress and horror. No wonder James had two spies following the troublemakers. And thank Vuheia he had, otherwise this disaster would have repeated itself without us knowing.
“You’re right, Tremon,” James said quietly. “We must stop this from happening. Helena, apologies, can we delay our planning for now?”
“Absolutely,” she assured him. “If anything, this might give us more fuel for the fire. Should we warn Duke Crovan?”
That was what I would have done, but I could tell from the evil glint in my lover’s eye he didn’t intend to. I eyed him warily, absolutely sure he was going to do something I wouldn’t approve of.
“James,” I warned, “whatever you’re about to say, be sensible, please.”
His grin widened. “Dearest, how about we go join them tonight?”
I sighed. From my soul. There was his craziness. “You’re going to catch them in the act.”
“I am. I’ll protect the girl from being violated, but I think her being caught with the crown prince will very nicely put a few more nails in various coffins.” The child with a prank up his sleeve was back. “Oh, this will be quite fun. Helena, I think you should join us.”
“Well, someone has to chaperone the girl, so I’d better.”
I looked between the two siblings, saw the same expression of evil glee upon their faces, and abruptly gave up. There was no use. They were determined to do this and would likely have fun to boot.
I’d best rally the knights. If this didn’t dissolve into a fight, I’d be quite surprised.
Thirty-four
James
I gave my knights a beatific smile. “All right, let’s go whoring!”
Edwin, who stood at my side, rolled his eyes while my knights huffed a laugh. No one took me seriously. What? It was fun to say!
For this, I had brought my most stalwart, I-don’t-take-shit knights. Namely, Sir Collins, Sir Pedan, Dame Temperance, and Captain Rowan. Captain Rowan, for all that he was captain, wasn’t actually the scariest of the bunch. That would be Dame Temperance. Let’s just say, her mother did not name her well.
We’d all gathered in the back courtyard of the palace, which was basically only used for the reallybigparties when everyone was invited and there was no other place to put them. Victor used this route to escape the palace since there wasn’t much security or eyes back here to spy upon him.
I’d commandeered a nondescript carriage for myself, Helena, and Edwin. The knights were to ride not in uniform but in their own street clothes, the better to blend in with. The one caveatwas their weapons, but I hoped this didn’t come down to an actual fight. A fight would be difficult to manage later on.
