“What are you doing?”
I started. Clement stood in front of me, a heavy frown on his face. I suspected it was his default look. That, and irritation.
“Going to the kitchens. This place is a maze. It’s like the walls move.”
He scoffed. “You think the walls move?”
I pursed my lips. Was it too late to make a joke out of it? He’d not appreciate it anyway. It’d just bounce straight off his immaculate uniform and puffed chest.
His gaze floated over my shoulder. He paused, hand sliding to the saber by his side. Before I could turn, he grabbed my arm and tugged me down an intersecting corridor. It was so narrow, he had to tow me behind him. I jerked my arm away as we emerged back within the wide aisle that led to Lilyann’s chambers. Or at least I think that’s where we were.
I squared up to him even though I was at least a foot shorter. Heat splotched his neck, and his hand clasped the hilt of his saber. He leaned forward, speaking in an angry whisper.
“Why are you out by yourself? You do know women are going missing. I have enough to do without patrolling your whereabouts as well.”
“Just from in town, though. I’m safe within the castle, right? Only the prince’s fiancées have mysteriously met their ends within the boundaries you so rigidly patrol, my friend.” Goddess save me but winding him up was delightful.
He hissed through his teeth, lowering his face toward mine but didn’t answer my question.
“Am I in danger, Clement?” I repeated.
He pursed his lips, fingers drumming an obnoxiously loud rhythm on the diamond hilt at his waist. “Stay with Lady Lilyanna. That's your job.”
“But that’s not an answer. Stop speaking in riddles and tell me.”
“You’re supremely irritating,” he growled. Thrum-thrum-thrum, his fingers relentlessly struck the diamond.
“I’m annoying?” It took every ounce of self-control I had to not rip the saber from his hands to stop that infernal noise.
He stared at the ceiling, but whether hoping a slab would fall directly onto me or him, I didn’t know. “You’ve been here less than twenty-four hours. You arrived late, and you seem to have no idea what you’re doing and are incapable of doing the one job you’ve been told to do.” He pointed at Lilyanna’s door down the corridor.
I opened my mouth to retaliate, but Clement was staring over my shoulder again. He stiffened.
The prince strolled down the corridor, the Bryn on his heels. “There you are Clement, you read my mind. And, Tam, isn’t it?” The prince smiled at me, dimples popping.
Why did he look so perfect? He was the spitting image of his portrait, not a flaw to be seen.
“Tam? Yes.” Heat itched across my chest and stained my cheeks. “That’s right, Your Highness.” I dipped into a half-curtsey, half-bow. Why was my tongue so thick and my throat so dry?
Clement grimaced behind the prince, and the Bryn arched an eyebrow.
“Please never do that again, Tam,” the prince said with a gentle laugh. “And not only because I have no idea what you were trying to do. Grovel? Spasm?”
Even my ears burned as I tried to mold my face into a neutral expression.
“I don’t wish to be treated like royalty, it’s why I left my mothers' dominion and set up here by myself.”
I nodded. I needed to scratch my neck or fan my face. The embarrassment was cooking me from the inside out.
“I like to treat my staff like family. My mothers hate it, of course, which, along with this tempestuous northern weather, means they rarely visit.” He shrugged and his smile widened. “And I have no plans to change.”
Okay, this was good. Maybe that would mean he would be easier to access. It would certainly make spending time around him while chaperoning Lilyanna far more enjoyable as well. My marks were usually conmen, criminals, and embezzlers. I never asked Siobhan for the details of what they’d done but their secrets spilled out eventually. None had been innocent.
Acid crept up my esophagus, spurred by my wildly thumping heart. How was I to mark him, to physically destroy his life? Was he supposed to deserve it?
I shook myself. It didn’t matter. It never mattered.
The prince gestured for me to walk, and I led him the few paces down the corridor toward Lilyanna’s door. Clement kept himself inserted between us, enforcing his stupid three-foot rule.
