The masked man tripped over his own feet and nearly fell on his ass but righted himself after a few stumbling steps. “Um…I…” The magical man wavered.
“Wait!” the queen cried out, stopping everyone. “You don’t even know his name. I cannot permit you to marry someone whose name you don’t even know.”
“What if I guess it? Can I marry him then?” Hugo suggested.
The queen hesitated. She stood, every muscle in her body seeming rigid, while her smile thinned and became as fragile as frost. “So be it. You may have three guesses. If you fail, you must marry Prince Everand,” she declared.
“I agree to your terms.” Hugo bit back his smirk and turned to the masked man, who suddenly looked nervous. He’d stopped his cavorting but wouldn’t meet Hugo’s eye.
“All right. Is your name Peppercornelius?” he asked, thinking of the eager servant from Wulia.
The masked man snorted and shook his head.
“That’s one,” the queen chimed in, sounding all too pleased.
Hugo took a step closer and furrowed his brow. “Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?” He recalled the odd name from one of Dorian’s books of fairy tales.
“Nope,” the man said with a snicker.
“That’s two. Last guess,” Queen Lilianna crowed.
Hugo didn’t look at the queen. His eyes locked on the masked man. “I hope you want me, because I know your name,” Hugo whispered, and the other man’s eyes snapped up to Hugo’s.
Holding his gaze, Hugo lifted his hand to the mask. He spoke loud enough for the king and queen to hear him. “Is your name Everand Rupert Desmond Rosewood the First?” As each of the prince’s names left his tongue, he hooked his fingers under the chin of the mask and lifted, revealing the handsome face of the man who’d stolen his heart.
“How did you know?” Everand gasped.
“You mean other than the fact that you have both the rose I made and my father’s ring in your room?” Hugo said with a teasing lilt.
“Oh, damn.” Everand swallowed hard. “I forgot about that.” His cheeks flushed, and he glanced over at his mother, looking apologetic.
“But that wasn’t the only clue,” Hugo admitted.
“When did you suspect?” King Hubert interjected, appearing enthralled as if he were watching the last threads of a mystery being tied up.
Hugo turned and bowed to Everand’s royal parents. “After I returned home from my first visit to the palace, I had a chance to think calmly about everything that had happened. Queen Lilianna is known throughout the kingdom as a fair, rational, practical leader. If all those things were true, why would she react so strongly to such a ridiculous story? It made no sense.Everyoneknows that spinning straw into gold is impossible. Unless Queen Lilianna knows for certain that it’s not impossible. She would also know that a person with such a unique magical skill would become a target for every criminal and villain.” Hugo paused and dragged his eyes from Queen Lilianna to Prince Everand. “She would do anything to protect that person, especially if he was her own son. Even if it meant threatening some silly but otherwise harmless nobodies. My suspicions were mostly confirmed on my next visit to the castle, especially after I spotted the rose and ring in Everand’s possession.”
“Hugo…” Everand’s voice trembled on his name and died before he could continue.
“She enlisted your help to test me. If I was innocent, you’d save me by spinning the straw. If I was guilty of some dark scheme, you’d leave me to be executed,” Hugo guessed. His voice was neutral, neither condemning nor forgiving. He stared at the queen and frowned. “I just don’t understand why you felt a need to test me a second time. You knew the truth. Prince Everand would have reported it to you. I even wanted to confess,but Prince Everand blocked my efforts, so it wasn’t about my integrity.”
Queen Lilianna winced and twisted her fingers together. “I was meddling.”
King Hubert snorted, and Queen Lilianna smacked his arm again as she dropped onto her throne beside him. “As if your efforts to get our son married have been any more fruitful.” She turned her attention to Hugo and sighed. “Ever was so excited about you after he returned from that incident in the woods. He gushed about you. Every sentence out of his mouth possessed your name. He was smitten with you after your first meeting in the tower.”
Hugo blinked, his mind racing to catch up after getting stuck on the queen’s pet name for her son.
A low groan rumbled from beside him, and he glanced over to find Everand standing with his hand covering his face, but it wasn’t enough to hide his bright-red flush. “Mother,” he grumbled under his breath.
“After his poor first impression with you at the luncheon, I thought you might need an extra nudge to help draw you to him. Especially since he didn’t seem confident that you were fond of him. A bit of danger to get you to lean on him.” She threw up her hands. “I shouldn’t have meddled.”
Not fond of him? Hadn’t they exchanged some rather heated kisses in those woods?
Or maybe Prince Everand had skipped that part in the storytelling with his mother.
A gentle smile formed on Hugo’s lips as he gazed at Everand. “It’s okay. I was already in love with him by the time we escaped the forest.”
“Hugo, my treasure, I’m sorry. I should have confessed long ago. You must have been so fearful of being in the palace. I was a coward.”
