He shook his head, as if irritated with his own words. “No, that is not right. I don’t want to be in opposition to them or the memory of them any longer. I want to build something myself. I wantusto build something. No measuring sticks. Just us trying to do our best with this love. For our kingdom, for each other, for our family.”
Ines absorbed those words, and in them she heard the promise of a future—not perfect, not healed. But the journeytowardhealing. The journey of life with highs and lows, peaks and valleys, but love through it all.
“I will want to get rid of that hideous comforter on your bed,” she managed to say, though her throat was tight and her words came out raspy. “And those curtains are an atrocity.”
He smiled, the curve of his mouth so rare, and so wholly for her. “If you are with me every night, you have free rein, my queen.”
She gripped his wrists, his hands still on her face. She met that serious gaze with her own. “Iamyours,” she said fiercely, because she would be fierce about this. About love.
“And I am yours.” One hand slid off her face, smoothed down over her stomach. “Both of yours.”
Epilogue
KINGALEXANDREENZORODRIGOLIDIAworked very hard to be a good king. He served his people and endeavored to make the right decisions for his kingdom. He still tried to fix his father’s mistakes as king. No matter what happened, he would always wish to leave this kingdom to Gabri much better than he found it.
But, regardless of the outcome, he did not measure himself against the poor choices of his father.
He measured his success as a king against the quality of life of his people—lowered poverty and crime. Better health and education outcomes. Peace.
When it came to being a man, Alex didn’t think of his father at all. He worked equally as hard to be the kind of man deserving of a wife as loyal and strong and wise as Ines, and a daughter as bright and happy as Phillipa.
Balance was not always easy or possible, and it still was not comfortable to sometimes need to pour more into being king and sometimes needing to pour more into being husband or father. But life was perhaps not meant to be easy.
Life was meant to be love.
And the palace that had once been filled with violence and anger and the pathetic whims of a morally bankrupt man was now filled with that love—Gabriel continued to work as Alex’s closest adviser while Ines and Evelyne worked together to head charitable organizations and movements within the kingdom. Gabri and Phillipa grew like weeds—and Evelyne was due to bring another baby into the royal family soon.
“Pada!”
Alex got up from his desk at the sound of his daughter running into the office. She could not seem to decide betweenpapaordada, so she called him a mix of both.
It never failed to make him smile. She rushed over to him, and he hefted Phillipa into his arms as she nestled her head into his shoulder. She had her mother’s blue eyes and his black hair. He swept a hand over the flyaway of it now—it often came out of the bands Ines lovingly placed each morning.
His darling Phillipa was not displaying sweetness for the sake of being sweet this morning. She was becoming quite the master escape artist. Something Ines was telling him he needed to discourage.
Alex couldn’t quite bring himself to do so. Not when she escaped Ines’s or Evelyne’s or Jonet’s or the nanny’s watchful eye and came for him. Every time.
“Of course,” Ines said, sweeping into the room with narrowed eyes. “There you are.”
Phillipa dug in deeper.
“Picking her up is a reward, Alex,” Ines chastised, coming over to stand next to them. “You’ll regret indulging her escapes when she is a teenager trying to do the same.”
Alex made a noncommittal noise, drawing Ines into him with his free arm. He pressed a kiss to her hair. “Let us all escape. This afternoon.” He was still not a particularly spontaneous man, but sometimes love swept through him and he wanted to indulge in it. Away from the palace and responsibilities. Just him and his family.
Ines raised a brow. “Don’t you have meetings tomorrow?”
“They can be rescheduled.”
“As lovely as that sounds, there is something we best determine before we travel anywhere.”
Confused, since usually Ines rewarded him quite heartily for spontaneity, he frowned at her. “What’s that?”
“I haven’t quite been feeling myself the past few days, and itispossible…” She slid a hand over her stomach.
He frowned a little with worry. “We haven’t been trying for very long.” Considering how long it had taken with Phillipa, Alex had assumed it would be another long wait to bring another prince or princess into the world.
“Apparently with the second one it is quite common to come a little easier. It’s possible it’s nothing, but let’s be sure before we make any escapes, hm?”
Alex nodded, pressed a kiss to her temple again. Phillipa was wriggling between them, but it was just about nap time so she didn’t lodge any of her usual complaints about not having her parents’ undivided attention. “You’ve already made an appointment?”
“Yes, I was on the phone setting up a test with the doctor when she managed her little magician’s act.” Ines reached out, skimmed a finger down Phillipa’s cheek.
His family in his arms, all this love. All this hope for a future that he had thought impossible for a man like him. But here it was.
“I love you, my queen,” he murmured.
Ines beamed at him. “I love you too, Alex.”
