Merciful Fate, was heflirting?
Keira looked desperately over her shoulder and saw Caspian trotting towards them.
“Ho!” Prince Gilbert said as he followed her gaze. “Lord Caspian.”
“Good to see you,” Caspian said with a genuine smile as he joined them. “Welcome, of course. I wasn’t expecting you so early.”
“The roads were unseasonably kind,” he explained. “I must apologize for my misguided rescue attempt, but I assure you that your lovely guest has already shown me the error of my ways. Perhaps you could serve the introduction as she has seen it a fit punishment to deny me her name.”
Keira looked to Caspian, utterly mortified. Would he be angry that she had yelled at a prince, or even worse, that he was still so obviously flirting with her? Caspian just smiled.
“Your Highness, this is Keira.”
Prince Gilbert looked back to her, recognition gleaming in his angular eyes. “It is good to see that you found her at last.” The prince turned to her. “I feel I know you already with how much Caspian spoke of you during our time together.”
“He was probably too flattering for any measure of realism,” Keira said.
The prince laughed. “No, my dear, I believe he failed to do you justice.” He looked to Caspian, knocking him playfully on the shoulder. “Well done tracking her down. I see what took you so long. She rides like the wind.”
“Shall we go up together?” Caspian asked, gesturing up the hill to the keep where the rest of the prince’s procession was arriving.
“I suppose we must,” Prince Gilbert sighed.
They set into steady gait, flanking Caspian’s horse.
“So how is this going to affect your business with the Redfields?”
The engagement.Would the prince rather his appointed lord marry into the nobility to strengthen his claim? What if he thought Caspian marrying her would reflect poorly back on him?
Caspian only groaned.
“Yes, the young Lord Redfield is rumored to be very set on the match.” The prince’s expression seemed troubled for the first time. Keira sensed there was more that he wasn’t saying. “I doubt he’ll make it easy for you to back out.”
“Nothing’s been signed,” Caspian said, though with little weight.
“I’ll see what I can do, shall I?” he offered. With a final nod to them both, he picked up speed to meet his attendants.
“You really are friends with the prince,” Keira said, watching him go.
“He’s a good man,” Caspian said. “He’ll make a good king.”
They rode in silence for a beat, watching the prince make his way up the hill.
“I’m nervous about tonight,” she confessed.
Caspian drew closer and wrapped his arm around her waist. “It’s only a party,” he said, planting a kiss on her hair. “We’ve faced worse.”
Keira smiled begrudgingly.
“Who knows, with enough wine it might even be fun.”
She elbowed him halfheartedly in the ribs, grinning widely. “Is that allowed among the nobility? Fun?”
Caspian scoffed. “Only on feast days. Then the whole court loses their cursed minds.”
“So much to look forward to.” Keira looked up at the keep, at the trailing lines of the prince’s entourage, knowing he was but the first. She might need quite a lot of wine to get through this night. At least she wouldn’t be the only one.
Yvette
