“But you are here, Caleb. What is so funny?”
Caleb took a deep breath. “I must check the perimeter.” He adjusted the sword at his side, then ducked around the nearest hedge, his footsteps retreating into the distance.
“Come back here! That’s an order!” Thom cried. I narrowed my eyes, but in the starlight, humour danced in his expression.
Thom seemed to notice my curiosity. “When no one’s around, Caleb is often ordering me around more than I’m ordering him.”
I laughed in surprise. “A prince taking orders from a servant?”
He scratched his neck. “I understand what you must think of us,” he said. “And after hearing your spiel, I think it might even be justified in many ways.”
I searched his face for the pride I’d come to expect, but his expression was open, his eyes steady and unflinching.
“I have my own concerns about the peers of my class. And knowing the concerns of yours…” He tilted his head. “You’ve given me much food for thought. I don’t want to underestimate a woman like you.”
He smiled.
My cheeks warmed from the unexpected attention. “Who would have thought you’d be learning from me already?”
“Who would have thought,” he echoed.
I took in the strong line of his nose. The stubble on his cheeks. His narrow chin. I took in the way his eyes locked on mine.
My pulse quickened.
“Try the water trick again,” he commanded.
And just like that, the turmoil that had been raging inside me settled quietly, like it’d never existed at all.
And it hadn’t, I told myself. I was confused, and nothing more.
I hated him, after all. I needed to—he was everything I despised about the upper class.
Wasn’t he?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
David’s sweaty palm pressed against mine as we walked by the boundary of trees in the palace gardens. Finches sang among the branches overhead, the heat pressing against us beneath the midday sun. In the distance, my eyes darted to where Prince Thomas played a round of lawn bowling with his two younger brothers, a match that often resulted in belly laughs and wrestling moves.
“If only someone could knock him down a few pegs.”
I bristled. “David.”
He laughed, trying to compose himself when he saw the wrath in my eyes. “I’m only joking. Although, playing a round while the rest of us are forced to work in this heat is awful. He’s the worst of the bunch if you ask me.”
“He’s not that bad—”
“Yes, he is.”
The confidence in his tone scratched against my earslike the stray cats whose claws sank into the palace walls.
Prince Leon threw his hands in the air as he knocked down every pin. Soon after resetting, Prince Stephen attempted the same shot, only for his ball to roll wide, hitting none of the targets. Severalgardeners and guards flicked glances at the royal family, who remained oblivious to the attention they invited.
“And that little one’s no good as a leader, either.”
“Prince Stephen?”
“He’ll never run the country.”
