Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
I last approximately six seconds.
I can’t put into words what it’s like to see her face in person for the first time, now that she’s a woman. Only that there are emotions that have been shelved inside of my chest without my knowledge and now everything on those shelves tumbles down. It’s almost offensive how beautiful she is with her deep blonde hair and porcelain skin, a mouth that must put shameful thoughts in men’s heads. Even mine, if I allowed myself, which I will not. Her mouth has nothing to do with me.
Nor do her eyes.
Her…enchanting blue eyes that look up at me now with apology.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, snapping my inner shelves in half, every cell in my body straining in her direction. “I’ll try my best to have you free by tomorrow, Commander Larsen.”
“Good,” I bite off, in defense against whatever she’s doing to me. “The earlier the better,” I add, half gratified, half loathing myself when she flinches.
“Yes,” she says softly, casting her eyes down at the ground. “Thank you for coming, even if it will only be for a short time.”
I grunt.
I don’t know what else to say.
She’s not a nightmare, like I was expecting—and now, I wish she was.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, I suppose.” She rubs those succulent lips together, the action firming up my cock in a way I know is bad. Real bad.
“Tomorrow?” I hear myself say. “Who guards the princess when I’m not?”
“No one,” says the queen, breezily. “She’s safe enough within the palace walls. The incident occurred only when she left—”
“Can we please not talk about the incident?” Greta interjects.
The queen stops talking.
What is this incident they keep referring to?
“As ridiculous as I find this assignment, her safety is on my head now. As such, she’ll be secure at all times. Starting now.” My pride forces me to add, “My responsibility ends when this absurd exercise is over.”
The princess is very still, eyes downcast, her cheeks blazing with color.
But I won’t allow myself to regret being harsh.
Men are losing their lives up north to keep the rebels at bay and she’s scared to take a simple walk? She’s a chore. A beautiful and…unexpected one, but nothing more.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Greta says.
“There’s no excusing yourself from my presence, princess. Where you go, I go, for the moment.”
She nods. Regroups. “Then I’m due at my French lessons.”
My sweeping gesture is nothing short of mocking. “After you, oh brave and mighty princess.”
It was too far. I know it as soon as I step over the line, ridiculing her.
The pain and embarrassment in her eyes haunts me for the rest of the day.
three
. . .
Greta
I’ve been looked upon with loathing and hatred before, but never in my own home.
Commander Larsen has shadowed me since our initial meeting this morning, following me from my French lesson to fencing—which was particularly humiliating, as I am a horrific swordfighter—and he’s stared at me in brooding silence the whole time. By the time I returned to my rooms to bathe and put on my bedclothes, I felt as though I hadn’t taken a deep breath the entire afternoon.
I’m not sure what disquiets me more.
His biblical plague of a frown.
Or the softening of his expression that I notice occasionally.
And I could have sworn I heard him growling when my fencing partner put the tip of his sabre to my neck. It must have been a trick of the acoustics, because the man clearly detests me. I don’t blame him, either. He was brought here beneath the thumb of my mother when he deserves to live his life in peace, his service to the army completed. There might even be a future Mrs. Larsen out there waiting for her beloved to return, while he’s being forced to chaperone me while I overcome my fear of the outside world.
I’m going to be brave tomorrow.
I’m going to surmount my terror, if for no other reason to set him loose.
Even if I must crawl through the castle gates, I’ll do this for someone who has surely sacrificed so much for Leidenstein.
Finished letting my hair down, I draw up the neckline of my nightgown, though it immediately slips back down to leave my shoulder bare. I exit the bathroom and walk out into my bedroom, my steps slowing when the door comes into view. Commander Larsen is on the other side even now, guarding me. He plans to stay there all night, despite my assurances that he doesn’t need to do so.
Hopefully he doesn’t question my nighttime routine.
Squaring my shoulders, I cross to the other side of the room, bracing my back against my heavy dresser and pushing the piece of furniture in front of the door, wincing when the wood makes a loud scraping sound on the floor of my bedroom.
A sharp rap on the door almost causes me to slip onto my butt. “What the hell is going on in there?”