A Royal Kiss and Tell

Caroline let herself drop, and rolled, facedown, onto her pillow. “This is unbelievable,” she said into the soft cover, then rolled onto her back. “Have you been here all along?”

“All along?”

“For the two days I’ve been sick.”

“No. But I’ve come periodically to see after your brother. He’s been consumed with worry for you. It’s not been two days, however—I believe we’ve entered the fourth day of the death watch. But you keep defying the odds.”

Something about that didn’t make sense. “Day four?” she repeated. “That’s not possible.” She turned her head to look at the window. Gray light filtered in through the gap in the drapes. Was it possible? Had she really been ill for so long? Good Lord, her legs were probably entirely useless now. She pictured herself in a wheeled chair, being pushed about by Hollis.

“It is entirely possible, Lady Caroline. And once again, you’ve created quite a stir.”

“What do you mean?” She turned her head to look at him.

“Have you forgotten the many stirs you created in Helenamar?”

She thought about that a moment. “I did wear some stunning gowns,” she conceded.

“I wasn’t...that was not...” He shook his head.

“What are those?”

He glanced at the bouquet he held. “Flowers.”

“Yes, but...did you bring them for me?”

He stared at the bouquet as if he wasn’t certain why he’d brought them. “They were... Yes.” He met her gaze. “I did.”

“Oh dear. You really must have feared I would die. No doubt you will demand an apology from me for not going through with it, but I won’t give it to you.”

A wry smile tipped up one corner of his mouth. “I would most certainly think you on the verge of death if you apologized for anything. Can you sit up?”

“Of course I can sit up,” she said irritably, and gamely tried to push herself up. But the exertion was overwhelming.

The prince put the flowers on her bedside table and leaned over and slipped his hands beneath her arms and lifted her up. “Stop that!” Caroline cried out with alarm. “I’m perfectly capable.”

“No, you’re not,” he said as he held her up, then shoved some pillows behind her. “All right, then?”

“All right,” she grudgingly admitted. She felt entirely conspicuous with him hovering over her like he was. “Must you stand just there?”

“Your brother was right. You are cross. I’ll report to him that you cannot possibly be in any danger of departing this earth. I understand that people on their deathbed are more repentant.”

“Whatever would I have to repent?” she asked him, quite seriously. She thought herself rather good, all in all. She wasn’t perfect by any means, but she did love her brother, and she loved her friends, and she was generally kind to everyone she met. Even this arse. Well, she’d been kind to him before he’d been rude to her, at least. “Why are you here?” she asked. “I should think you would be on your jolly way after your attempt to defile our servant was thwarted. Who was she?”

“What on earth are you talking about?” he asked with a smile of bemusement.

He stood there looking impossibly handsome and innocent. Oh, but he thought she’d forgotten. Well, she hadn’t forgotten a blessed thing. She looked at the flowers he’d brought and pondered his entirely suspect motives. “What a curious place a dark hallway is to meet a proper acquaintance,” she said.

The prince leaned casually against a poster at the foot of her bed. “You must have been entirely delirious. You’ve created a fantasy.”

“It was no fantasy, Your Highness. You were in the hallway with a woman, and now you are in my room. But how? Garrett would never allow it.”

“He doesn’t know I’m here.”

She blinked. “What? Where is Beck?”

“Preparing to go out for the evening. Which is why Garrett was not available to bring these flowers. I thought to do it for him.”

She flicked her gaze over his magnificently masculine figure. His perfect appearance reminded her of how she must look. She wanted to sink under the covers and hide. “I’m not ready for callers,” she said. “I am not at my best. I’m feeling rather weak, so perhaps you’d like to return to the study to wait for Beck.”

“I think you will be feeling better very soon. I understand soup is being prepared for you.” He smiled slowly, and it was warm and sympathetic, and it made her feel a little tingly in her head.

“I should think the Alucian government would want you as far away from illness as possible.”

“I suspect if the government were to get a good look at you, you’d be right.”

Caroline tried to snort, but it was impossible due to her stuffy head.

“Your brother has been terribly worried.”

Caroline had snatches of memory of Beck leaning over her, his hair dangling across his forehead.

“I lost a sister to fever, you know,” he said.

“Pardon?”

“She was quite young, only three years when a fever took her.”

Caroline pushed up a little higher in her mountain of pillows. “I never knew you had a sister.”