Page 5 of Settle Down, Princess

“Well, Master Arik, if I could presume on your kind offer to be my escort, would a trip to the marketplace be too much to ask?”

“The marketplace?” His eyes slid down to the ruins of my dress, my discarded veil. “Of course, milady, it would be my honour, but…”

I got to my feet then, shimmying out of my petticoats before twitching the folds of my underdress and straightening it. That was not proper behaviour, nor was what I was about to suggest, but proper behaviour had resulted in me being married off to a despotic king who would be sure to kill me before I even had a chance to birth him an heir. And as it was, while I called what I had worn beneath my wedding gown an underdress, the cotton garment was as finely made, if not better than anything that other women of noble birth wore in the castle. Once I was satisfied with the way the dress looked, I cast a glance at my veil, momentarily considering putting it back on, but then stepped free of it. Instead, I bent low to pick up the tiara that had held it in place and shoved it into one of the voluminous pockets at my side.

“Do you possess a belt knife, Master Arik?” I asked, holding out my hand.

“Yes, of course, but…”

I took the leather sheath as he handed it to me and pulled the knife free. The feel of such a weapon in my hand stopped me cold for just a moment. Oh, to be armed, deadly, and able to enforce my will with the strength of my arm. The idea was dizzying. I bent again, this time to neatly cut away some of the heavy strings of pearls still attached to the bodice of my destroyed dress, shoving each one into my pockets.

“Forgive me for asking, milady, but are you in some sort of trouble?” Arik asked, but not with any air of reproval. Rather, he crouched down beside me, taking the knife back to cut another strand of pearls free and hold them out to me.

“Yes, and you can keep these for your trouble,” I said, closing his fingers around the pearls. “If you help me, the less said about the situation, the better it will be for you.” Something in his eyes flared to life at my touch. I’d been told that men were fools for women, which was why we needed to go to such lengths to remove temptation from them. “Plausible deniability, if you understand my meaning.”

“Beautiful and canny…” I knew I had Arik under my spell by the way his eyes became heavily lidded for a moment as he barely breathed the words to himself. Then with a determined look, he nodded sharply. “I’ll help you, lass. So, what do you need?”

“To turn these jewels into coin, and as quickly as possible.” I felt a small pang of sorrow as I undid the clasp behind my neck and pulled the sapphire necklace free, for the piece had been passed from princess royal to princess royal through the generations. Then I reflected that perhaps it wasn’t such a terrible thing for it to be lost if it might spare the next princess the indignity of being collared and then sent to the marriage mart to be sold off like a prize heifer. “Please, Master Arik.”

He shook his head sharply, making me worry that I made a mistake in trusting him.

“If quick money is what you’re after, I can’t take you to the marketplace.” He gazed at the pearls in his palm speculatively before pressing them into my hand. “But I know some people in the city who might be able to help. They’re not fine, upstanding men, mind, but neither is the place I must go to make that trade.”

“Where we must go,” I said, putting a hand on his forearm. Did he see, as I did, the contrast between us: between his very thick, very muscular arm versus my much more slender one?

“It’s not a place for fine ladies,” he warned me, but those lips were already quirking with amusement. “You need to be aware of that.”

“I’m not sure if I will have the luxury of being a fine lady after this, Master Arik, so if you would be so kind as to lead the way…?”

I offered him my hand, my heart beating rapidly in my chest—not for the first time today, but hopefully for the last. This stranger had freed me from the suffocating embrace of my corset, and now I needed him to help get me out of the cage I found myself in. A dimple appeared in his cheek as he smiled down at me in earnest while clasping my hand and pulling me closer, which simply served to make me aware of just how much bigger and taller he was.

“It’d be my pleasure, Pearl.”

Chapter 4

I felt naked walking through the marketplace, so sure that someone would recognise me and point and shout, declaring my disgrace to all and sundry, but no one did. People were too busy going about their own business to notice an errant princess and her saviour. I found myself noticing him. When Arik snaked an arm around my waist as he walked us out of the castle, I’d nearly jumped out of my skin, but the guards barely looked our way when they saw a warrior and a maid going for a walk. He’d been forced to let me trail behind him as we surged through the crush of the marketplace, but his hand had held tight to mine the whole time, pulling me forward until we came to the docks.

The Tellene River snaked along the border between Khean and Matteau, keeping the two mighty kingdoms from being at each other’s throats, while also bringing trade to our port. The stink of rotting wood, fish, and harsh tar assaulted my nose, but as we walked along the waterfront, which was much less densely packed than the marketplace, I felt a thrill of excitement.

I was going to get away with it.

I would use the gold I got from selling the pearls and crown jewels to book a secure passage on a riverboat. Perhaps I would head to one of the goddess-blessed lands far south of the three kingdoms, where apparently women ruled, not men. The tales of their savage religious rites, that included the ritual self-castration of some of their male devotees, were discussed with a mix of horror and titillation at court, but still… Surely, they would take in a refugee, fleeing from certain death if she—

“Now…” Arik pivoted on his heel to face me. Wrapped up in my thoughts, I almost collided with him and had to plant my hands on his chest to stop my progress. He smiled softly and took those hands of mine in his, rubbing his thumbs across the back of them. His touch was comforting and… something else, as well. His expression turned serious, and I drew in a breath, readying myself for whatever he might be about to divulge. “This place we’re going to is not somewhere a gently-bred lady would frequent.”

“And that suits me fine,” I replied crisply, relieved he was neither suggesting I wait for him elsewhere while he carried out my business, nor was he telling me he had changed his mind. “For, if we were to go to any of the reputable jewellers in the capital, they’d report back to my…” Arik’s eyes sharpened as he looked more closely at me. “…husband of what I intend, and that must not happen.” My hands shifted in his so that I could clasp his fingers in mine. I tightened my grip to impress my point upon him. “I need the utmost discretion, Master Arik. It’s vitally important.”

“Oh, you’ll get discretion in The Siren’s Call,” he said, nodding toward the worn wooden sign hanging over the door of a dingy-looking inn. “Not many of the folk who frequent the place want their actions reported back to those that matter. So that means you’ll need to keep your head down and your eyes to yourself while you’re in there. And you must stay close to me, because any woman that enters a place like that … Well, she might be there for any number of things, but none of them are respectable.”

At that, the warmth in his touch took on a whole other meaning and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to lean into it or pull away. I knew what he spoke of: I’d heard lectures delivered at court, near daily, about proper womanly behaviour as well as a recitation of the subsequent ruin of those women who did not adhere to it. We unmarried noblewomen received lesson after lesson on what we were not supposed to do, from showing a little too much ankle due to your dress being cut a whisper too short, to touching the arm of any man who was not your father or brother.

And to what end?

I frowned slightly, for the first time questioning the world I had grown up in. And, also for the first time, feeling the weight of the expectations of all those around me—my parents, the royal court, my country—as a burden. But I was determined that it would be one that I would shuck off if I went through with this plan. I shook my head, shaking off any temptations to hesitate or defer this, then met Arik’s intent gaze.

“Take me to The Siren’s Call, Master Arik, and…” My gaze slid down to his lips, and for a moment I was transfixed, as though I’d suddenly discovered the need to commit their curve to memory. I flicked my eyes back up to meet his and found the nerve to finish what I had started to say. “…you’ll find me most appreciative.”

“Very well, lass.”

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