Page 41 of Untouched Queen by Royal Command

More weakness from him tonight, and he was deliberately letting her see it. She didn’t know what to do with it. How to process it. So she sat and helped herself to some melon and then a glass of wine and sipped.

‘You don’t drink.’ He was watching her, eyes still half closed.

‘It’s not that I don’t drink at all. Sometimes when the vintage is very fine, I do.’ She lifted her glass to the light and hid behind the poise the Order had instilled in her. Her relationship with alcohol was complicated. There was the way her mother had abused it. The way it lowered inhibitions and let devils in, false confidence in. But there were other things about it that deserved consideration. ‘I learned about wine as part of my training. If you were to ask me to rank different areas of study, I’d put my study of wines and winemaking somewhere near the top, mainly because it’s proven surprisingly useful. Everything from making small-talk with the high-flying wine aficionados of the world to tweaking wine selections for different charity functions so that the chefs are happy, the drinkers are happy and the hosts are not paying a fortune for it.’

He smiled and she wished he wouldn’t, because it made her glow on the inside. Such a whore for his attention.

‘And is there a wine to go with toasted cheese sandwiches?’

‘There is, and we’re drinking it.’

His smile widened. The glow inside her ignited and morphed into an open fire surrounded by a hearth.

In a family room.

‘How are the owls?’ he asked as he reached for a sandwich.

‘They have names now,’ she told him, taking on the mantle of conversation while he ate. ‘Tomas and Claudia had lunch with me on Wednesday and we chose names then. I did notify your secretary Claudia was coming, and Tomas with her. I always ask permission to have visitors and provide details.’ No exceptions.

Augustus shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. ‘Some details stop at my secretary, especially if they’re of no concern. How is Claudia?’

‘She misses the freedom she had in the mountains.’

‘Is that why she spends so much time with the falconer?’

‘There could be another reason for that.’ Augustus raised an eyebrow and this time it was Sera’s turn to shrug. Far be it for her to lay Claudia’s heart bare, although she had a fair idea where it lay. ‘So, the smaller of the two owls is the male. His name is Orion. His larger companion is Ara, his mate, and he indulges her shamelessly. Their enemies are other owls of the same species and the occasional falcon. They’re very adaptable and tend not to make their own nests, preferring instead to use nests abandoned by others, or make do with a man-made structure. Orion will fly down and perch on the trapeze on occasion, the better to see what I’m up to. He then reports back to Ara, who likes to pretend my activities are beneath her notice.’

‘But they’re not?’

‘I’ve seen her watching me. She’s more interested than she lets on.’

He’d finished the sandwich and was washing it down with wine. He looked more closely at the label on the bottle and then back at her.

‘From the cellars of the Order of the Kite,’ she said in answer to his question. ‘They have quite the collection.’

‘So I see. I know so little about this Order of yours. I have historians researching it, of course, but there are no experts to be found. Not amongst anyone I can get hold of.’

‘What would you like to know?’

He snorted softly. ‘Start at the beginning.’

‘Of the history of the Order? It’s over two thousand years old and began as a way for women in positions of power, or women close to men in positions of power, to connect and share journeys. They created a mountain retreat, a place of learning. Alliances were forged. Daughters were positioned for particular roles within the world order of the day. Was a particular ruling court strong in trade but weak when it came to the comforts of its people? Who, from the pool of women available, was best placed to effect change? Occasionally, a ruler would reach out and request someone with particular connections and skills. If the Order could accommodate them, and it was perceived as being in their best interest to do so, they would.’

‘Did the women of the Order ever have individual agendas or did they serve a higher cause?’

‘I’m sure many have had their own agendas over the years. Politics is everywhere, and the Order is not immune. But on the whole I’d say the quest for balance, peace and prosperity guides all our members. I think of us as a benevolent force rather than a disruptive one.’

‘I hate to break it to you, Sera, but taking up residence here in my palace and worming your way into my life and my thoughts…it’s disruptive.’

‘Am I not helping?’ Pain lanced through her chest and she clamped her lips shut on a barrage of protest.

‘In some ways you are. In other ways you’re not helping at all.’

She didn’t know what to say to that, and he didn’t seem inclined to elaborate. Instead, he leaned back with his head against the back of the sofa and stared at the stars as if they had failed him.

‘I was fourteen when I finally found this room,’ he offered quietly. ‘I’d been looking for it for years. I could see the dome from the sky, but the passageway to get here was boarded up and the room was out of bounds. Forgotten, until Moriana and I found it again and made it our own.’ He pointed with his wine glass towards the platform halfway up the wall. ‘We used to sit up there and shoot arrows into pumpkins down below. We damaged so many arrows when they struck stone instead of the target. I don’t think we had a straight arrow left between us by the end of it all. I know we damaged the walls and the floors but I didn’t care. Told myself I was striking back at the source of my discontent. The palace. The Crown. The expectations that rode me like a second skin. Be worthy. Don’t fail. Perform. I was the Crown Prince—I had to perform. Everywhere except for here. There was no judgement here. I could curse and roar and take risks I could never take elsewhere. When I was in here, I could fly.’

Suspicion bloomed swiftly. ‘You used the trapeze?’

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