Page 32 of The Princess's Chosen

11

Cresswell

Ihadn't wrestled with Bryony when she demanded I take a shift off and rest, mainly because I hadn't wanted to explain that Icouldn'trest in the guard's dormitory when it wasn't where she was.

It wasn't really an appropriate excuse to offer to the crown princess.

So I'd drunk a pint of mead and slept fitfully through half a night and most of a morning before I decided that the princess would just have to forgive me for my vigilance.

"Where is she?" I asked the guard at the door.

"Dunno, library I think."

Except at the library, they said she'd gone to find the steward, and when I'd found Lady Prudence she hadn't known what I was talking about. There was no one stationed in Farraque's wing.

"Where is she? Where is Guard Holloway?" I asked Yorley.

"Saw him follow her out toward the lake," he answered with a glare. "Aren't you meant to be taking a day of rest?"

"Are you saying I don't look rested?" I countered with a cocked brow, not bothering to wait for a response. Let him curse my back. If only Camellia had dragged him back to the south with her too.

I found Holloway picking his teeth under a willow and watched with a frustrated kind of satisfaction as he scrambled to stand.

"She's by the tunnel, said she didn't want to be disturbed by anyone," Holloway rushed out. "See, you can just see her skirts through the grasses."

I ducked to check, Bryony's pale blue skirt glowing through the grass. "Who's with her?"

I didn't want to disturb her with the others, more for the sake of my sanity than her comparative privacy.

"No one," Holloway said, shrugging. "She seemed in a low mood."

That was…odd and a little concerning. Bryony always had one of her men nearby.

"Where are the Chosen?"

"Owen just came in from the woods, the prince and Pope had a late breakfast and went to the library, and the sculptor is working. He came out, but I told him what she said and he went back in."

"You bored?" I asked, itching to go and check Bryony but not wanting tongues left wagging.

"Um…" Holloway was young and fairly unseasoned, but I liked him and he seemed to take his position seriously, unlike most of the others. "No, sir?"

Also, he called me sir.

"I am, I could use a shift," I said, shrugging and watching him sigh. "You can go and grab something from the kitchens, if you like."

He was sweet on the maid, and from what I'd seen out of the corner of my eyes, it was mutual and not moving in a great rush.

"If that's—If that's your order, sir," Holloway said, almost twitching to run back to the palace.

I resisted my grin. "It is."

He took off just shy of racing, and I waited till he was halfway back before ducking out from under the eaves of the willow, taking slow quiet steps in the direction of the tunnel. Bryony was there on the soggy bank of the lake, knees drawn up to her chest and eyes fixed to the water. Her head twitched in my direction, listening to my approach, but she never looked over.

"I asked to be alone."

My steps paused, and I took a deep breath, letting my second nature rise just a touch. Salt on the air. And sex. Not her Chosen, but still a familiar smell. I stamped down on my bear before I could growl, back bunching with tension.

"Did hehurtyou?" I didn't mean to ask, I understood it wasn't my place, but the words rose up when nothing else would.

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