Page 54 of Royal Academy

CHAPTER 23

Lia knocked gently on Benedict’s door and then let herself in. He was in the middle of throwing things inside of a suitcase when he looked up and saw her. Some of the frustration faded from his eyes as he looked at her.

“Hey, Lia.”

“I heard about Luke and Melinda.”

Benedict felt his temper flare again, “He’s being stupid. She only wants to get back at me. Why doesn’t he see that? I hate that she has the ability to hurt him like this. And he thinks I am jealous. Ha! I wouldn’t want to get back with the viper for all the money in the world.”

Lia closed the door behind her. “You aren’t even the slightest bit jealous?”

Benedict scowled, “No, I’m not. Lia, I knew that Melinda and I weren’t a good fit. But you know how father is. He decried it and so that is how it was to be. She never loved me, hell, I don’t think she even liked me. Melinda wants the crown.”

“Then why is she pursuing Luke?” Lia took a few steps into the room and sank down on one of the soft chairs near the bed.

“She thinks I’m going to get jealous and fight for her. Lia, the only person I want to fight for is Luke and he is too damn stubborn to see the massive mistakes he is making. I tried, I really did. But if he wants to crash and burn on this one, maybe that is a lesson he will need to live through.”

“And so what happens to you?”

Benedict eyed his little sister. It was hard to reconcile the beautiful woman with the gawky teenager that he called Stinky. She had grown up on him when his back was turned.

“I’m not sure,” he said honestly, “I don’t want to go back to Hazenbak and listen to father rant and rave about how I’m ruining the future of our country. And I have no desire to watch Luke and Melinda implode.”

Lia nodded, “Maybe you need a vacation?”

He laughed, but the sound didn’t hold any humor. “We are royalty, we don’t get vacations.”

“What if you went somewhere that nobody knew your name?”

“Where is that?” Benedict scoffed, “Timbuktu?”

A brief smile crossed her lips, “Or America? Wasn’t there a cabin in Kentucky or Louisianna that Nanna left us?”

“Tennesse,” Benedict rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, contemplating the idea. Could he really just up and leave it all? He had been to the cabin before it was just outside of Pigeon Forge at the base of the Smokie Mountains. Benedict had been once as a child, but that was a very long time ago.

“You could go there and get your barrings back,” Lia prodded, “I know you aren’t happy and haven’t been for a while. Maybe you need to get away from all the servants and responsibilities and just remind yourself of what makes you happy.”

Benedict walked over to the chair opposite of Lia’s.

“When did you get so smart, Stinky?”

Her lips twitched, “When you were busy with Melinda.”

He scowled and then gave her a reluctant smile, “You never really liked her did you?”

Lia made a face, “Lord, no. She was condescending and rude to me at every turn.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” the regret was clear in his reproach.

“I don’t know that I felt I deserved any better,” she answered honestly.

Benedict looked about to protest when she stopped him.

“Listen, Benny, you were a great brother. But father has always been cold and cruel to me. When you were around he was a little better, but not much. And then as we got older you were gone more and more and I was the only one there to belittle and threaten. For me, it was almost all that I knew. People always assumed that I lived a charmed life because I was a princess. But I never felt like I was a princess. I was a disappointment, a mistake, the reason mom died, the bane of his existence.”

“Lia,”Benedict's broken voice interrupted her, “That isn’t true. You are none of those things.”

She took his larger hands into her own. “I know that now. Father is nothing more than a bully preying on those that were weaker than him. I’m through being weak, Benny. I won’t be his punching bag any longer.”

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