Page 11 of Princess For All

“You laughed at my expression, not that I didn’t know,” she muttered. “I know. You—you don’t do that.”

“No, just people’s reactions. Maybe sometimes the circumstances or awkwardness at what has to now be explained.”

“Makes sense.” She took a puff and nodded but handed it back. “What did you realize about your grandpa?”

“Oh, that he might not be as wise as I thought,” I admitted, scrubbing the back of my neck with my other hand. “He used to say being with a princess was easy. You just loved them and the rest fell into place so to never overthink—”

“I’m going to beat your fucking ass, Jaxon O’Cleirgh—Garner,” Da bellowed as he came around the corner with Jamelle. “Of all the fucked in the head people to listen to—you took advice from that man?”

“I never thought you that stupid, boy,” Jamelle growled. “Are you having a laugh?”

Inez jumped to her feet and threw up a barrier like Vitor had been working with her to use her power to do. “You both need to take it down to like a five, and I’m in like shock that you are behaving this way, Sebastian.”

Dad let out a huff and ran both of his hands through his hair, giving me a pissed look. “That man—there is areasonhe barely came to visit.”

“Visit?” Inez hedged, lowering the barrier and frowning. “Shouldn’t that have been his coven given Nora inherited from—you mean Nora’s dad, right?”

I nodded, not hiding that I was a few steps behind. Then I realized Inez’s confusion. “My grandparents didn’t stay at the coven after my mother took over. They traveled and—”

“Nora hid way too much from you kids,” Jamelle grumbled. “I know the older kids know, but I thought—they didn’t go traveling for fun. I made it clear that they leave gracefully or they leave inpiecesand mostly because of that fucking man.”

I blinked at them for a full minute, not reacting until Inez snapped in front of my face. I flinched and then met her pretty eyes full of worry. I glanced between her and Jamelle and then my dad who was nodding that it was true.

Then I was pissed.

I jumped to my feet and threw my cigar on the ground. “Then ya both are the fucking idiots here! I knew ya didn’t get along with Grandda, Jamelle, but Iasked yaabout it and ya told me not to worry. Grandda said it was a difference in upbringing. Iadoredhis visits and spent all the time I could with him! Why the fuck didn’t anyone tell me I was—fuck ya both!”

I went to storm off but then spun back around and knelt at Inez’s feet, giving her a look to please forgive me.

She nodded. “I’ll yell at them for you. Go get this out. We can talk later?”

“Thank you,” I breathed and then raced off. I felt too… Everything.

I actually didn’t go far, wanting to make sure Inez didn’t have to shoulder our family drama on top of everything else. It was the last thing she needed.

I basically raced around the castle a few times to burn off my anger before going right back. I was glad to see they were chilled out as well.

“Mother always said any princess who had children with a noble that she didn’t love was a fucking moron and not a princess worth shite,” I said as I put my hands on my hips and stared at the ground. “She had such a great relationship with—”

“She didn’t,” Jamelle sighed. “It wasn’t as bad as—”

“Your grandfather was like Henry, but unlike Matilda not knowing, your grandmotherknewand excused it,” Da explained. “She was so blindly in love with him that she made bad decisions for the coven. Your mother had a lot of work to get it to the point it is now. So it wasn’t abusive in the way some of the other princesses have suffered, but it was…”

“Gaslighting,” Inez said. “Nora said something when she was helping me that when that term became better understood that it was like so much made more sense for how princesses are treated. We’ve always got too many people around us who gaslight us and we’re trapped.”

“Yes, it was like that,” Da confirmed. “It was never an outright attack but always ‘you’re making a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be.’”

“‘Oh yes, I’m the worst father in the world, I’m so sorry for that,’” Jamelle added, his tone mocking. “Constantly tearing into Nora’s self-esteem when she opened her mouth. Never supportive, always undercutting her but not blatantly. Anything that was a change in what they did and it pointed out their failure or where they messed up—they just picked and picked and picked.”

“I didn’t know,” I sighed, sitting down again. “I just… We had a good family life—better than so many other courts. But I knew there were problems. I knew the nobles who tricked Mother or were issues. And people weren’t kind that Mother had a bunch of boys and then a few noble females but no princess. The parties were suffocating.”

“Your grandda was delusional,” Jamelle muttered. “Not literally just—it was all his glory in his head. He would build up his visits and expect people to fawn over him and miss them. He was always pissed when it didn’t work out that way and then go pout outside. We would have stopped you if we’d known you were outside with him.”

“It’s fine,” I hurried to say when they both looked upset. “There was always a lot going on at court, and I have a lot of siblings.” I sighed when they seemed to want to push it. “It’s all in the past, and we can discuss it when we have time. I’d like to spend this time talking with my wife about us, okay?”

They shared a shocked look, and I think that was the only reason they left after apologizing and bowing to Inez even.

“It’s so weird to see your dad explode when he’s always so calm,” Inez muttered when we were alone.

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