Page 3 of Raul
“Hijo mío,how do you feel?” His father’s gaze searched Raul’s face as he gripped his son’s shoulders. “They told me you refused the ambulance. Why didn’t you go to the hospital?”
For a moment, Raul was tempted to sag into his father’s arms, letting the king’s strength support him as it had all through his childhood. Instead, he took a step away and held on to the back of a chair to make sure he didn’t sway. “I didn’t need another medical opinion. I missed breakfast and lunch and got dehydrated. The military doctor confirmed that. I’m sorry I caused so much drama.” He grimaced apologetically. “I owed the honorees and their families better than that.”
“You are only human, but I think you forget that sometimes.” Luis dismissed Raul’s apology before he pinned his son with a laser-focused gaze. “Why did you skip breakfast and lunch?”
“I forgot,” Raul said with a shrug. In reality, he had scheduled wall-to-wall meetings and hadn’t had time. But he should have drunk some of the water that was always in the meeting rooms.
Luis released his shoulders and picked up a plastic bottle filled with bright blue liquid from the table next to him. “Sit,hijo. And drink this.” He held out the bottle.
Raul grimaced inwardly as he recognized another electrolyte-laden drink, but he took it. Twisting off the top, he took a swig of the disgusting beverage before he sank into an armchair.
His father seated himself directly across from him and gave Raul a fond but reproving look. “I have learned through hard experience that you must pace yourself. There will always be another person who feels their issue is of critical importance and requires your attention. You cannot handle them all.” His father leaned forward, his eyes lit with affection. “You make me proud every day of the man you have become. Theprinceyou have become. But working yourself into a collapse is not wise.”
Raul grimaced. “I know.”
“This is partly my fault,” the king said with a sigh.
“How is my carelessness your fault?” Raul asked, baffled.
“I have been indulging myself by spending time with Eve and Grace,” Luis said. “You have been picking up the meetings I’ve dodged. I should have paid more attention to how heavy your workload has become.”
“Pater, Iwantedto take those meetings. I enjoy the challenges.” He had to atone for his cousin Gabriel’s kidnapping, to try to ease the guilt because it should have been Raul who was taken.
Luis shook his head. “You are young and need to have some time for yourself. Once you are king, you won’t have as much flexibility to do that.”
Raul made an inarticulate sound of denial at the idea of Luis no longer being king. He had almost lost his father to a poisoner not long ago. The memory made his stomach tie itself in a knot.
His father’s lips twisted in a wry smile of understanding. “I don’t intend to turn over the crown to you for many years, but you have seen that unexpected things can happen. So seize some joy while you are able.” Luis straightened. “To that end, the lesser meetings will now be assigned to one of theministros. You will deal only with matters thatrequireroyal attention.”
Raul started to object, but his father silenced him with a lifted hand. In truth, Raul still felt too shaky to argue with the king.Once Luis had made up his mind, it took a great deal of energy and determination to change it.
“Eve and Grace can handle more of the ceremonial events too,” Luis said. “Grace has been asking for more responsibilities, and she is ready now.”
A complicated set of emotions made the muscles in Raul’s shoulders tense at the idea of his half sister taking over even a small part of his job. He liked Grace, and she was entirely capable of handling public events. In the past, he had happily sloughed off such duties on Gabriel. But he and Gabri had grown up together, and Gabri was a royal duke. Grace was a princess and the newly discovered child of Raul’s father.
Raul shoved the tangle of emotions down deep inside where he wouldn’t have to examine them. “Grace will do a terrific job at anything she puts her mind to. Like the veterinary school. It’s moving forward at high speed, thanks to her prodding.”
His attempt at a subject change failed.
“Grace is indeed pushing along the school.” A faint smile flickered at the corners of Luis’s mouth for a moment before he waved that aside. “But she still has plenty of time to fill in for you while you rest.”
“Rest?” He stiffened.What the hell is he talking about now?
“You need a vacation,” Luis said, his voice softening.
“Once Gabriel and Quinn are married and have returned from their honeymoon, I will take some time off,” Raul said, trying to placate his parent. “Before that, there’s all the lead-up to their wedding, and while Gabriel is away, I’ll be the point man for DragonFest. So he has to bring me up to speed on what needs to be done for that.”
The music festival that Gabriel had founded owed some of its success to the cachet of royal patronage. In Gabri’s absence, Raul would provide the crown’s presence in dealing with the famous musicians his cousin was luring to Caleva to perform.
“When I got the message that you had collapsed today, my heart stopped,” Luis said, his resonant voice breaking on a quaver. “I cannot bear to feel that agony again. You need to restnow. For my sake, as well as yours.”
More guilt punched him in the gut. He had worried his father, who had enough on his plate already. “As long as I don’t leave the country,” Raul said, thinking of all the wedding preparations.
Luis raised his eyebrows. “Tell me what you would do here in Caleva to relax. Whatever it is, you must get away from the palace.”
Good question. Raul tried to remember what he used to do for fun. The last time he had felt young and carefree was when he’d done his mandatory year in the Calevan militia. Before that, he and Gabriel used to roam the nearby mountains on horseback, sometimes smuggling beer along in their saddlebags. Their biggest worry was that Raul’s father would catch them when they came home a bit drunk. Nostalgia made Raul smile a little.
“I’ll go camping,” he said. “In the mountains.” Maybe he could recapture some echo of that more innocent time.
