Page 151 of Trust In Love (Love Mark 2)

“What’s to happen now?” she asked softly on a wistful sigh.

“Now?” I furrowed my brow. “Now you rule, my queen. Hopefully with all the fairness and grace I know you have.”

She glanced up at me with a dry look. “I meant between us.”

“Oh. Well…” I cleared my throat. “I guess that’s up to you, Your Majesty.”

She laughed softly. “If it were up to me, we’d be married already.”

My lungs seized. “Is that what you want, then? To marry me?”

Lifting her gaze, she said, “Do you not want to get married?” When a bit of hurt and doubt entered her eyes, I melted.

“Oh, my love,” I purred, touching her cheek. “I’ll be with you in any way you’ll allow it. And marrying you would be the ultimate honor. I am yours. Always.”

“But…?” she said for me, obviously hearing one coming in my tone.

I winced. “But I’m a bastard. I was raised in a brothel until I was brought here to be the royal court’s whipping boy while I slept in a stable each night and cleaned horse dung for a living. How can you honestly think that kind of man is worthy enough to marry a queen?”

She caught my chin sternly even though her eyes were kind when she looked deep into mine. “You’re worthy because I deem you worthy. I could never consider anyone else my equal. Only you.”

My eyes filled with pain. “Even after I betrayed you?”

“Well…” She gave a rueful shrug. “You kind of betrayed everyone; it was your fate. So I decided not to take that too personally, especially since you did exactly what you were supposed to do in order for us to end up here as we are now and restore peace to our kingdom together.”

It warmed me to the bone that she already referred to Far Shore as hers. As ours.

But then, what she said really sank into my bones.

“By God, you’re right.” I shook my head, amazed. With everything happening, I really hadn’t taken the time to let the facts sink in. But… “My prophecy as the Bastard Betrayer is fulfilled now, isn’t it? I finally know my place in this life.”

It was to serve my queen. In and out of the bedchamber.

So peace could come to many nations.

Nicolette smiled and kissed my forehead. “Exactly,” she answered. “There’s no peace in the land without you in the equation. So…?” She lifted her brows, giving me that same impatient stare she always did when she was ready to get what she wanted right then. “Was that a yes or a no to my proposal?”

I chuckled. “Since you asked so poetically,” I teased, tweaking her nose when she blushed. “How could I refuse my queen anything?”

Epilogue

Nicolette

“You want to know what I don’t understand?” Indigo said as he peeled a grumpacker in the seat across from me.

Turning my gaze from the window of the carriage I’d been staring out to watch the Far Shore landscape pass by, I lifted my brows in amusement as he kicked back lazily on his cushion and hiked his boots up onto the padded bench next to me.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Why…” he wondered, “is a woman who marries a king labeled a queen, but a man who marries a queen a mere prince?”

Sending him an odd look, I answered, “You tell me. You’re the one who insisted it had to be that way in the first place.”

He scowled in irritation. “Only because that’s how Bison said it’s done on Earth. Or at least how he thinks it goes. Apparently, he’s never followed royal order that closely before.” He wrinkled his nose. “Strange, that.”

“Well, we certainly don’t have to follow Earth’s rules,” I decided, “as we’re not earthlings ourselves.”

Farrow gasped at such a suggestion. “Yes, we do,” he argued. “They are far more advanced than we are. And they have much more experience with ruling queens than we do. It’s only logical that we follow their wise example.”

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