CHAPTER NINETEEN
Darias ran after Gemma, but she’d rounded a corner and when they got there, she’d disappeared. An old man crossed the street very slowly with a small white dog at his heels.
“Damn it!”
“What was it?”
Darias drew in a steadying breath. He didn’t want to tell Emma. She might worry. Or worse yet, tell his mom.
It was so small, really, for an artifact that had caused so much trouble over the centuries. He could hold it in the palm of his hand—bright, pure gold inset with rough, uncut rubies.
He’d seen it once before. His grandmother had shown it to him when he was little, telling him it would one day be his. How had it left his grandmother’s possession and fallen into the hands of Gemma Cressi?
This was his initiation into the Cross of Blood society. He’d never even spoken to anyone about it, but somehow they knew. He shoved the box down into the pocket of his jacket.
“Darias, what’s going on?”
“Did you see it?” He wasn’t sure how much she already knew.
“No.” Her lips were pale. She looked so cold he wanted to hug and kiss her until color rose to her cheeks.
But now wasn’t the time. “I need to put this under lock and key.”
“What is it?” Her voice rose on her repeated question.
Was it wrong of him to keep it a secret from her? Maybe she deserved to know. A man wasn’t supposed to keep secrets from his wife. Was she his wife? Sometimes he wasn’t sure. When they were alone in bed together she felt like she was—
He pulled the box from his pocket and lifted the lid. He watched her expression as she stared, then she surprised him by reaching into the box and picked up the cross and its heavy chain.
She laughed, shocking him. “She gave you this? When are you supposed to wear it?”
Now he laughed, too. So much tension, waiting to explode. “You think it’s funny?”
“Well, yes. I thought she’d give you something intimate, a secret memento or something from your shared past.”
“You thought she was my girlfriend?” He lifted a brow.
“Yes. What else would I think?”
He sighed. She had been his girlfriend, of course. Long ago. That was all in the distant past. Obviously, she now had a more official role to play. “She’s not my girlfriend. She’s some kind of…ambassador. This is the infamous Cross of Blood.”
He closed the box and put it away. Somehow it felt dangerous to have it exposed to the air on a public street.
Emma watched him put the box back in his pocket. “I suppose this is part of your initiation into the group.”
“Yes, except that I never told anyone except you that I planned to join it.”
“I didn’t tell anyone, either.” She looked startled, as if accused.
“I know that. It is possible that I’m being spied on, of course. And perhaps we were overheard. I wasn’t entirely secretive about something that would soon become known anyway. Still…” What did it mean that they were entrusting him with their most precious object? “They’re obviously risk takers. This must be worth millions just for the value of such large rubies. I guess they don’t think I’m going to skip town with it.”
“People do know where to find you when you’re the king. We should put it somewhere safe. Maybe the armory?”
Darias inhaled. “I’m not sure the royal guard is even aware that it ever left the armory in the first place. This needs to be a secret for now. Until I answer some questions. Every day I have more of them.” They started walking down the street. He could get art supplies any time. Right now he needed to get this hidden safely away somewhere in the old castle. “I’d like us to move in starting tomorrow. We can renovate later. I’ll feel more secure in the old structure. It’s harder to hide spyware in solid stone walls than it is in lathe and plaster.”
“True, and there will be fewer people around.”
“Will you be lonely?” He hadn’t considered that she might be almost all alone there most days.
“I’ll be fine. It will give me time to read, and I’ll visit your mom regularly.”
Darias was touched. “That’s sweet of you to think of her.”
She laughed. “I’m thinking of myself. I really enjoy her company. And perhaps I can do something to help with the schools here. I am a teacher after all. I don’t want to burden you with figuring out how to keep me busy, though. I can work that out by myself.”
His chest swelled with pride. Emma was way more than just a pretty girl who looked convincingly like a queen. She had noble qualities that anyone could admire. How funny that she made a much better queen than any of the wealthy, spoiled heiresses and “princesses” that had been shoved in his path over the years.
“I’m sure that whatever you choose to do it will be a blessing for Altaleone.” They turned up the hill toward the castle. He could almost feel the ancient cross burning a hole in his pocket.
They had him now. By accepting it, he’d accepted a thrown gauntlet, a challenge.
The most important thing was to keep the rest of his family—including Emma—safe. And it was his duty as king to protect his own life and the future of Altaleone. That might be the trickiest part of all.
Emma tried to stay out of the way as staff moved their effects from the palace to the old castle. Halfway through, she remembered her contract still sitting on top of the wardrobe in her first room in the palace.
She had to get it now. Once they were moved out she’d have no excuse to even go back up to the second floor of the palace. Right now she had the pretext of checking for missing items, even in the old room.
Darias was off somewhere meeting with someone, so she decided not to tell him. She grabbed her bag and headed out for the palace on foot. She realized as she was walking that this was her first solo voyage through the streets of Altaleone.
Without her royal husband as protection, people stared at her far more boldly. Two handsome young men even smiled and waved, and she wasn’t at all sure how to respond. She could hardly just ignore them as if they were construction workers on the streets of NYC.
She smiled politely and kept walking. Fast.
At the palace she greeted the guards at the door, then headed upstairs, hoping not to run into any family members. Darias’s siblings had mostly trickled back to their busy lives, but his mom and Beatriz were usually somewhere nearby.
No one. Good.
She turned and headed along the corridor. Which door was it? They all looked the same when they were closed. Possibly some were still occupied by lingering guests from the coronation. She remembered it was the third one, though.
Hesitating outside the door, she knocked. No answer. She looked in both directions and saw that no one was coming, then she tried the handle.
Damn. It was locked.
Reaching into her wallet she pulled out her old library card. Were there security cameras trained on this hallway? She couldn’t see any. She shoved her card in between the door and the frame and slid it down. The lock popped to the side and she pushed the door open.
If anyone saw that they’d probably think that—in addition to being a Jersey girl with a junkie brother—she was a petty thief. She closed the door behind her and locked it. If the room was still bugged or under video surveillance, she’d be screwed. She hurried to the wardrobe, raised her arm up and stood on tiptoe so she could reach the top.
Ugh. There was a sort of parapet on the front of the wardrobe so the area behind it was lower. She hadn’t realized that when she’d shoved the envelope up there. She groped around with her fingers but couldn’t feel anything but raw, unvarnished wood.
She carried the chair from the dresser over to the wardrobe, removed her shoes, then stood—very gingerly—on it. The chair was antique and probably quite fragile. She hoped she didn’t plummet through it.
Up a full two feet higher, she still couldn’t feel the piece of paper. Was this the right room? She looked around. Yes. Same bedding, same pictures on the wall. This was definitely the place.
She leaned in further and felt again. Yes! She felt the corner of a piece of paper. She reached for it with her fingertips, leaning further and further in until she managed to get thumb and finger around it and grab it.
She pulled it back, gasping with relief and climbed very carefully down off the chair.
But when she looked at the paper, her heart almost stopped beating.
It wasn’t the contract at all.
Between her thumb and finger she held a single sheet of white paper. Written on it in a thick black script were the words, “Your secret is safe with me.” And a smiley face.
No signature.
Blood rushed to her brain. Was it a maid who’d cleaned the room and actually did intend to keep her secret? Was it a member of Gibran’s staff or even Gibran himself?
Gibran did not seem like the smiley-face type.
Or was it someone who—contrary to their darkly inked promise—did not have her best interests at heart at all.
She folded the paper and shoved it into her jacket pocket, put the chair back, then rushed for the door, heart pounding. She scanned the hallway—no one—but she couldn’t help a creepy sense of being watched as she hurried back downstairs.
“Emma!” Beatriz’s voice made her jump inside her skin. “Where are you going so fast?”
Was it Beatriz? It wasn’t her writing, though she could have disguised it.
Was it Gemma, the glamorous woman who’d handed Darias the box? Unlikely. How would she have gotten into the palace? Darias was so surprised to see her that she probably wasn’t at the wedding or coronation celebrations.
Then who?
Possibly someone else from the mysterious Cross of Blood. Someone living or working right here in the palace, watching their every move and planning.… It could be nasty aunt Liesel who’d been needling her ever since she arrived.
She realized she hadn’t even responded to Beatriz. “Uh, just making sure we didn’t leave anything behind in the move.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not like we’re turning the place over to the new owners later today. If you leave stuff behind you can come and get it tomorrow.” Beatriz looked amused. Emma could swear her eyes wandered to her right jacket pocket, where the folded note lay—throbbing with guilt—below the thin fabric.
“Oh, I know. Just trying to be organized, I guess.”
“Come join us. We were just about to go for a walk in the gardens. The gardener has created a new bed in honor of Darias taking the throne. He found heirloom roses dating back to the time Altaleone was founded.”
“Uh,” she scrambled to think of an excuse. And failed. These royals lived quite a life, spending their days planning grand parties and looking at flowers. And right now, that was her life. “Sure. That sounds great.” She hoped she sounded more enthusiastic than she felt.
At least she didn’t have the contract in her pocket, in which she agreed to accept cold hard cash to be a big phony in their midst for an entire year.
But someone knew about it.
Who?
And there was no avoiding it—now she had to tell Darias she’d lost the contract.