The Future King's Bride by Sharon Kendrick

Author:Sharon Kendrick [Kendrick, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-08-25T20:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

MILLIE felt as if someone had just picked her up and thrown her into a wind tunnel which led to a place of mystery.

Alesso bowed before her, lifted her hand and pressed her fingers to his lips.

‘My Queen,’ he said brokenly, and Millie sat motionless, as if turned to stone, looking at Gianferro in desperation. How on earth did she respond? But she might as well have been the shadow cast by one of the candles for all the notice he took of her. It wasn’t just that he didn’t seem to see her—it was almost as though she wasn’t there. She felt invisible.

But she pushed her feelings of bewilderment aside and tried to put herself in Gianferro’s place. She must not expect guidance nor trouble him for it, certainly not right now. His father had just died, and he had inherited the Kingdom. The role for which he had been preparing all his life was finally his.

She looked into his face. It was hard and cold, and something about the new bleakness in his eyes almost frightened her. What on earth did she do?

She was no stranger to bereavement—her own father had died five years ago, and although they had not been close, Millie still remembered the sensation of having had something fundamental torn away from her. And Gianferro had lost his mother, too. To be an orphan was profoundly affecting, even if it happened when you were an adult yourself.

But Millie was now his wife, his help and his emotional support, and she must reach out to him.

She moved over to him and lifted her hand to touch the rigid mask of his face.

‘Gianferro,’ she whispered. ‘I am so sorry. So very, very sorry.’

His eyes flickered towards her, her words startling him out of his sombre reverie. He hoped to God that she wasn’t about to start crying. It was not her place to cry—she had barely known the King, and it was important for her to recognise that her role now was to lead. That the people would be looking to her for guidance and she must not crumble or fail.

‘Thank you,’ he clipped out. ‘But the important thing is for the King’s work to continue. He has had a long and productive life. There will be sorrow, yes, but we must also celebrate his achievements.’ He nodded his head formally. ‘You must be a figurehead of comfort to your people,’ he said softly.

But not to you, thought Millie, as a great pang wrenched at her heart. Not to you.

‘And now we must go back to Solajoya,’ he said flatly, and Millie nodded like some obedient, mute servant.

After that everything seemed to happen with an alarming and blurred speed, and with the kind of efficiency which made her think it must have been planned. But of course it would have been. There were always provisions in place to deal with the death of a monarch, even if that monarch were young—and Gianferro’s father had been very old indeed.

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