Strike at Midnight(102)
“After the weapon you left protruding out of his neck, it’s a wonder he lived for that long afterward,” she snapped, obviously trying to cause a scene.
My fist clenched at her audacity of saying such things in public, but I needn’t have worried. The king stepped a little closer to her and gave her his brightest smile.
“My daughter-in-law suffered awfully at the hands of that man,” he said, his smile never dropping once. “I only wish she’d done a better job of it.”
A gasp came from my stepsisters, who realized that their dear mother had just been insulted by an actual king.
“O-Of course, Y-Your Highness,” my stepmother stammered, and I couldn’t help but be a little smug at the look of fear on her face.
“Very well,” he said with a regal nod. “Let’s be off, shall we. There are some other people we need to meet with.”
A twitch of a smile reached my lips and my stepmother caught it. She made sure I heard her words as the prince started to urge me away.
“Once a whore, always a whore,” she said, loud enough for only me to hear. My back went rigid at the emotional reaction her words spurred inside me, but this time, I wasn’t having it. I wasn’t that young girl anymore.
I turned to face her, and through gritted teeth I said, “I will not embarrass my husband by punching you in the face like you deserve. I won’t give you the satisfaction. You have no power over me, old woman. You never have.”
A look of fury crossed her face, but then she flashed me with an evil smile that curdled her features. She had me exactly where she wanted me, and I felt the same fears rise up inside me that tended to come when I knew a beating was coming. I hated it. Why did she have such power over me? And why the hell did I let—
A blur of red came flying past me, and all I could fathom was that a fist had gone flying—right into my stepmother’s face.
Greta slumped onto the floor from the attack as my stepsisters screeched when their mother hit the ground with a thud.
What the hell just happened?
“Ow, ow, ow,” Melody said as she stood in front of me shaking her hand. Where did she come from?
“What the hell, Melody?” I asked as Marcel tried to see to Melody’s hand with a big grin on his face. And where the hell did he come from?
“You said you didn’t want to embarrass your husband,” she said with a hiss as Marcel touched her hand. “But I don’t have such a worry. Shit.” She tried to shake away the pain. “You didn’t tell me hitting hurts so damn much.”
The laughter crept up onto my lips, but I pressed it down to try not to hurt her pride. “It’s not my fault you hit like a girl.” I looked down at my stepmother on the floor. “A very tough girl, I might add.”
“I saw you come over to them,” she said, letting Marcel draw her away from the crowd that was gathering around Greta. The three of us followed as the king waved to the guards to sort the mess out. “I wasn’t about to let you face off with her alone. I saw the way she looked at you, and I heard what she said.” She glanced at me in a way of understanding, and that was Melody for you. The girl knew and felt way too much.
“I thank you for the save,” I said, humbled by it all. “All of you. But you do realize that out of all of us, I’m the one who can truly kick ass. Right?”
“You just hate it when we get some of the glory, don’t you?” Marcel teased, and he removed the white necktie he was wearing to wrap around Melody’s hand.
I looked up at my husband, who was peering down at me with such love and pride in his eyes that I almost melted from it.
“And you call this a wedding present?” I asked as his lips twitched with humor.
“Has it made you feel better?” he asked as he took my hand in his.
I thought about the look of shock and surprise I saw on my stepmother’s face as Melody flew in her direction. Then the action of her falling to the floor. Add in the rest, and I had to say he had definitely pulled off one hell of a gift.
“Oh, yes,” I said, leaning up for a kiss. It was only meant to be a peck, but as soon as our lips joined, the fire started up without a moment’s warning. His mouth opened for mine and I delved, forgetting where the hell we were and who we were standing with.
An exaggerated cough broke through the spell, and it was the king who spoke to us in whispered tones. “I think you two should call it a night,” he said with raised eyebrows. “Don’t you?”
Prince Andrew didn’t even hesitate. “Goodnight, Father,” he said, keeping my hand in his as he practically dragged me away from the crowd.
“Bye,” I shouted as I looked back, and I tried hard to stop the giggles from resurfacing. Even giggles were a first for me.
“I would say this is turning out to be a happy ever after,” I said as my beloved husband pulled me into the shadows on route to our room. “Wouldn’t you, Your Highness?”
He stopped in his tracks and spun me around before gently urging me against the wall.
“I would definitely say it is,” he said, letting his mouth drop down onto mine.
Someplace, somewhere, the castle clock struck. Gong after gong faded away into the next as my husband kissed me senselessly.
It may have taken me a while to discover where my true happiness lay, but the main thing I had needed to learn was that I deserved it. I had a family, I had friends, and I had a husband who would fight for me every day, even though he knew I could fight for myself.