Strike at Midnight(68)

“So I should change it?” he asked, surprising me. “I should appeal to my father and the Royal Court for us to change the taxes, make shelters, lift the banishment order?” He asked the words as if he were actually considering doing those things.

“You can’t just do that,” I said, looking at him like he had grown an extra head. “It’s not as easy as that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you can’t just change something like that overnight. And certainly not on my say-so. It would be too devastating. Life doesn’t change with a click of your fingers. There needs to be strategy, focus, investment, transition. You have to get people to be on board with your plan so they’re on your side. You can’t just change things on a whim.”

He smiled at me then and the suspicion inside me grew. Had he just made me turn the argument back on myself on purpose? Or was he just recognizing the fact he had? Damn, this is confusing.

“I think you would make an amazing ruler,” he said, and the passion in his voice made me realize I had just done the complete opposite in what I was trying to achieve in him losing interest in me. “And I’m sorry that you have to do the job you do as a renegade hunter because I have failed as a ruler,” he added before I could say anything.

His expression changed to a crestfallen one as his own words registered, and the need to ease his pain made every other intention fall out of my head. He had no reason to feel like he had failed, at least not from my observations. What the fuck did I know?

“Hey,” I said, leaning across and nudging his arm with my elbow. “If the law-enforcement people were any better at their jobs, then I would be out of one. Remember?”

His solemn eyes were watching me as if he was trying to work me out, and then he smiled.

“Well,” he said, nudging me back. “We can’t have that, can we?”

We both stopped at that moment, as if another force was holding us in place, and I quickly changed the subject.

“You said you had some information?” I asked, leaning back from him and focusing on the grass beneath my feet.

“Well,” he went to say. “As to that…I may have lied a little.”

“So you don’t have any information?” I asked as my brow formed into a frown.

“No,” he said with a chagrined smile. “I didn’t think you’d meet with me otherwise.”

“You have a nerve,” I said, a little bit annoyed and a little bit impressed. But maybe this was the time to tell him that when I left this place, his part in the investigation would end, and so would any sparks that were flying between us.

“Andrew?” a voice came from behind the hedge, and the prince smiled as he realized who it was calling his name.

“Father?” he asked, standing up and moving in the direction of the voice. “Through here.”

Holy shit. It was the king. And I had been sitting here alone with his son. Double shit.

“Father,” the prince said again as the king rounded the edge and smiled upon his son. “There is someone I would like you to meet.”

A man with graying hair and a curled mustache looked upon me with a welcoming smile spread on his face. It would have been a refreshing thing to see if I hadn’t noticed the wariness in his eyes.

“Oh, my dear girl, at last, we meet.” His robe dragged along the grass as he hurried towards me, and I stood up just in time for him to grab both of my hands in earnest. “You saved my son, my dear. For that, I am eternally grateful.”

It was on the edge of my lips to tell him that if it hadn’t been for me, his son wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place, but I refrained from doing so.

“You’re more than welcome, Your Highness,” I said as eloquently as I could. How the hell had I ended up in the gardens holding hands with the king?

“Ah, she is as beautiful as you said, dear son. But where is her pink hair?”

“You told him?” I asked the prince, and the disbelief hit me at how open the prince had been with his father. A man who could have me thrown in the dungeons just for going anywhere near his son.

“He told me that you are a renegade hunter who was undercover at one of our balls,” the king said as he released my hands. “And how you chased down the imposter of the poor duke and it turned out to be a woman. How eventful!”

My mouth flapped open and shut as I tried to find the words. I wanted to yell at them both for being so bloody naive. It was definitely a case of “like father, like son.”

“We’re not making much headway on the case, I’m afraid,” Prince Andrew said, and I looked back and forth between him and his father as if waiting for common sense to appear. “But I’m sure Cinderella has a plan of what to do next.”

“I do?” I asked, feeling like my head was full of cobwebs and I was trying to find my way back to sanity.

“I believe so,” he said, looking at me with so much pride that all I could do was shake my head in disbelief.

“Okay,” I said, not quite knowing what the hell to say. They were both standing there waiting for me to speak. “After speaking with Lord Peacock and Helena Heartworthy, it sounds like the person who approached Helena with the chance to turn her into the duke did so because the duke was the perfect target. He was prone to disappearing days on end to be with his lo—” I went to say “lovers” but stopped myself. “To be with his lady friends, and they were aware that there weren’t many people who were close to him... It looks like they discovered he was the perfect target then approached someone who would be willing to pay a lot of money to become him, rather than the other way round.”