Fuck, she was so beautiful. I hadn’t even let myself realize how much I needed her. But I wasn’t whole without her. Not even fucking close. I swept her hair off of her cheek, brushing the curve of her neck with my fingertips. “You tell them.”
She searched my face. “I couldn’t. I don’t…I’m not…”
“Tell them,” I told her, lifting my eyebrow, warning her, teasing her: Don’t make me tell you again.
“I’m no princess,” she said, shaking her head, looking embarrassed. “I can’t give orders to your guards.”
“You’re no princess, that’s for damned sure,” I told her. She looked absolutely fucking puzzled, but I didn’t leave her in the dark for long. “Pretty soon, you’ll be my wife, and that makes you the future queen. So you might as well get used to giving orders, baby. Starting now.”
Iris blinked several times, in disbelief. “Me?” she asked, looking at me like I must be joking. “Your wife?”
I was a lot of things right then—relieved, in love, fucking aching to be inside her. But one thing I wasn’t was joking.
“He’s about to put that crown on me,” I said, looking back at my father, who was looking as healthy and happy as I’d seen him in ages. “And when he does, it’s up to me who I marry. Got it?”
She bit her lip and a red blush flooded her cheeks. “Yes, my King,” she whispered.
Never had a title sounded sexier on anybody’s lips. “Fuck yes,” I growled into her ear.
Iris turned to my guards, still locked in my embrace, and said, “Please, free all the prisoners that Lady Patara has in the dungeons. And take special care of the old smuggler. I’d like to know where he goes to recover.”
“Yes, my lady,” answered my men. And off they went, with Patara kicking and shrieking like the banshee that she was.
Once the crowd let go of its bloodlust and we restored order to the castle, Iris and I took our place at the coronation stone. When my father placed the crown on me, declaring me King, the crowds exploded in cheers.
Iris tightened her grip on my hand, glancing up at me, lifting her chin. She was proud, but I was even prouder to have her by my side. It was fucking bizarre to think that I was the one they were cheering for, but there it was. With her hand in mine, we knelt together before my father, as I swore to protect the kingdom and everyone in it.
“Especially you,” I promised her, as we bowed before my father, the crowd roaring its approval. “More than anybody else, I promise to protect you. My life is yours. I am yours. Forever.”
Chapter 20
Iris
Randal’s father turned to me outside the open door of the great cathedral and offered his arm. The red autumn leaves of the enormous oaks that lined the church grounds whispered a hushhhhhhh in the breeze.
Organ music began to rumble through the open doors, and an eager quiet fell over the gathered crowd that packed the pews inside. But outside the cathedral, for the moment, it was just the two of us, along with my ladies in waiting who were hurrying to adjust my long, white silk train.
I couldn’t believe any of this was happening to me. Me, a simple milkmaid from a simple place, with simple expectations. And yet, here I was, getting married to the king, dressed in white silk and diamonds.
I clutched my bouquet tight in my fist. It all felt so surreal, so dreamy, but I knew that as soon as I saw Randal at the altar, I would feel steady once again. He was my anchor; he was my light. I loved him more than I ever thought one human being could love another.
A little squeeze of my arm brought me back to the moment. In the months since Randal had been crowned, his father had regained some strength, but we had learned that the queen had been poisoning him for years and it was very likely that the damage had already been done. None of us knew how long he would be able to survive, but we took each day we had with him as a blessing. He had told me time and again that I had helped him get a bit better; I’d started studying with the palace medical man to become a physician myself.
I’d never thought of royalty doing useful things like becoming doctors, but then I’d never heard of milkmaids becoming royalty either. It was a brand new world for me. And I had never been so happy, especially to have helped Randal’s father. Because it meant on this day, this most important of days, he could walk me down the aisle. I looked up into his eyes, which sparkled in the autumn light. They were nearly the same color as Randal’s, but less piercing and intense.