Page 90 of Caroline the Cruel
By now, everyone in the room had their eyes on the two royals and the challenging suitor. It was how Breicher had intended it to go. Make enough of a scene that he had everyone’s attention so he could do this for all the world to see.
Breicher fell to his knees before his wife, pulling the mask off so she could see his face. He looked up to see her hand across her chest as if she could cradle her heart. She still loved him. Jaden had told him how she’d suffered, but he’d thought she only needed time. When Jaden tossed him that wedding invitation, he’d known he’d been wrong about that too.
What he’d found, he’d needed to fight for. Lay down his life for if that was what was required. What they’d found wouldn’t just fade in a year or two. He’d given her space to get her anger out, but what they had was enduring. He knew it. They’d truly seen each other that day. And that was real.
“Caroline, I am so terribly sorry that I hurt you.” Tears fell freely down his cheeks. To be so close to her made a cascade of emotion crash over him and he would let the world see.
“Breicher, what are you doing?” she said under her breath. “I told you I’d kill you if I ever saw you again.”
“Then kill me if that is what you wish.” Breicher pulled the ornamental blade from his belt and pressed it to his chest. “I’ll do it if you wish. Anything for you.”
A firm hand grabbed his shoulder, then wrenched the knife from his hand. Hollis’s angry voice stole his attention. “Breicher, get up. You’re embarrassing our family. I had this handled. You shouldn’t lower yourself before her.”
Hollis was trying to pull him to his feet and the entire crowd, including Caroline, had taken a step back. Breicher jerked his shoulder, trying to get out of Hollis’s grip. “Get your hands off me. You’ve done more than enough damage.”
Hollis stumbled back like the words had struck him. “I’m trying to help you. Someone needs to save you from yourself.”
“I don’t belong to you!” Breicher bellowed. The onlookers stumbled backward another step bumping into each other. But like they couldn’t resist, collectively they leaned in.
“Then who do you belong to, Breicher, if not your king?” Hollis’s voice had the edge of a parent who’d scolded their wayward child for the same mistake one-to-many times.
Neither of them said anything, but both their eyes darted to the queen.
“Traitor!” Hollis hissed. “I thought it was a passing fancy. She’s a nice conquest, but not enough to betray your family.”
“Don’t speak of my wife that way.” Breicher gritted his teeth so tightly his jaw was beginning to hurt.
Hollis huffed. “Jamison’s right. Yourwifedoesn’t even want you. She is gleefully looking for your replacement as we speak.” He gestured to his ruddy, red-headed cousin still lingering at the ready. “Your cousins were prepared to…” Hollis flipped his hand through the air like he was searching for the right word. “He’s prepared todealwith the queen in your place until whatever ridiculous infatuation you have has dissipated. You should be commending him for his loyalty to our family. For his sacrifice. Not admonishing—”
“Come on, Hollis. We should go.” Agnes approached and tugged on Hollis’s sleeve. She gave a wary glance toward Caroline, tugging again a little more insistently.
Hollis wrenched his arm away from Agnes. “I’m not leaving until my brother comes to his senses. Maybe I went about this all wrong and you should have bedded her. Fucked her enough to get her out of your system.”
Breicher shook his head. He could almost laugh. “You don’t get a woman like Caroline out of your system.”
“If you choose her over your family, a woman who doesn’t even want you, you will be disowned. An Ivanslohe no longer.” There it was. The ultimatum that Breicher had known was on the edge of every conversation he’d had with his brother.
“Hollis, please,” Agna urged. “Don’t you see you can’t break them apart?”
Hollis’s eyes widened in horror as he gaped at his wife. Before Breicher could stop him, the back of Hollis’s hand was soaring toward Agna’s cheek. Right before it struck, it froze. Agna put a trembling hand to her cheek where she would have been hit had Caroline’s power not halted her husband. Jaden came forward, putting his arm around his shaken mother, pulling her into his side. With his free arm, he fished out a little box from his pocket, and tossed it to the queen.
Caroline, still silently observing like the crowd, caught the package. She tore her eyes from the two men and regarded the navy box. What an odd time to present a gift. Gingerly she tugged the white satin, then opened the lid. The box slid out of her frozen fingers, and the clink of metal chimed across the silent space. Her wedding ring rolled in a foot wide circle then stilled between her and Breicher.
She couldn’t think even as her body knelt, reaching out to graze the white gold. A phantom weight encircled her ring finger like the piece of binding jewelry was making itself known. Like it agreed with Jaden and Breicher.
They will see me as weak.
Caroline’s legs shook as she stood. She needed to get out of this room. Everything was becoming tight, like that cramped crevice her and Emmy had hidden in as children. She should have held her breath then. Her breath caught now. Voice trembling, she begged, “Why are you doing this?”
His wife hadn’t picked up the ring. She’d looked at it, but only stood. Were he and Jaden wrong? He held it out to her again to take before putting it back in his pocket as she only looked at him with distant eyes and a half vacant expression. “I’ll keep in until you’re ready to take it back.” A hot tear traced a path down and dripped off the plane of his cheek. He got to his feet, defeated. “I’ll wait as long as you need me to. But when you’re ready, please let it be me.”
Behind him, laughter lanced a new hole in his heart. Hollis bellowed triumphantly. Was he insane? Did he think the queen was going to let him disrespect her like this? But Caroline was paler than usual and though her back was ramrod straight, her eyes glazed. This was just another thing he put her through.
“Shut up, Hollis,” he growled.
“I tried to warn you. But you trusted her over your own family, and now you look like a fool. Everstal’s Cruel Queen strikes again.” Hollis raked his fingers through his perfectly tousled hair, indignation dripping from a huff. “She’d played you, Breicher. She’s still playing you even though she’s tossed you aside. Why can’t you see that?”
It was like Breicher’s body had a mind of its own. His hands wrapped around the fine material of Hollis’s jacket, and he was in his brother’s face. “I said do not speak of my wife like that.”
