The Heir Apparent - a historical why choose, rh, poly, MMF, spicy romance ✅

Chapter Four

Riven

"You were supposed to catch her," Tolliver hissed at me as the future queen fainted dead-away, and crumpled to the floor.

"I was trained to defend, not catch," I shot back, even if the guilt was working its way through my system.

First, because I was supposed to protect my queen against any and all threats.

Including herself.

Secondly, though, some part of me that was not duty-bound did not like the idea of her being hurt.

She was so small.

The women in the city were larger women. Wider in the shoulder, taller, curvier. Not just the women who held working positions, but even the aristocracy.

I would know.

I had known many women from all the social classes... intimately.

But if there were women like this one in the city, I had never seen one.

She looked as though a strong wind could blow her over. And the fall from it could shatter all her bones.

She needed protection.

And I, apparently, needed to learn how to catch.

Across the room, Tolliver was pacing in front of the fire, mumbling to himself about this being a nightmare.

Maybe it was.

I would not know.

My job was not politics, it was war, it was fighting and protecting everything we as a kingdom had come to cherish.

"Lady?" Hans asked in a tentative voice as he stood over the woman as she seemed to slowly come back to consciousness. "Lady, are you injured?" he asked.

"Inj—" the lady repeated, slowly blinking up at him for a second like she could not place why he was there, or how she may have come to be hurt.

I got to watch as it all came back to her, making her knife up to a seated position.

"No. No. I am quite alright," she insisted, gathering her skirts to get them out of the way so she could rise. "This blasted thing," she hissed under her breath as her torso refused to bend the way she needed it to so she could regain her feet.

"Allow me," I said, lowering my hand to her, and I swear it was so small that I barely felt it there at all.

"Thank you," she said, giving me a little nod as she snatched her hand away as soon as she was on her own two feet. "I am sorry. I have never fainted before," she claimed, and something in the confusion on her face made me believe her. "Did you say that I am to be... queen?" The last word squeaked out of her, a tight, airless sound.

"That is exactly what we are saying," Tolliver said. "Hans has the scrolls here. We need for you to sign them. Then we need to return to the city as quickly as possible. There is much to do."

"To do," she repeated.

"Yes, to do," Tolliver snapped. "We have a country to run."

"We," she parroted.

"Yes, we. You and your counsel. You must sign the papers. We have no time for this."

Tolliver had always been a right ass.

The way I saw it, you did not get to a position of so much power by having much kindness or patience.

But something in the lost look on the lady's face had anger rising up through my system at his tone.