A Beast's Tale

Chapter 45

She'd gone to the gardens for a bouquet of roses before I returned, a few red buds sprinkled within a cluster of full white blossoms. I let her carry them. It was traditional to white roses at the monument for the knights lost on Bloodstained Rose Day, but I had no personal interest in doing so beyond performing the required ritual. It would mean something to her.

We didn't speak as I led her through the hallways, down the stairs, out the door, across the lawn, and past the church. Others making the same silent journey kept their distance. My place when we arrived would be next to the stage with my brothers, opposite the court ministers, and her place would be at the back of the crowd with the other servants, giving the space in front of the stage to the visiting nobility. Lucien and Cyril would watch her, though the proliferation of knights standing at attention on all sides would discourage any from wrongdoing.

"So, this is the Hill of Remembrance," she murmured to herself, looking at the neat rows of identical white monuments passing us on either side.

"Each monument marks the resting place of knights who died during specific battles."

She looked up at me. "Only the knights, Prince Chevalier?"

I nodded. "There is a cemetery on the other side of the hill for unknighted soldiers."

Her eyes traced the words inscribed in stone: names, dates, locations. All distanced from her by miles and years. She'd never seen war before. Most of the civilians living this close to the palace hadn't. But ten years ago, those living near the border had seen horrors the likes of which had not visited Rhodolite in well over a century. Entire villages razed to the ground. Men, women, and children massacred. I would never forget it; she might not even remember it.

"You've been in many battles, haven't you, Prince Chevalier?"

"Yes."

She bit her lip as she looked away. This was something she didn't—couldn't—understand. My brothers and I had fought long and hard that day to ensure that, and we would do so again if necessary. But we would all prefer to prevent such a tragedy from reoccurring, and that was the reason I wanted to take the fight to Obsidian. A preemptive, decisive strike before Gilbert organized a structured assault. If Bloodstained Rose Day had been under his command, Rhodolite would no longer exist.

"It must have seemed silly to you when I made such a fuss about your injury." She dropped her gaze to the grass, a sheepish smile on her lips. "I just... I've never liked the sight of blood."

"Most don't." And most fled from it. But both times she'd seen me in association with a large quantity of blood, her first reaction had been to ensure I wasn't hurt. Together with her statement and her hand closing around the wrist holding the bouquet, I could assume there was a specific event in her past at the heart of such an unusual reaction. Something that happened to her mother, in all likelihood. Perhaps an incident when the woman suffered injury while protecting her daughter? That would explain Ivetta's fanatical devotion as well.

We were nearing the stage, a temporary structure erected next to the monument for Bloodstained Rose Day. She offered me the bouquet. "Here, Prince Chevalier."

"Keep it."

She understood my slight hand gesture and stopped there while I continued to my brothers. Jin and Luke were still absent. The teasing smirks I'd anticipated from Clavis, Leon, and Nokto were present and on full display.

"Escorting Ivetta here personally, Chev?" Clavis asked.

"Now isn't the time or the place," Leon interrupted him before he could say more. "But don't think you're getting out of this, Chevalier. We're talking about this later."