Descendants of the Kings (Book 2)

Ch 51: Mules withstanding

The earthen table had been set up with the stone chairs encircling it in a way that left little space between them. Despite this, the humans and the fae had clearly picked a side.

On one side of the table, Cedric sat near the middle, a perfect barrier between Thomas and Grayson, with Will sitting beside the latter. Quite obviously, Thomas had reserved the sole empty seat next to him. He observed Juliet with a stiff smile, practically wagging a finger at her to sit down. Juliet paused.

With wide, panicked eyes, she looked at Will beseechingly. Will, bless him, didn't miss a beat. He quickly stood and waved a hand at his newly vacated seat, ever the gentleman.

"Miss Juliet, please, sit," he said. "This seat is much more comfortable."

What a lie. They were all made of the same soil and stone, but she gratefully took this out. She dipped her head and dropped into the seat, ignoring Thomas' looks of bloody murder.

Grayson waited until they'd sat down to turn to her ever so slightly, his voice a whisper. "Are you alright?"

Juliet linked her hands on the earthen table and picked on a root sticking out from the edge. "Yes. I'm very sorry for all of this," she whispered back, stomach still twisting with guilt.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put you in this position---" he paused and shook his head. "We will talk about this when we get back home. But don't worry about Thomas. We will fix this."

Juliet opened her mouth to speak, but promptly shut it, at a momentary loss for words. Something strange swelled in her chest. A light twisty feeling she couldn't quite name. She nodded instead, looking ahead.

On the other side, the Fae seemed to have found their spots as well. Aedion, Valren and Blaise sat on one side, with Ella dividing them from Briar and Gidden. Juliet wondered if they, too, had a divide amongst the group.

She took a moment to observe them. Blaise made small stacks of papers and files on the table as his sister spoke to him. He gave soft, absent answers. On the opposite side, Gidden and Briar seemed to be doing much of the same. They were the closest to Juliet, and she could half hear them saying something about heating charms.

However, her attention was caught by Aedion and Ella, sitting near the middle. His arm was leisurely slung around the back of her seat whilst he held a parchment scroll between them. To bridge the distance between their seats and read, they leaned into each other, their bodies so close that they overlapped.

Juliet went a little pink at the sight. In truth, it wasn't anything scandalous, but people in Rhothomir weren't nearly so physically comfortable. It wasn't that they were all celibate; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people walking around. Certainly, there were many a young couple found frolicking in haylofts. But such things were always kept hush, only ever mentioned in whispers.

Even married couples, lawfully entitled to intimacy, were demure about it. She could only ever remember her parents sharing chaste pecks in the morning or when her father came home from work. Even Frank and Myrtle, the most loving couple she knew, never sat so close to each other in public.

This wasn't even saying anything about the nobles. For them--who didn't even call each other by their first names, even if they'd been married for years--even hand-holding was scandalous.

Juliet, so used to this stiffness, could only stare in morbid astonishment as Aedion leaned down to whisper something to Ella, his mouth near-grazing the sharpened edge of her ear in a way that made Juliet's own ears grow hot.

Beside her, Grayson made a low sputtering sound. He'd gone violently purple-red, his neck a stark contrast against the white cravat around his throat.

"I cannot believe her," Grayson said in a hushed whisper. "Doing such a thing in public, with no care for decorum. She is a Princess now, with a reputation to uphold, she can no longer be so brazen as to parade a—a—a toy boy around."