The King's Bride

Time Goes By

Life settled into a pleasant pace in the following months, with Everleigh and Jensen spending as much time together as they could, both having agreed to delay the wedding until both were sure they had a solid enough foundation that would help them rule the Kingdom together.

Due to that, Everleigh spent all the time she wasn't with Jensen studying the Kingdom's history, Mackenzie helping her with diplomacy while Josh taught her about the military side of it. It was a lot of information, but Everleigh was determined to do the best she could in her new role, so she could truly help Jensen rule the Kingdom.

Jensen, to his credit, has been truthful to his word and has been making an effort to spend more time with her and learn more about her, much to the dismay of the Lords of the Private Council. He knows they don't agree with this marriage, but he also knows this is his decision, not theirs.

He does his best to show the Ladies and Lords in Court that Everleigh is the one he has chosen to be his wife and their Queen, by making sure they are seen together by them every so often. Slowly, a few people's opinion on Everleigh changes, but most of them still keep her at arm's length, still following the Lords in the Private Council's lead.

Everleigh will never admit it to Jensen, but it hurts her knowing they don't accept her, putting a brave face and telling him it doesn't bother her whenever he asks. The last thing she wants is for him to feel like he needs to step in and order the Private Council to be nice to her, knowing that that will only increase their dislike of her.

Despite all this, their relationship grows and soon, when they are alone or with people they trust, they stop calling each other by their titles and begin addressing each other by name, something that had been initiated by Jensen.

And it didn't take long for them to start falling for each other either, their feelings growing and turning into something more than just a simple friendship, even if neither is capable of admitting it to the other, or anyone else for that matter.

However, that doesn't mean no one has taken notice. Mackenzie had been the first to realize, with Everleigh, when she spotted her and Jensen walking around the garden one morning. The way Everleigh looked at Jensen told Mackenzie that the young woman had started to fall for her brother, the knowledge making Mackenzie smile.

On the other hand, with Jensen, it had been Josh who had realized it, when after one of their sparring sessions one afternoon, Josh made an off-handed comment about the amount of time Jensen was spending with Everleigh. The mere mentioning of Everleigh's name had been enough to make his brother light up and smile softly. Josh knew then his brother had fallen in love with Everleigh and he would be lying if he said he wasn't happy for him, especially after their rather rough start.

By all accounts, things were going in the right direction for Everleigh and Jensen. But things were about to change.