To Catch A Thief

Chapter Ten

The next day, Captain Weeks escorts me personally into the palace. He doesn't believe my promises not to run away again. Then, he doesn't even let me run away, grabbing me by my collar ("I just ironed that!" "No, you didn't"). He locks me inside Alessio's room, which I tell him is highly inappropriate for members of the opposite sex and could tarnish my reputation. The captain only snorts.

"Will you be quiet? He won't even be back in the room until the council meeting is over." With that, the captain left me.

I don't even snoop, just throw myself onto his bed. I intend to lay dramatically for a couple minutes but my eyes grow heavy. I find myself grabbing his soft and heavy blankets and piling them on top of myself. I get lost in the warmth of the covers, the perfect firmness of the pillows, and the safe feeling that comes with proximity to Alessio. My head goes quiet and I rest peacefully for the first time in a long time.

I'm awoken by the sound of the door opening, but I can't bring myself to sit up and see who it is. I can tell by the tentative footsteps that it's Alessio, coming back from a long council meeting. While he changes into his pajamas, I drift off again until he is standing over the bed.

"Would you mind sharing the bed tonight, Ceres?" He asks.

I'm so tired that I don't bother lying. I nod, and he slides next to me.

"Hold me?" I request.

"Of course," he says, reverently, before wrapping him arms around me. The only word for the way he makes me feel is secure, something that would scare me if I wasn't half asleep and more comfortable than I've been in my entire life.

***

The day after, I am once again dragged to the palace and locked in Alessio's room. This time, he is locked in with me.

"What did you do to get stuck in here?" I ask him. "I thought they only did that to thieves they didn't like."

"I'm grounded until next week for the whole "running away without a guard and nearly getting killed" thing. They only let me go to school and Council meetings." He sighs dramatically.

I think about when I got punished as a kid, but I can't remember a time my parents or Hughie ever punished me. Sometimes they yelled at me for messing up a job, but they never did anything besides tell me why it was wrong. The only people who did any sort of scolding of me as a kid were the royal guards, and that usually ended up with bruises on my face or a night in jail, which, if Hughie noticed, he would break me out pretty quickly.

One time, I got arrested while all of my parents had sailed away for awhile. Em let me sit in jail for a week before coming to get me. I yelled at her, but she didn't seem to care. "Next time, don't get caught," she said, not unkindly. I didn't get caught after that, so l'd say it was pretty good parenting. Only, not from my parents. I put that thought out of my mind. My parents did the best they could, even if they kept things from me and weren't as present as some parents are. They were raising thieves, not princes.

"That's so stupid," is all I say, grabbing a hair pin from his room and starting to work on unlocking the door.

"That won't work," Alessio says. He's sat in one of the large arm chairs in the corner of his room, his legs draped over the chair arms. He seems so unbothered by the fact that his parents have locked him in his room for weeks.

"I know how to pick a lock. This one isn't even that hard." I'm a bit bothered that he has doubts about my abilities.

"No, that's—" he starts, but I've already gotten the door open out of spite. Facing me is a member of the royal guard who quickly slams the door shut and locks it again. "—not what I meant," he finishes, too late.