A Dove's Tale

Chapter 140

It took me a while to regain my senses and my composure after Gilbert left. Fortunately, this lounge was designed for accepting guests and greeting dignitaries who had just arrived at the palace, so it had an adjoining restroom. I was glad for the chance to check my face in the mirror before anybody else could see me. The telltale redness and puffiness around my eyes wasn't too bad. Hopefully, a quick splash with cold water would do the trick to keep anybody from asking me about it. I took a deep breath, straightened my back, and returned to the lounge, heading for the exit. The door flew open as I reached for it.

"Clavis!" I exclaimed, jumping backward just in time to avoid the door hitting me.

"Whoa, careful!"

He grabbed my shoulders, steadying me, and his golden eyes narrowed as he peered into my face. I braced myself for an intrusive question.

"Tipsy again? Ivetta," he chided, drawing his brows together in a look of feigned concern. His wide grin ruined the effect. "Chev will be so disappointed."

I rolled my eyes and took a step back from him. This was his way of getting my mind off whatever was bothering me, and though I appreciated the thought, I wasn't a child who scraped her knee. My problems were a bit more serious than that. And the last thing I needed was whispers of a secret drinking problem flying around the palace.

"Why would I be drinking this early in the morning?"

"You know, the first step toward solving a problem is admitting you have a problem," he continued, as if he hadn't heard me. He slung his arm around my shoulders and steered me out into the hallway. Julius and Byron gave me looks of sympathy as we passed them. They knew as well as I did there was no point arguing with Clavis. He would continue his one-sided conversation, ignoring all my protests and fabricating the responses he wanted me to say in his head, and I'd just get more irritated. The best thing to do was ignore him and have my own one-sided conversation. If it was interesting enough, he'd switch over to it.

"Clavis, do you know what the situation is like in Obsidian?" I asked.

"A little now and then to help relax you isn't a big deal, and I'm sure Chev enjoyed how adorably clingy you were at the ball, but Rhodolite needs a queen who can walk a straight line."

Not interesting enough, then. Or he was avoiding the question.

"I know Gilbert still has to deal with the people Chevalier handed over to him for punishment, but I get the feeling there's something else going on in Obsidian that won't be as easy for him to handle."

"Take Sariel," Clavis continued, his eyes and smile almost too bright. "He has a glass of ale to unwind just about every night with Jin, but he still gets his work done, so there's nothing wrong with that. Except Jin talking to him about the rest of us as if we were still the little kids he used to play with, but that's beside the point."

Or maybe I'd switch over to his conversation. I wasn't getting anywhere, anyway, and the topic of the princes' childhood was of great interest to me.

"It's hard to imagine you all as little kids."

"Oh, we were the cutest little princes," Clavis assured me. "Well, except for Chev. He was just a miniature of what he is now. Imagine your mother telling you to go play with your brother, and your brother's idea of 'play' was sword training, using you as a practice dummy. But the rest of us were loveable, normal kids. Especially me."

I smiled knowingly. "You? Normal?"

"Well..." He shrugged and turned his mischievous grin on me. "Normal is boring. And when I saw how much Sariel and Jin liked to be pranked—"