AN: I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but I wanted to get the next one out soon because I know I'm gonna get super busy. I'm pledging for a sorority now, which just made my schedule a whole bunch busier. I hope to still be able to get out two chapters per week at least, but I can't guarantee anything. I promise that this will be get more interesting soon lol. I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review!
Wilt could not believe how lucky Angus had gotten. The princess was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and the prince got to marry her. Except there was one problem: now that the princess and her parents were out of sight, Angus didn't look nearly as excited as he should have been.
"You should be the happiest man in the world right now," he whispered to Angus. He didn't want Matilda to overhear him talking so casually with the prince. "Princess Rileyna is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life, and you get to marry her. You should be smiling ear to ear."
"These will be your quarters for the month," Matilda said, gesturing to the open door in the grand hallway. "There are adjoining quarters for your staff. I hope Your Highness will be happy here," she said with a polite smile.
Wilt followed Angus in, with Jack bringing up the rear. The room was just as grand as the rest of the palace, and very similar to the rooms back home. The adjoining servants' quarters were less grand, but still better than anything someone could get outside a palace.
"A servant will be back to escort the prince to supper in half an hour's time. Staff eats with the rest of the staff later," she finished, moving to leave the room.
"They can't eat with us?" Angus asked, surprise on his face. Wilt held in a sigh. The boy was so used to eating with his friends due to his father's negligence that anything else was foreign to him. He should have grown up eating with the court, but they disliked him, so Angus would always choose to eat away from them whenever he was given the chance. Glancing at Jack, Wilt could tell he was probably thinking the same thing. Angus had a lot of learning to do.
"No, staff doesn't eat with royalty," Matilda said, slowly shaking her head with a confused look on her face. "I don't know how things work in the House of MacGyver, but here, staff eats an hour later than royalty and the court, in the smaller dining room. A servant will be by to escort you two later," she finished, glancing from Jack to Wilt. Matilda then smiled somewhat awkwardly before leaving the room.
"Everything is gonna be done by the book here, kid," Jack said once the door was closed. "You're gonna have to eat with the rest of the royals at every meal here. Your father may not care to eat with you, as well as our court, but things are different here. It's not my favorite thing either, but I'll be at the edge of the room. As your bodyguard, they cannot stop me from being in the same room as you at all times. You're forgetting that most royals don't have the relationship with their staff that you do. There's a reason that we don't let anyone know that we're all best friends."
Angus nodded slowly in acknowledgment, but didn't verbally reply.
"As I was saying," Wilt said, changing the topic. "Isn't the princess the most beautiful girl in all of the kingdoms?"
"Yes, she is quite beautiful," Angus replied, but he hardly looked like he meant it, not meeting Wilt's eyes.
"You should be bouncing off the walls in excitement! I've never seen someone as beautiful as her before. Why aren't you excited about this?" Wilt asked. He didn't get it. Arranged marriage or not, Angus had lucked out.
"Because I don't know her, Wilt," he replied, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "Yeah, she's gorgeous, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't know the girl, and I don't want to get married. There's more to people than just appearance," he finished in a mutter, letting himself fall down into one of the many plush chairs around the room. "What about you, Jack? You looked pretty starstruck at the queen. You do know she's married right?" he teased, looking a lot more like his normal self.
"Wow, kid, I didn't know that the queen was married, you're such a fountain of knowledge," Jack replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he gently whacked Angus on the shoulder. All three let out small laughs. "In truth, I'm just surprised, because I didn't know that she became queen after I left," he sighed. "I knew Diane was marrying someone else, but I had no idea it was the king. She wouldn't tell me." Jack sank down into the chair next to Angus with another sigh.
Wilt looked between his friends. This could be awkward. One didn't want to marry his beautiful betrothed, and the other had a history with her mother. Wilt wasn't sure what to say, other than the obvious: this was a terrible situation.
"I'm sorry, Jack," Angus muttered, looking over at his bodyguard. "I didn't know."
"Of course you didn't, kid, I didn't even know. It's probably for the best that I'll only be standing at the side of the room at dinner and not joining you. I don't want to have to talk to her. Things will only be weird, and I don't want that for you," Jack said. Wilt admired that. The man only ever wanted what was best for Angus, and it went beyond just being his bodyguard and Angus being the prince. Jack truly loved Angus with everything he had, and all he wanted was for the kid to be happy.
"Still, that's rough," Wilt added. "But, I have to admit, I'm kind of glad she married the king, because if she hadn't, then this world wouldn't have the beautiful Rileyna in it," he said, a whimsical glint in his eye.
Angus and Jack both chuckled. "Do you want me to tell her you said that?" Angus asked with a smile.
"I'll tell her myself if I can, your valet or not."
Angus only smiled, with a muttered "good luck".
Shortly after, there was a knock at the door, announcing that it was time for Angus to go to supper with the other royals. Jack went with him, of course, which left Wilt to his own devices. All he could think of was Princess Rileyna. She was just so extraordinary. Her eyes were beautiful caramel drops that sparkled like diamonds. Her curls were wild and free, and Wilt just knew they matched her spirit. Whenever he closed his eyes, she was all he could see.
Wilt imagined himself with her instead of Angus, despite how stupid he knew it was. He told himself it was human nature to think like that, which only made him think it more. Wilt pictured the princess in a beautiful white wedding gown, with himself as the groom. He shook his head and sighed. That was never actually going to happen, of course, and he would have to watch Angus marry the lovely girl instead. Still, it was quite a wonderful dream.
Supper was only slightly awkward. The start was odd, and Riley knew she would have to talk to her mother about the prince's bodyguard later. She kept glancing over at the man, who was standing near the door at the edge of the room. The man kept his eyes mostly focused on his charge, but also let them roam the room, as if he were constantly assessing it for things that might threaten the boy. There may have been plenty of other gurads around the room that would protect the prince as well, but this Jack Dalton struck Riley as a man who did not take kindly to letting others do his job for him.
Earlier, Riley had gotten the chance to briefly talk to Samantha about both the prince and his valet. Of course, the older woman had thought it was silly that Riley talked about the valet more than the prince, but she had laughed along, and agreed that they were both attractive in different ways.
As the night went on, Riley got to know the prince a little better. He was brilliant, wildly brilliant. He was one of the smartest men Riley had ever met in her life. His intellect seemed to get the better of his social skills every now and then, but it wasn't anything that made things awkward, only amusing. Prince Angus would go off on some scientific tangent about something that someone had mentioned, and would only notice that no one else really cared after several moments. The boy would then trail off quietly, and look back down at his plate. It seemed as though he was trying desperately to hold himself from turning around and looking towards his bodyguard, which Riley thought was a little odd, but perhaps she would find out more about the man through the prince.
"So, Prince Angus, when you don't have any royal duties to attend to, what do you enjoy doing?" King Elwood asked once the current topic reached its end.
"Well, as you can probably tell, I find the world very interesting. There is so much it can teach us, if only we open our eyes and look for its lessons," Angus replied with a small smile.
"But aren't there scholars for that?" a member of the court interjected.
"Of course, but I enjoy it as well, in my spare time, as well as studying other languages and fencing," he continued. The prince didn't seem at all dismayed by the man's insinuation that what he enjoyed wasn't important for a prince. Riley could respect that. "And what about you, Your Highness?" he asked, turning the question towards her. Riley pondered for a moment, wondering how much she should reveal to her parents. She would love to tell Prince Angus all about the codes she could crack and create, but she didn't want her parents to know that. They would think it was unfit for a princess.
"I love the horses we have in the royal stables," she said instead, although that was true too. "They are such beautiful, gentle creatures, with great souls. I enjoy spending my time with them."
"Do you ride much?"
"When I can," she nodded. If she had been born a country girl and not a princess, she would ride far, far away as often as she could. As it was, she could only ride with a troop surrounding her to keep her safe. But such was the life of royalty.
"Perhaps we could ride together, sometime, if the king and queen allow it, of course," he quickly added at the end, glancing over at the royals as if he were expecting to be rebuked. What had this boy been through?
"Of course!" the queen exclaimed. "That is why you are here so far before the wedding. Of course you may engage in activities you both enjoy, supervised, obviously."
"I would think nothing less," Angus replied with a respectful smile.
The supper continued as such, with lighthearted conversation that Riley often found quite boring, but there wasn't much she could do about it. Still, it was nice to get to know the prince a little better, especially if they were expected to spend the rest of their lives together.
A dark figure slinked around through the shadows in the palace, plotting, planning, thinking. He was unseen by the guards, and he would remain unseen unless he decided he wanted to be noticed. He was just that good. He was Murdoc, and this was what he excelled at. The dark-haired man could even see the boy now. He'd expertly followed him to the castle, and hadn't let the boy's vigilant bodyguard spot him. There had been a few close calls - the man was truly incredible at protecting the boy, but even the most mighty could fall - but the man hadn't seen him yet.
The boy had the same blond hair as his father. Of course, his father's hair had long since gone gray, and it was much coarser than his son's, but still. The boy's hair looked delightfully soft, and Murdoc ached to run his fingers through it. His eyes sparkled like the most exquisite sapphires, and Murdoc wanted them for himself. He wanted the boy. It wasn't fair that someone like King James got to have his son and Murdoc didn't. His own son was long since gone, and one day, he would make King James feel that same pain. There wasn't much that caused Murdoc pain. There was only one thing, actually, and that had been the loss of his son. His son, Cassian, was the only thing that Murdoc had ever loved, and his death at the hands of King James' soldiers destroyed any love left in his heart. Now, all that existed was sin, and that was exactly how Murdoc loved it.
He didn't have a plan quite yet of how he would get the boy in his clutches, but he would soon enough, and James would pay. Because Murdoc wasn't just going to kill the man's son, no, that would be too easy. It was obvious enough that the man didn't care about his son nearly as much as Murdoc had cared about his own, but there was a way of fixing that. Any normal person, loving or not, would not be able to handle the thought of their child being tortured. So that was exactly what Murdoc was going to do. He was going to get the boy in his clutches, and then, he would make him scream.
